Upon reaching his majority, he was elected a member of the general assembly of the State. Then he was elected a delegate to the Democratic national convention, and at the age of 30, in 1902, was elected a Member of Congress. Here in this House for 10 years the tread of his foot and the sound of his voice were heard. The records bear testimony of his active participation in all proceedings of consequence. On January 16, 1913, he was inaugurated Governor of Arkansas, and, within 2 weeks thereafter, was elected by the legislature a Member of the Senate, and took his seat at the other end of the Capitol March 10, 1913. The Senator was selected as one of the delegates and attended a naval conference in London. The result of that conference was the London Naval Treaty of 1930. He was also in 1928 nominated by his party and made the race for Vice President of the United States. At the time of his death, he had just entered upon his fifth term in the Senate. For more than a third of a century, during some of the most trying times of the Nation's history, he spent the best years of his life within these walls working for and serving his people and the country to the best of his ability.

On the early morn of the day prior to his passing, I met him in the park just to the east of here between the Capitol and the Supreme Court Building. He was on his way, at that early hour, to his office, and appeared to be in thoughtful meditation as he walked along. After mutual greetings and a short conversation, the Senator proceeded slowly toward the Capitol, and this was the last time I saw him in life. Early the next morning the radio announced his sudden death. The people of our State as well as of the Nation were greatly shocked, and a pall settled over Washington. A great leader with great prestige and influence was suddenly removed from our midst, leaving many of us with a feeling of helplessness and greatly increased responsibilities.

Mr. Speaker, Senator ROBINSON was a great orator but did not essay to employ this accomplishment to obtain results.

He sought facts, analyzed and applied facts, deduced principles, and upon these anchored his efforts, conclusion, and Judgment. He was possessed of great common sense, a fine intelligence, affable manner, and a keen sense of honor, ethics, and responsibility. He had the personality and ability of a born leader, and was vigorous, honest, courageous, patriotic, and high-minded in everything that engaged his attention. He built a monument of love and affection in the hearts of his countrymen, marking a career of great, distinguished, and outstanding service. In him was placed the confidence of the people and of his associates because of the high standard of ethics and public service that always actuated him. Reliance could be had upon the soundness of his judgment and decision upon any matter affecting the public or general welfare. He was not given to compromise of his convictions upon any public question but was considerate always of the opinions of others.

The Senator did not seek the material things of life for himself. He accumulated little of the goods we call worldly, although his ability, talents, and prestige, if applied in that direction, without doubt, would have brought him great financial reward.

I was profoundly impressed and shall never forget the tribute to him paid while his body lay in state in the Senate. There came the President and Vice President to pay their respects to the memory and the mortal remains of the Senator. Likewise, came members of the Cabinet, diplomatic corps of other nations, Supreme Court, the colleagues of the Senator, the House of Representatives in a body, and many other high officials of the Government.

The galleries of the Senate were filled to overflowing with other friends. The funeral train bearing his body carried more than 80 of his colleagues and Members of the House to Little Rock to attend the obsequies, and thereby further showed the very high esteem and regard in which the Sen

ator was held. Many thousands of his friends from all parts of our State came to view his body in the State capitol, to attend the last sad rites at the church and the grave.

As his body was slowly lowered into the tomb and consigned forever to mother earth, as dust to dust, we had the consolation to know his spirit, the memory and example of his life live on and that "dust thou art to dust returneth was not spoken of the soul."

There was exemplified in the life of Senator ROBINSON the
admonition contained in that beautiful verse of Thanatopsis:
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves

To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,

Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,

Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed

By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

Remarks by Representative McClellan

Of Arkansas

Mr. MCCLELLAN. Mr. Speaker, I am fully cognizant of the pressure of important business awaiting disposition ere this session of Congress shall adjourn, and I do not want to unduly take any time necessary to be consumed by legislative matters and the affairs of this Nation that yet await congressional attention; but, Mr. Speaker, lest we forget, no matter how impelling and demanding the material affairs of life may become, it is well for us to pause and acknowledge the omnipotence of Him who created and guides the destinies of the universe. Since the convening of the Seventy-fifth Congress, significant happenings have occurred, events of great magnitude and importance have transpired. Battles have been won and lost. Progress in one direction may have been accelerated and continued, while in another it may have been retarded and restrained. History has been made. The pages have been written. We cannot now read and interpret all that is written there. Time will reveal the wisdom or folly of some of our actions and possibly disclose our derelictions in failing to meet some of the responsibilities that were ours, but there have been some momentous events, some sad and others joyous, that we can very well appraise correctly without awaiting the revelations of time.

I am thinking at this moment of that sad hour when the Grim Reaper visited this Capitol and summoned to the Eternal Beyond the most illustrious son of my native State, one who sat second only to the President of the United States in the councils of the mighty, and whose influence has been felt throughout the world. Mr. Speaker, I reverently refer to my deceased friend, the late Honorable JOSEPH T. ROBINSON,

for many years senior Senator from the State of Arkansas and majority leader in the United States Senate, where he directed with certain and unfailing wisdom and strategy the enactment of laws in keeping with the program of the Democratic Party and of the American people, for the promotion of the common welfare and for the security of the greatest democracy that has ever blossomed on the face of the earth.

It is said sometimes that "first thoughts are best." When the sad news of the passing of this great man reached me, as soon as I had sufficiently recovered from the great shock that rocked the very foundations of my soul, I wrote these few lines, which I now incorporate here:

Senator ROBINSON's passing removes from the scene of action an illustrious statesman and one of the ablest leaders America has ever produced. Throughout his long, uninterrupted, brilliant career of public service he courageously met every responsibility of trust reposed in him and discharged all duties that it became his obligation to perform. His loyalty has seldom been equaled and never surpassed. Until the very end he unfalteringly and valiantly carried the heavy and burdensome load his position in the Democratic Party, in national and international affairs required and demanded. I am deeply grieved. My friend is gone. He gave his all, and the Nation mourns while a martyr sleeps.

I have had the honor, my colleagues, of representing here in this House the congressional district in which Senator ROBINSON was born and which, many years ago, honored him by electing him a Member of this body. His great and matchless career of public service has ever been a beckoning inspiration to me as I have undertaken to perform my duties in public office. I have often been the beneficiary of his counsel, and I shall ever rejoice to know that he was my friend and one to whom I could go for advice and information upon which I could rely as being sincere and of great value in aiding me to find the proper course and solution of perplexing problems as they arose.