December 19, 1974
Page 41086
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from Michigan (Mr. GRIFFIN) for his courtesy.
Mr. President, I find it difficult to make this statement about the distinguished Senator from Iowa, HAROLD HUGHES, who has been such a good and close friend. He has decided to end his Government, but not his public service.
This big, kindly man who has been so great a help to me and to all of us has decided to heed the call of a higher authority, and to take God's work for his own. He served only one term here. But in the 6 years we have been together in this Chamber and these Halls, he has served his people, and his colleagues well.
His activities as a practicing politician have been marked by one common theme – they concern people. They concern the physical health and psychological well-being of people, the quality of people's lives and the quality of the people's government, and they concern the integrity of the people's institutions.
One of his best known achievements, of course, is the Federal Drug Abuse and Drug Dependence Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act of 1970, which reshaped the Federal effort to control the abuse of drugs and care for drug-dependent people. The act set Federal programs on a humane and reasonable course, and millions of Americans are the beneficiaries of his efforts.
One of the reasons for his success was his own struggle with alcoholism. HAROLD HUGHES had been at the bottom of life. He knows the meaning of addiction. And he helped us understand it better.
He is a political reformer in the best sense, and it was reform which drew him to politics in his native Iowa. As a trucker in Iowa, he felt changes were needed in the State regulatory agency, so he sought and won a seat on the agency. Since then his name has been associated with a variety of efforts in the course of his career as Governor and then Senator to improve our political and governmental institutions.
His persistence exposed the secret bombing of Cambodia, and he was among the first to perceive the Vietnam mistake. In addition, he has been active in the reform movement of the Democratic Party.
HAROLD HUGHES has also been involved in a wide range of other issues which reflect his concern for people and his commitment to ideas rather than ideology. In a State with less than 1 percent minority population, he was a champion of civil rights. In a State where the ravages of pollution are less severe than in major urban areas, he has been a dedicated environmentalist.
We will miss the expertise and commitment of this Senator of enormous integrity. We will miss his capacity to touch the conscience of the Senate with the depth of his feelings on fundamental values.
But it is more as a man than as a Senator that we will remember HAROLD HUGHES. He is a man whose personality is as big as his frame, whose stability and kindness have been a source of constant support for many of us – a man whose warmth and goodwill can draw people to him and to each other.
HAROLD HUGHES plans to join the Fellowship Foundation and International Christian Leadership. I know that in his new role he will continue to be a people's advocate, and ours and future generations will continue to benefit from his public service.
Jane and I wish him and Eva Mae the best of luck in their new endeavor. I shall be ever grateful to him for the friendship and unswerving loyalty which he extended to me at a time of adversity.