July 29, 1974
Page 25435
SENATOR ERNEST GRUENING – A MODERN PIONEER
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I would like to express my sorrow and the sense of loss felt by his many friends in the State of Maine on the passing of Senator Ernest Gruening.
Ernest Gruening began his association with Maine in 1927, when he helped found the Portland Evening News. He served as managing editor there for 5 years; the newspaper reflected his crusading liberalism, and I might add, his independent Democratic politics.
While Ernest Gruening left the Evening News to return to one of his first loves, the Nation, in 1933, he frequently returned to Maine to renew old friendships and make new ones.
Fittingly, last October, on his last visit to Maine, he took up again a cause he fought for nearly 50 years ago – he spoke out in favor of a public power authority for Maine.
His visit to Maine is typical of not only the energy but the unconquerable spirit and unswerving dedication of this modern pioneer.
Educated in medicine, he preferred to concentrate on our social ills, and in pre-Depression America he could ask no better forum than journalism.
Rising quickly in a competitive craft, he became managing editor of the Boston Traveler at age 27. One of his first acts was to direct that racial identification be dropped from news stories unless race was a significant factor in the news event.
His newspaper was one of the first major newspapers to adopt such a policy.
His willingness to put principle into practice and his willingness to pioneer new causes became the hallmarks of his life, both in the many phases of journalism and in public office.
It is fitting that he will be best remembered for his early and vigorous opposition to the Vietnam war – only the last in a long line of lonely battles.
He was a man who led his time. We now take for granted the attitudes he pioneered, not only toward the war, but on many other foreign policy matters and in such areas as civil rights, population control, and above all, U.S. territorial policy.
Perhaps it was inevitable that this pioneer fell in love with Alaska in his middle years. Gruening's spirit and energy seemed to fit this last American frontier, and his influence on Alaska's future is incalculable.
In his 14 years as territorial governor and 12 years as Senator, he became not only the "father of Alaskan Statehood"; he was the personification of Alaska to millions of fellow Americans.
In 1959, Ernest Gruening and I were freshmen in this body. In his seventies, he had already lived a fuller life than most men hope for. But when he, Senator Moss, and I traveled to the Soviet Union for a 30-day study of hydroelectric development, Ernest Gruening proved the youngest of us all; both his energy, and his knowledge of the subject were a constant amazement.
Those of us who knew him as a friend will miss him. Generations to come will enjoy his legacy.