February 9, 1979
Page 2453
SPEAK, MR. SPEAKER
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Sam Rayburn Library in Bonham, Tex., has compiled and made available in printed form a substantial portion of the writings and talks of Sam Rayburn. The book, titled "Speak, Mr. Speaker," is arranged as an autobiography.
The editors, H. G. Dulaney, Edward Hake Phillips, and MacPhelan Reese, set out to present the most important and timeless statements made by this great statesman in his many, many letters, interviews and speeches. The result is what one reviewer described a "living history."
Included are reflections on the business of politics and American life during the half-century Sam Rayburn served his country, analyses of the events and ideas which shaped him and his country.
I commend the book to the attention of my colleagues. Mr. President, I ask that two reviews of the book be printed in the RECORD.
The reviews are as follows:
MR. SAM: A "FUR" PIECE FROM FLAG SPRINGS
(By William D. Bedell)
On Dec. 24, 1933, in the hard days of the Great Depression, Rep. Sam Rayburn wrote to W. P. Hobby, then president of The Houston Post:
"You are correct I think when you say that it is the hope of some elements in our society to break down the faith of the people in the President. Some of our people want everything static and always preach that any movement that goes forward is socialistic and destructive . . ."
In the hard, early days of World War II, Rayburn said:
"The Members of Congress are today under attack, and it seems that in some quarters there is a studied effort to destroy the faith and confidence of the American people in their elected Representatives. There has never been a dictatorship built up in any land until the faith and confidence of the people had been destroyed in the legislative branch."
Three associates at the Sam Rayburn Library in Bonham have here put together a big book that is in many places timely, that breathes with humanity, and that exudes the irresistible charm of politics.
It consists predominantly of the written and spoken words of Sam Rayburn, Democrat of Texas — member of the State Legislature, 1907-1913; member of Congress, 1913-1961 (48 years); Speaker of the House, 1940-1961 (with two two-year time outs as Minority Leader).
Public awareness of Mr. Sam was highest in the brief, urgent times when he served in 1948, 1952 and 1956 as permanent chairman of the Democratic National Convention. He appeared then as a stern man, scowling a lot, impatient, his eyes peering into the lights, his bald dome shining. He was aware of the harsh image he cast.
"When I am transacting any kind of business," he said, "I am serious and cannot help looking and acting so. I am not a bad humored man, and have gotten so much out of life that I am happy every day."
This book shows most of the time the happy side of Mr. Sam, the positive side. It shows him as a compassionate man, a man concerned with the verities. In 1950, when he was 68 years old, he said:
"When I was a boy around Flag Springs, we thought that we had all the good people, and especially the pretty girls. Our radius span was about three miles on horseback, in a wagon or in a buggy. But when there was a meeting, we talked to the boys and girls over in Nubbin Ridge or Brawley's Pond, pretty good boys and girls. When our horizon was widened we thought the people over the county were pretty good folks, too. Then our vision broadened more and then we believed the people over the state were pretty good. The boys and girls in that community found out also that we did not have a monopoly on identity, on patriotism, or on love of country. They have found out, as I have found out, that in every nook and cranny of America there are good men and women who are fixing their faces in thought, planting their feet in the right direction, teaching the good lessons of life and citizenship."
Mr. Sam, who learned farm life first hand in the back land of Fannin County and "just missed being a tenant farmer by a gnat's whisker," was constantly concerned with the plight of the farmer and other underdogs.
He also was constantly concerned (and in this the book reaches its heights) in the Congress of the United States. Listen:
"You shouldn't tie yourself to just one district . . . you should try to vote ... the greatest good to the greatest number ... "
"It appears I cannot live without this life for it is my very self . . ."
"It (Washington, D.C.) is a selfish, sourbellied place . Remember, I am not tired of this . . . for it is my life, my whole life."
"I still can't realize I'm speaker. It's a 'fur' piece from Flag Springs."
"I have always wanted responsibility because I want the power responsibility brings. I hate like hell to be licked. It almost kills me."
"You can't really say how you lead. You feel your way, receptive to those rolling waves of sentiment. And if a man can't see and hear and feel, why then, of course, he's lost."
Mr. Sam could see and hear and feel. Mr. Sam could lead. He could also teach. (He still can, 17 years after his death in 1961 at age 79.) Anyone who reads this book will get a magnificent lesson from a master teacher in what it is to be an American in the 20th century.
GREATEST OF GREAT SPEAKERS
(By Margaret W. Reid)
"This is not a Biography — it is an Autobiography," the editors tell us on the title page of this impressive, well-organized, inspirational book of over 400 oversized pages. For several years these editors have worked in the Sam Rayburn Library in Bonham, selecting "the most important and timeless statements made by this great statesman in his many, many letters, interviews, and speeches." Mature readers, especially Democrats, well remember that Sam Rayburn (1882-1961) served as Speaker of the House of Representatives longer than any other person — almost 17 years. And for 49 consecutive years he was a member of the House, sometimes as minority leader.
Mr. Sam, as he was called, never had time and was too modest — to write an autobiography, but the editors have arranged his letters and talks (his own and those to and about him) chronologically, to give readers his life story from childhood and youth in Texas to his apprenticeship in state and national politics on to the realization of his long-time ambition — to be Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Details of his effective leadership in times of war, depression, and reconstruction make up the greater part of the volume. Photographs of the Rayburn home and the Sam Rayburn Library, both in Bonham, and reproductions of newspaper cartoons add vividness.
Rayburn was one of eleven children and was five when his farming family moved to Texas from Tennessee. "I just missed being a tenant farmer by a gnat's whisker," he once said, displaying his sense of humor and wit. He went to a one-room, one-teacher, country school, and he credits Joseph Weldon Bailey with inspiring him to choose politics as a career. One rainy day young Sam walked to town "over a gummy road to hear Bailey's magnificent speech, which he delivered in a covered 'tabernacle' of the Evangelical Church ... When I saw all those rich town folk in storebought clothes, I decided to stay outside. I found an open flap and listened attentively for two hours. I can still feel the water dripping down my neck. ... It must have been under the spell of Bailey's oratory that I decided to become some day Speaker."
Sam went to East Normal College, got a job ringing bells, moping floors. He dropped out, taught school, but always went back to Commerce, due to the influence of Professor W. L. Mayo, "one of the greatest benefactors to humankind that I have ever known."
When he was 24, Rayburn voted for the first time and ran for election to the Texas House. He was elected three times, eventually became Speaker. "I muddled through that first session as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives by God, by desperation, and by ignorance."
While in Austin, Rayburn attended classes at the Law School of the University of Texas. In 1912, Rayburn was thirty and ran for U.S. Congress from the 4th District. His five months of campaigning paid off, and he was sworn in by Champ Clark at the beginning of the Wilson Administration.
The new Congressman called himself a conservative, and he went to work "cleaning up the mess in the Nation's front yard." Some of the laws he drafted and pushed through Congress in the second and third decades of this century included The Truth in Securities Law, The Securities Exchange Act, and the Utility Holding Company Act. In 1937 he was made majority leader, and in 1940 he was elected Speaker, "a place second only to the Presidency."
Headings of some of the 28 chapters which describe Rayburn's colorful career include Baptism of Fire (his first term as Speaker); The Truman Miracle; Kortan Conflict, Cap'n Ike and Mr. Sam; Johnson and Kennedy. One of Mr. Sam's most important acts was his saying go to the Selective Service Act just before WWII. It passed by a single vote — 203 to 202. The Houston Post commented: "Before any member could change his mind, the Speaker banged his gavel and declared the result. Had the measure lost, a million men would have been discharged from the U.S. Army whose strength then was 1,400,000.The Japanese struck four months later."
"Speak, Mr. Speaker" is living history, packed with significant quotations by and about this nation's leaders, enriched with editorial comments from newspapers. This review can only suggest content. The editors have done a superlative job. The Speaker emerges as the great person he really was.
H. G. Dulaney is director of the Sam Rayburn Library, Dr. Edward H. Phillips is professor of history at Austin College, and MacPhelan Reese, whose introductions to each chapter provide continuity and stimulate interest, is a member of the Library Staff.
THE SAM RAYBURN LIBRARY,
Bonham, Tex.,
October 2, 1978.
Hon. EDMUND S. MUSKIE,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, D.C.
DEAR SENATOR MUSKIE: I hope that you have received your copy of the book, "Speak, Mr. Speaker."
If you think it merits it, I would appreciate it if you will mention this in the Senate. The book sells for $12.50 and to libraries and colleges for $11.25, postage paid. Any profit made from the sale of this book goes into the Sam Rayburn Library Fund.
By the way, the book has received good reviews over the country and I am enclosing two of them.
With kindest regards.
Sincerely,
H. G. DULANEY.