October 30, 1973
Page 35387
A TRIBUTE TO HAROLD HUGHES
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, with many other Senators, I took great pleasure this past Sunday in an article which appeared in Parade magazine about our friend and colleague, Senator HAROLD HUGHES. In describing him, and his decision not to seek reelection next year but to retire from the Senate and follow the call of God in his service to mankind, the article was laced with complimentary adjectives: "compassionate," "understanding," and "impressive."
Having the privilege of knowing and working with HAROLD HUGHES gives content to these adjectives. His strength of character has led to what he calls "a spiritual approach" to his public role – truly feeling with conviction the important values of life, and acting upon them. His contribution to the work of the Senate has reflected this conviction and strength of character. As he continues to bring his message to mankind, he will have my confidence, respect, and warmest personal best wishes.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Parade article on Senator HUGHES be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
SENATOR HAROLD HUGHES: HE WANTS TO WORK FULL TIME FOR GOD
(By Lloyd Shearer)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Some men, particularly politicians, will do almost anything for power. And then, having acquired it, they will do even more to consolidate and perpetuate it. For political power in the American way of life is either the ultimate money substitute or an eased road to wealth.
Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago is the classic example of the first, and the late Lyndon Johnson in Texas an equally classic study of the second.
In the hands of politicians with little strength of character, power frequently becomes hypnotic in its addiction, corruptive in its influence, and vindictive in its exercise.
Once in a rare while, however, a man, elected to political power, decides to relinquish it when he doesn't have to.
On Sept. 6th – after a lengthy period of personal soul-searching and intensive discussions with his wife and three daughters – Sen. Harold Hughes, 51 (D., Iowa), announced that when his present term ends in January, 1975, he will retire from the U.S. Senate to become a lay preacher and follow "God's calling."
OVERCOMING THE PAST
Hughes, an ex-alcoholic truck driver – a lethal combination if there ever was one – is a three- time Governor of Iowa, 1962-68, a Methodist, and one of the most deeply religious, personable, kind and liberal members of the Senate.
In his 41/2 years as a Senator, he has quietly helped several members of the Congress and their wives with drinking problems and ministered to the varied needs of others.
A mountain of a man, 6 foot 3 and 245 pounds, he is a tender, compassionate, understanding person whose special interests are the poor; the weak, the downtrodden, and those who have lost their spiritual way in life.
"I have long believed," he explains, "that government will change for the better only when people change for the better in their hearts. Rightly or wrongly, I believe that I can move people through a spiritual approach more effectively than I've been able to achieve through political approach.
"To me there is something more important than the political process in this country. God comes first and country comes second.
"That belief is really nothing new with me. I've had it ever since I quit drinking. (In 1951 Hughes was about to take his own life when one afternoon he knelt in prayer.)
"At that point," he says, "I asked God to direct my life, and I made a commitment to Him as I understood it. I thought then of entering the ministry. In fact, for a couple of years I even took a correspondence course for the ministry. But then I was led into state politics, and eventually into the Senate by the late Robert Kennedy.
"In 1967 after three terms as Governor of Iowa, I didn't want to run for reelection," Hughes narrates, "I didn't want to come to Washington. I had no ambition to become a United States Senator. But one afternoon, in November or December, 1967, I don't recall the precise date or even the precise hotel, I think it was the Plaza, Bob Kennedy and I, just the two of us, met in a hotel in New York City. And I told him that Lyndon Johnson had to be replaced as President and that he was probably the only man in the Democratic Party who could get the nomination.
A DIVIDED COUNTRY
"Bob was reluctant. He said he didn't want to be the instrument for dividing the country. I disagreed with him. I told him the country was already badly divided, that someone had to run against Johnson. Of course, we didn't know that Johnson would subsequently decline to run.
"In the course of the conversation," Hughes continues, "Bob pointed his index finger at me and said, 'How can you ask me to run for the Presidency if you won't even run for the Senate?' I didn't have much of an out. I couldn't see that one more vote in the Senate was going to make that much difference. But he convinced me. He convinced me that six years of my life in the Senate might indeed make a difference on a lot of issues. I said, 'OK, Robert, I'll run for the Senate if my wife and daughters agree.’ They agreed. I ran, and I was elected.
"Robert ran, too, for the nomination, but you know what happened [Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968]. And that tragedy brought me to the realization then, as it does now, that there's a basic savagery underlying the political structures of this country that we've never been able to mature out of.
A GREATER DANGER
"The politician in this country is probably in greater danger of being struck down than in almost any other Western country. Americans don't like to hear that. But our history proves it. Just in the past 10 years: Jack Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, George Wallace. Surely there must be some way in which we can dampen the anger which politics generates in the hearts of our people."
When Harold Hughes leaves the Senate in January, 1975, he plans to join two organizations, the Fellowship Foundation and the International Christian Leadership, both of which believe in spreading the Prayer Breakfast Movement. As yet he has no specific assignments. "People ask me," he says, "If I expect to be another Billy Graham or spend the next 20 years of my life as a missionary in India. The truth is I don't know what I'm going to do. I haven't had time to lay out a program. When this job is over, I'm going to take a little bit of time to wait on the Lord – to think and to pray. I'm sure God will direct me."
Senator Hughes is good-naturedly aware that some people believe he's "blown his stack" or "gone off the deep end," or suspect that he really plans to run for President of the U.S. under a third-party banner.
"I'm not contemplating running for public office again in my life," he declares, "but if there should come a time in the future that the right man or woman ran for office and wanted my commitment or if some President should say to me, 'I want you to come and do this for the country,' I would feel compelled to do it. But the truth is that I've been sitting here in the Senate these past few years saying to myself I'm not doing what my conscience wants me to do.
"I've tried to find a way of life," Hughes asserts, "where I could do what God intended me to do with a total commitment. I haven't found that in the Senate. That's not to say I'm not proud of what I've done here, especially in the fields of alcoholism, drug dependence, the anti-war movement, and the exposing of the secret Cambodian bombings, and, of course, the Gen. John Lavelle affair. [General Lavelle authorized and hid from superiors a series of unauthorized bombing raids on North Vietnam.] I've been an important, lonely voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee, questioning a lot of weapons systems. And I think my voice has had some effect, has focused some attention on the problems and issues. I don't sell that short for a minute. It's just that to me God's calling is greater than the political one."
CONSTITUENTS TALK
The reaction to Hughes' plan has been startling. The overwhelming response has been one of discussion. "The devil's in the White House," many of his constituents have written, "stay in the Senate."
The secretaries in the Senator's office say his Iowa mail has reflected surprise, disappointment, respect for his wishes, and appreciation for what he has done in the past, in that order.
"The only people who dislike the Senator," claims one assistant, "are some in the White House, and that's because the Senator has always firmly believed in telling people the truth and in speaking his own mind."
Hughes quickly admits, however, that "I've received some letters telling me that I ought to learn a little about forgiveness if I'm going to succeed in my new way of life. I've been accused of being quick to criticize the President, quick to call him to task.
"I don't enjoy doing that," he states, "we have a President. I respect the Presidency. I pray for the President every day. It's pretty difficult to stand up here in the Senate and be cutting in your criticism, because you think it's not only in the national interest but in the interest of eternity. I don't like to hurt others. I don't have the killer's instinct. I never want to bore in on a man when he's bleeding and not leave him room to escape and heal by honesty.
"The President could have taken Watergate and become a saint. If only he'd made a complete revelation, if only he'd told the whole truth and dismissed the people involved and demanded full prosecution. His popularity would have been 95 percent.
"But the President is a man who is very afraid," Hughes states, "and I wish I could help him. That may sound strange, as critical as I've been of him, but I really wish that I could. I see nothing wrong in confession and repentance. Why can't he do that?
"I would rather have a group of men gathered around me in prayer to help me than to stand in the heat of crisis with a bunch of intellectual advisers. That's the way history has brought strength to people.
THE SEANCE AFFAIR
"Nine times in his Presidency, Abraham Lincoln called his country to prayer and repentance. Nine times he said, 'It's a national day of repentance. Ask forgiveness for yourselves and the nation, so that God might remove from us the stigma that caused this great conflict that almost tears us asunder.' Surely, President Nixon should have no shame in doing that.”
In 1971 Harold Hughes gave the Democratic Presidential nomination a try. He progressed smartly until several newspapers reported that he had attended a seance in an effort to communicate with his older brother, Jesse, who was killed in an automobile accident in 1942 not far from their hometown of Ida Grove, Iowa.
Many members of Hughes' staff believe that their boss departed prematurely from the race and might well have won had he stayed. Hughes is by far a more charismatic personality and a more impressive and memorable speaker than such Senators as Muskie, McGovern, Humphrey and Jackson. He may in fact be the most arresting speaker in the entire Congress. With his commanding presence and his resonant, stentorian voice, he has the rare faculty of arousing almost instantaneous rapport with his audience. He has had groups of businessmen hugging each other in demonstrations of close brotherhood as a result of his urgings. He is a thoroughly empathetic man.
How he will survive after he leaves the Senate, he has little idea. He has entered into no salary or financial arrangements with either the Fellowship Foundation or International Christian Leadership and insists that "God will look after me.
"Fortunately," he adds, "my wife has as much faith in God as I have. She doesn't know what we're going to be doing. We discussed seriously the economic problems related to a move like this, you know, giving up a great deal of security here at the U.S. Senate.
"We don't have enough financial resources to provide for old age. Another term in the Senate would mean a good retirement pay, enough for us to live the rest of our lives comfortably. But my wife agrees with me that by faith, the Lord will provide for us, and as for the rest of it, she's delighted."
A most unusual Senator, Harold Everett Hughes, one-of-a-kind, truly a nonpareil.