Address by Senator Bailey

Of North Carolina

Mr. BAILEY. Mme. President, the career of Senator ROBINSON was without parallel in Congress in certain important aspects. We may recall others who have served longer, we may think of some who may be regarded as more brilliant, and of others perhaps more eloquent, but we can think of none in the long history of this body, 150 years of continuous existence, who has been more diligent, none who carried such great burdens, none who pressed to successful conclusion so many great measures, and none who carried with him throughout so much of the confidence and the good will of his colleagues. He takes his place as one of the great figures in the historic Senate.

The career of Senator ROBINSON is an inspiration to every man who beholds it. It is a career of constant rise and honor, ever expanding in influence, ever increasing in service to his country, whether as citizen, Representative in the National House of Representatives, Governor of his State, Senator of the United States, and minority leader and majority leader therein. In each relation he quickly established a distinguished place, he quickly found, not in the acclaim of men, but in an inevitable recognition, the justification of his elevation.

His was no middle flight, and as I think at this moment of his career from a young man in a small hamlet of a mid-western city, rising after and in the midst of the hard days of the Civil War, soaring ever and widening ever, unbroken, I am reminded of Shelley's description of the skylark that

Singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

His was a remarkably sustained flight in ever widening and ever more elevated circles.

I like to think at this moment that there is no end of that flight, and that the spirit of our friend who here was visible with us so long and so happily will still soar around us and lead us on as by a holier and a more ennobling inspiration than when we knew him as he sat in yonder seat.

Senator ROBINSON was subjected here to the severest of all tests through long years, and in a deeply troubled period, tests, I think, by reason of the troubled character of his time, from 1914 to the moment of his death, more exacting than those to which any of his predecessors was subjected— the test of being leader of his party, the test of leader for the administration, the test of the infinite demands that are made by Senators upon such a leader. You and I will bear witness at this moment that Senator ROBINSON not only met those tests, but he proved himself in an astonishing way superior to them, and, after long years, more than 20 years of that testing, now that we see that he is gone from among us, there is not one Member in the Senate, and there was not one Member in the Senate when he was living, but would bear witness to the good will that he felt in his heart for the leader, whether agreeing or disagreeing with him, whether in victory or in defeat.

I suppose no man ever served in this body who had such a rare faculty for dealing with and differing with his colleagues and at the same time commanding something far more to be prized than mere admiration for his strength of character or his capacity for service.

We have heard on this occasion the language of something more than good will, something deeper than appreciation. We have heard the language of a profound affection, a real and abiding love for a man who notwithstanding all his rugged manliness, the great manly qualities that were resident in him, carried at the same time the antidote to criticism, carried in his very being, in the genial twinkle

of his eyes, in the friendly touch upon the shoulder after the difference in debate, or the comradeship along the stream or in the field, something indefinable that justifies, nay, demands, the love of one's fellow men. I do not think that we could analyze, I do not think that we could worthily bear witness to it, but we could not resist speaking of it.

Senator ROBINSON was cast in the mold of greatness. He had a great physique. There was something about him that gave one the sense of unusual physical power as he moved in one's presence. There was something of tireless physical energy about him. He was an indefatigable man, who at yonder desk and in his position of leadership day by day did probably more work than any five of his colleagues, a man who rarely became impatient, who rarely seemed to be hurried, and who on all occasions, notwithstanding the great host of measures and demands that confronted him, was singularly ready and never wearied until those last few hours in a great struggle in which he was last of all of us to recognize that he was weary.

He had a very great mental energy and a quick, comprehensive intelligence. He met the issues of debate day by day. You and I had the benefit of reports and committee hearings. Our leader had no such benefits, but there were few who could match him in debate on any question.

Added to these unusual qualities there was another quality to which I wish especially to refer. I think Senator ROBINSON was endowed with a phenomenal ardor. I have observed it amongst others, but I have never known a human being who had his capacity for ardor. One might observe it in the fishing excursion. With what zest and enthusiasm he went into that diversion! Or if he were called to the field in the hunt, none could surpass him in the pursuit of the prey or the joy in the pursuit, and none could quite equal his relish in the reminiscence of the day's excitements.

In the tasks in the Senate, day after day and hour after hour, through more than 4 years, with legislation of the

utmost importance and the greatest sort of variety being poured into the arena, in such a stream, and of such a newness as the Congress has never known before, and had never suspected could be possible, he met the demands of it all, and he met them with his whole heart, his whole mind, and soul, and being. That was his ardor, and that was the secret of his power and his greatness.

He reminded me of Lord Nelson's definition of honor. Lord Nelson always told his sailors and his captains that they had not discharged the obligations of honor in battle until they had exposed themselves in the utmost degree to the enemy, and had done everything that men could do to win the battle, regardless of the consequences to themselves. The great admiral's conception of honor was that in the conflict he who fought should consider no exits, no means of escape. You and I bear witness that as our friend did battle here he threw into the battle every ounce of his whole being-physical, mental, moral, and spiritual. He seemed fully taken up and carried away with it. He staked all upon the issue.

I think that brings us to the fact that most distinguished him and which most commanded our confidence. When Senator ROBINSON was there he was all there. When he was on a side all of him was on it. That is the great definition of character in terms of description. When he was on a side everything there was within him was on that side.

I remember Romola answering a question which her son put to her in the fourteenth century. He asked his mother how a man could be both great and happy. The mother discussed greatness in terms of her acquaintances. She said of Fra Girolamo: "Fra Girolamo has the greatness of integrity."

I believe every Senator will join with me in bearing witness to just that-that JOE ROBINSON had the greatness of integrity, the wholeness of all that was within him being just as it was represented to be. He was integrity in action.

Mme. President, time does not permit of a real effort to analyze the character of our friend. I draw to the conclusion with just one remark: That to all these great qualities were added a remarkable breadth of view and a beautiful tolerance of spirit. I think it may well be said that the sportsman on the stream or in the field was no less a sportsman in the arena of the Senate and in the wider arena of American politics.

But it must be said that there is but one interpretation of his course here that is consistent with all that we know of him—and that is that he was actuated by a high sense of duty. He supported measures that were new to him in the profound conviction that there must be unity of leadership in a great emergency. This was his conception of his leadership, and I honor him for it and the vigor with which he maintained it. He was moved by no selfish motive but by a sense of duty in the highest loyalty.

He was overtaken in an hour of great struggle. His spirit had demanded of his mighty frame more than it could sustain, and it broke away. It is significant that a copy of the RECORD was found beside his body. He had been reading the debate of the day to prepare for the morrow. He was stricken in the thick of the battle and at the forefront. His death made history.

I think it is well with our friend. I believe it is worth while to remark that if we may believe the greatest Interpreter of life here and the life to come it is well with JOE ROBINSON. It was that Interpreter who said that he who is faithful in a few things shall be made ruler over many things; that he who does well with the talents with which he is entrusted here shall be given larger talents with which to deal in the hereafter. He further said, "Whosoever would be first among you, let him be the servant of all.”

Measured by the standards of the Great Interpreter, I think we may hold to our hearts the assurance that his