January 10, 1977
Page 709
DEATH OF ROBERT HALE
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, Robert Hale, who served Maine in the House for eight terms, died November 30. A Portland native, graduate of Bowdoin College, and a veteran of World War I, he began his political career in 1923, with four terms in the Maine House of Representatives, including one term as Speaker of the House.
He was elected to the Federal legislature in 1943, and his 16 years are the longest tenure of any member of the House from Maine in this century.
He was a strong and sharp-witted defender of his political philosophy, and as such he gained the respect of people in Maine of all political philosophies.
He served his State well as a member of the Merchant Marine and Commerce Committees, and continued a family tradition of service to Maine in Congress.
I thoroughly enjoyed my association with Bob when he was a member of the Maine congressional delegation during my service as Governor of Maine. He and Mrs. Hale were always warmly hospitable to me and Mrs. Muskie.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article on Robert Hale in the December 2 edition of the Washington Post be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
ROBERT HALE, 87, Dies, LAWYER, FORMER MAINE CONGRESSMAN
Former Rep. Robert Hale (RMaine), who had maintained a law practice here since leaving the House of Representatives in January, 1959, died Tuesday at George Washington University Hospital after apparently suffering a heart attack.
He was stricken while en route to his office at 1125 15th St. NW. His death came one day after his law associates had honored him at a party marking his 87th birthday.
Mr. Hale, who first took his seat in Congress in 1943, was defeated for reelection in 1958. Just months prior to that last campaign, a House Elections Subcommittee had decided that he had won a bitterly contested 1956 election in Maine's First Congressional District by 111 votes.
During his eight terms in Congress, he was considered a caustic and witty opponent of Democratic administrations.
In 1952, when President Truman ordered government seizure of the nation's steel mills to avert a strike, Mr. Hale joined an unsuccessful move on Capitol Hill to cut off all funds for government operation of the mills.
He introduced a resolution designed to start the ball rolling for impeachment proceedings against the President. But both Republican and Democratic leaders shied away from such a move.
Born in Portland, Maine, a member of a prominent political family, Mr. Hale was a graduate of Bowdoin College. He was a Rhodes scholar at Trinity College, Oxford. He attended Harvard Law School and later practiced law in Boston and Portland.
During World War I, he served as an officer with the American Expeditionary Force in France.
In 1919, he was a legal adviser to the field mission sent by the American Commission to Negotiate Peace to Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Mr. Hale was a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1923 to 1930, serving as speaker during the last two years.
Shortly after he left Congress, President Eisenhower appointed him to a commission to conciliate differences between the United States and Switzerland.
Mr. Hale had been an overseer for many years of Bowdoin College and was active in its Washington Alumni Club and the Maine State Society here, which honored him with, its "M"for distinguished service.
He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the American Bar Association and the Metropolitan Club.
He also had been a member of the Committee of 100 of the Federal City and was past president of the City Tavern Association.
He is survived by his wife, Agnes Burke Hale, of the home, 2722 N St. NW; a daughter,Mrs. Cornelius J. Tyson, of New York City, and six grandchildren.
The family suggests that expressions of sympathy may be in the form of contributions to Bowdoin College.