June 3, 1970
Page 18042
AN IMPORTANT DAY FOR SENATOR SMITH OF MAINE
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, on Monday, my senior colleague from Maine (Mrs. SMITH) was involved in three noteworthy events.
The day was the 20th anniversary of her justly celebrated "Declaration of Conscience" speech.
Monday evening, she was honored at a dinner given by the American Newspaper Woman's Club.
Finally, she delivered another timely speech, pleading for "civilized public discourse."
It was a memorable day for Senator SMITH, for the State of Maine, and for the country. It is a pleasure to add my compliments and congratulations to the many she is receiving from both sides of the political aisle.
Senator SMITH has had a remarkable political career, without parallel in the annals of Maine politics.
It is appropriate that the RECORD include selected news coverage of her day. I ask unanimous consent that stories from the Washington Post and New York Times be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
MRS. SMITH WARNS OF REPRESSION – SHE ASSAILS MILITANT STUDENTS AND THEIR CRITICS IN CAPITAL
WASHINGTON, June 1.– Senator Margaret Chase Smith spoke today of a "national sickness" pervading the land, and she denounced both protesting student militants and their critics in the Administration.
It was the 20th anniversary of a speech in which the Maine Republican, speaking from the same Senate desk, attacked the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin for irresponsible political tactics, and she recalled some of that speech today.
"I spoke as I did 20 years ago because of what I considered to be the great threat from the radical right – the threat of a government of repression," Senator Smith declared.
"I speak today," she said, "because of what I consider to be the great threat from the radical left that advocates and practices violence and defiance of the law – again, the threat of the ultimate result of a reaction of repression."
While she was sharply critical of student demonstrators who commit crimes, the 72-year-old Senator indicated her belief that overreaction by Administration officials – she declined to name names – contributed substantially to the problem.
The Senator said she was "not proud of the way in which our national television networks and campuses have been made publicity platforms for irresponsible sensationalism – nor am I proud of the countercriticism against the networks and the campuses that has gone beyond the bounds of reasonableness and propriety and fanned, instead of drenching, the fires of division."
Asked after the speech if this had been a reference to Vice President Agnew, Mrs. Smith replied that she was "not going in personalities" now although she might at a later date.
"Extremism bent upon polarization of our people is increasingly forcing upon the American people the narrow choice between anarchy and repression," the Senator warned. "And make no mistake about it, if that narrow choice has to be made, the American people, even if with reluctance and misgiving, will choose repression."
"Ironically, the excesses of dissent in the extreme left can result in repression of dissent," she added. "For repression is preferable to anarchy and nihilism to most Americans."
Mrs. Smith indicated that she regarded today's conflicts and criticism just as seriously as she did the excesses of McCarthyism 20 years earlier, whatever the official stance of the Administration may be.
"The President denies we are in a revolution," she said. "There are many who would not agree with his appraisal. Anarchy may seem nearer to many of us than it really is."
The Senator said that just as in the 1950's "the Senate was silenced and politically intimidated by one of its own members, so today many Americans are intimidated and made mute by the emotional violence of the extreme left."
"It is time that the greater center of our people," she continued, "those who reject the violence and unreasonableness of both the extreme right and extreme left, searched their consciences, mustered their moral and physical courage, shed their intimidated silence and declared their consciences."
Three weeks ago at Colby College in Waterville, Me., Mrs. Smith reported today, her efforts to answer questions were greeted in some instances with hisses and obscenities. Mrs. Smith's speech was well received by the small group of Senators on the floor to hear it. They ranged from liberals – Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Charles H. Percy, Republican of Illinois, to conservatives, Senators John C. Stennis, Democrat of Mississippi, and John J. Williams, Republican of Delaware.
A ROSY SALUTE FOR SENATOR SMITH
(By Dorothy McCardle)
Democrats and Republicans joined in a rose-strewn love-in for Maine's Sen. Margaret Chase Smith last night at a dinner in her honor given by the American Newspaper Woman's Club.
The occasion for the dinner at the Shoreham Hotel was the 20th anniversary of the Senator's 1950 "declaration of conscience" speech on the Senate floor in which she took a strong stand against the Red-hunting tactics of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Yesterday, the 72-year-old Senator again took the floor to deliver her 1970 version of that declaration. In it, she criticized extremists of both the Left and Right and called both the McCarthy era and the present, a time of "national sickness."
Sen. Smith, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was saluted by Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird as "the first of her sex to achieve leadership on the Hill."
"There is no other person in Congress who understands haw important it is to maintain a strong America, as she does," said Secretary Laird.
Sen. Smith had arrived without her usual trademark, a single rose pinned to her grown. This lack was soon remedied when Secretary Laird gave her a sheath of roses to carry to the platform.
Roses centered every table and there was a special basket of roses for Mrs. Smith with a card from President Nixon.
In this rose-strewn setting, the compliments for Sen. Smith were spoken with tough and sincere masculine admiration.
Sen. Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, Republican leader of the Senate, said that Mrs. Smith had delivered a thunderbolt 20 years ago for her declaration of conscience against McCarthy tactics.
"For balance and rectitude, Sen. Smith's speech was one of the greatest documents ever presented to the Senate in my time," said Sen. Scott. "She tells it like it is, she knows when to speak up.
"Now she has issued thunder on the Right and on the Left again today."
Sen. Scott said that the United States Senate is "singularly fortunate to have a viable, visible, and articulate conscience in Margaret Chase Smith."
Sen. John Stennis (D-Miss.) who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that "no other woman and few men have achieved her position of power and recognition in the Senate, which she has today."
He saluted her for having an all-time record of roll-call votes in the Senate. He said that every man and woman in all the military services owe a debt of gratitude to Mrs. Smith for all she has done for them over the years.
"Her work will bear fruit for decades to come." He said that Sen. Scott had stolen his thunder of compliments for Mrs. Smith, but he wanted to add one more word.
"Sen. Smith, you have overcome all of my prejudices. I have seen a good number of ladies in public office who thought they had to act mannish to get things done. But Sen. Smith has carried a full load and done more than her share of the work and yet she continues to be in every way a lady."
Sen. Stennis wound up by saying that "so long as honor, character and dedication have
a value in American life, just so long will her influence be felt.
"There is one word for Margaret Chase Smith," said Sen. Stennis. "She has quality, genuine quality."
After tributes from ABC news commentator Howard K. Smith and Esther Van Wagoner Tufty, president of the American Newspaper Woman's Club, Sen. Smith stood to receive an ovation.
In a few short words she said she had alternately laughed and cried at all the encomiums tossed her way. She saluted the month of June, the month of roses, as her own special month. Thirty years ago in June she had come first to Capitol Hill, and 20 years ago on June 1 she had made her declaration of conscience.
"If I'm remembered at all in history," said the slight silver-haired woman, "it will be for that declaration of conscience which I made 20 years ago today."
A PLEA FOR CIVILITY – LEFT'S EXTREMISM FORESHADOWS REPRESSION, MRS. SMITH WARNS
(By Spencer Rich)
Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), speaking 20 years to the day after her famed 1950 "declaration of conscience" against the witch-hunting tactics of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.), warned yesterday that a new era of right-wing repression could occur in the United States in reaction to the "anti-democratic arrogance and nihilism from the political extreme left."
Likening the current atmosphere to that which prevailed a generation ago when McCarthy's Red-hunting methods threw the nation into turmoil, Mrs. Smith told the Senate, "We had a national sickness then from which we recovered. We have a national sickness now from which I pray we will recover."
In what could best be described as a plea for a return to civilized public discourse, Mrs. Smith struck out at "militant intellectuals" guilty of "refusing to listen while demanding communication" and at "the way the campus has been made a rendezvous for obscenity, for trespass, for violence, for arson and for killing."
She praised the "candid and justified defense of our government" by Nixon administration spokesmen but added that "some of the defense has been too extreme and unfair and too repetitive." Asked if she were referring to Vice President Agnew, she responded, "I'm not going into personalities; I may later on if it continues."
Mrs. Smith's 1950 speech against McCarthy was one of the most dramatic in Senate history.
McCarthy, riding the Communist-in-government issue hard in the atmosphere of the Cold War, had risen to national attention as a result of his sensational charges and was deeply feared by members of both parties.
Without naming him, Mrs. Smith in the 1950 speech attacked McCarthy for making unfounded charges and for character assassination. She survived a later attempt by McCarthy backers to purge her from the Senate, she recalled yesterday.
The Maine senator's thesis yesterday was that the extremism of the political left confronted the country with a choice between "anarchy and repression," and that, given such a choice, the nation would choose repression because "repression is preferable to anarchy and nihilism to most Americans."
"And make no mistake about it," she said, "if that narrow choice has to be made, the American people, even with reluctance and misgiving, will choose repression. For an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that trespass is trespass – whether on campus or off; violence is violence – whether on campus or off; arson is arson – whether on campus or off. . . . Criminal acts, active or by negligence, cannot be condoned or excused because of panic, whether the offender be a policeman, a National Guardsman, a student, or one of us in this legislative body."
Mrs. Smith's address was the only major speech yesterday in a brief Senate session in which debate continued on the Cooper-Church amendment, denying funds for further U.S. operations in Cambodia after July 1.
Sen. Stuart Symington (D-Mo) complained that the Pentagon is denying information not only to the public but to Congress. He said the General Accounting Office, trying to learn who in the Philippines received some $38.3 million from the United States to support Philippine forces sent to Vietnam, is being refused access to needed Defense Department documents.
In the House Rep. Charles A. Vanik (DOhio) said that on Wednesday he would take to the floor his fight to hold the new national debt ceiling to $389 billion instead of the $395 billion sought by the Nixon administration. He wants the $8 billion difference cut from planned military spending. He was refused permission to offer such an amendment in the Rules Committee.