664 FS4U5 CO^ 65th Congress, 2d Session ..... House Document No. 805 PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE OCCASION OP THE RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD AS CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS AND HIS RESIGNATION FROM THE HOUSE AFTER ALMOST NINE- TEEN YEARS CONTINUOUS SERVICE AS A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW YORK DECEMBER 14 and 17, 1917 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OPPICB 1918 65th Congress, 2d Session ..... House Document No. 805 PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE OCCASION OF THE RETIREMENT OF Hon. JOHN J. FITZGERALD AS CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS AND HIS RESIGNATION FROM THE HOUSE AFTER ALMOST NINE- TEEN YEARS CONTINUOUS SERVICE AS A REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW YORK DECEMBER 14 and 17, 1917 ^">" • WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1918 £ fofe V January 8, 1918. — Ordered that the proceedings n the House of Representatives on the occasion of the last appearance of Hon. John J. Fitzgerald as Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, be printed as a House Document, including remarks by Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois. D, of D. FEB 26 1918 [2] PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES m Proceedings in House of Representatives, December 14., 191? RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD URGENT DEFICIENCY APPROPRIATION BILL MR. FITZGERALD. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill H. R. 7572, the urgent de- ficiency bill, and, pending that motion, I ask unanimous consent that the time for general debate be controlled by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Gillett] and myself. The Speaker. The gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald] moves that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill H. R. 7572, and, pending that, he asks unanimous consent that the time for general debate be controlled one half by himself and the other half by the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Gillett]. Is there objection? [After a pause.] The Chair hears none. The motion is on going into the Committee of the Whole. The question was taken, and the motion was agreed to. Accordingly the House resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the bill H. R. 7572, the urgent deficiency appropriation bill, with Mr. Moon in the chair. [s] 6 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD The Chairman. The House is in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the considera- tion of the bill H. R. 7572, the title of which the Clerk will report. The Clerk read as follows: A bill (H. R. 7572) making appropriations to supply deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, and for other purposes. Mr. Fitzgerald. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to dispense with the first reading of the bill. The Chairman. Is there objection? [After a pause.] The Chair hears none. Mr. Gillett. Mr. Chairman, I would ask the gentleman from New York if he will kindly yield to me now, as I should prefer to precede him if he is willing? Mr. Fitzgerald. I yield to the gentleman. Mr. Gillett. Mr. Chairman, this is the last bill which the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald] will report to this House as chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, and I think it is proper that we should take notice in the House of the departure of so distin- guished a colleague. I send to the Clerk's desk and ask him to read the following letter. The Chairman. Without objection, the Clerk will read. The Clerk read as follows: Johns Hopkins Hospital, December 13, iqij, Hon. Frederick H. Gillett, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. My Dear Mr. Gillett: I wish very much that it were practicable for me to leave Johns Hopkins Hospital long enough to come over to the House and say a word about the loss to the country through the resignation of Mr. Fitzgerald. I regard Fitzgerald as one of the ablest men who has ever sat in Congress. [Applause.] PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES / Intelligence is the usual thing in Congress. Good nature is very common with the Members. The desire for economy is not unusual, but independent courage and determined bravery are at least not two common attributes of politicians or statesmen. Fitzgerald possesses all of the qualities that I have referred to. I shall regret greatly his leaving the House and am truly sorry that my temporary indisposition will not allow me to make a public statement to that effect in the House before he retires. Yours, very sincerely, James R. Mann. [Applause.] Mr. Gillett. Mr. Chairman, I am sure that all on this side of the House indorse very heartily these cordial senti- ments expressed by our leader, and we regret exceedingly the loss of our colleague from New York. He has attained such an eminence in this House that every man for some time will really miss him, and that is more than can be said of many Members. He has won his eminence not by any primrose path of dalliance. He has fought his way to his distinction. He has given and received blows from foes and friends alike without sparing himself or sparing others, always aiming at a definite goal, and any man with such fixity of purpose and with his ability behind it is sure to achieve success. I remember very well when he came here, and how our attention was soon attracted by the very young man who persisted in putting such searching and often embarrassing questions to members of the appropriating committees. He showed such knowledge of the subjects he discussed, such assur- ance of his parliamentary rights, and such determination to assert and defend them that before long he convinced the leaders that it was much better to have him inside the Committee on Appropriations defending than outside attacking. [Laughter and applause.] So he literally fought his way by his own sheer ability onto that important committee. I have served with him as chairman of sub- 8 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD committees of which he was a member and as member of subcommittees of which he was chairman. We have often differed strenuously, but I have never had occasion even to suspect any unworthy motive on his part. [Ap- plause.] As chairman of the committee he has upheld the tra- ditional policy of that office. He always had an instinctive hostility, or at least antagonism, to the executive repre- sentatives who came before us for appropriations. He has felt that he was the guardian of the public purse, that anybody who wanted money from the committee must show cause, must prove by reliable evidence that he was entitled to the appropriation. That has always been characteristic, as far as my experience dates, of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and I think it is his proper attitude as representing the privileges and duties of the House. I recall many instances of new officials coming before the committee with the apparent expectation that they had only to state their needs in order to have them granted, and their discomfiture was ludicrous when they found out that their request counted for little or nothing, but that they must show the funda- mental reasons for their requests and that not upon their opinions, but upon the facts on which that opinion was based. Mr. Fitzgerald was peculiarly well equipped for the chairmanship by his strong, penetrating intellect, his unflagging pertinacious industry, and his remarkable power of grasping and retaining enormous details, and, as you know, in this House he made himself powerful and formidable by his pungent speech, his dauntless courage and his unquestioned sincerity, and his resource- PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 9 ful ingenuity. The same qualities which have won his eminence here and in the committee insure prominence in the profession to which he is now returning, and I know that we all with full hearts wish him that ample success and happiness to which his talents and character entitle him. [Loud applause.] Mr. Sherley. Mr. Chairman, 10 years ago I became a member of the Committee on Appropriations and it was my good fortune to be assigned to two subcommittees upon which were then my friend and colleague, the dis- tinguished gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald]. From that time to this we have been associated together not only in full committee but in the subcommittee work that comes as a result of the various divisions of the work of that committee. And therefore, perhaps more than almost any man in the House, it has been my good fortune to be in constant and intimate association with him. Certainly no man in the House is as conscious as I am of the loss that the House will suffer when he retires from it, because none have been in a position to so fully realize the work that he has done and the work that he is laying down. No exaggeration is possible of the great debt that the country owes to him. Popularity is gained in many ways in the House and in the country, but the esteem and respect of the House is only gained in one way, and that is by loyalty and devotion to duty and the industry and courage that justifies faith on the part of one's colleagues. And I know of no better thing that a man can carry away from this place of harsh conflicts, of extreme rivalries, of ambitions that conflict, a place which has sometimes been described as a "bear pit," than not simply the liking of your colleagues but the .35483°— H. Doc. 805, 65-2 2 10 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD respect and admiration of them. [Applause.] No man who ever knew John Fitzgerald but what has always accorded to him all those attributes that go to make real states- manship. I have seen him under peculiar trials not only in committee but in party relationships. There have been times in his career when his viewpoint did not coincide with that of a majority of his party colleagues. Nothing is more difficult than differing with your party associates. Nothing so tests the fiber and the fine courage of men as that. I have seen him meet that test, knowing that in taking the position he did he was sacrificing some friendships and that he was doing the then unpopular thing. But I knew then, and his colleagues all know now, that whenever he took that position it was not with the desire to differ but because of a compelling sense of duty and obligation. And he always justified from his view- point that position by the reasons that he advanced and the motives which prompted him in it. He is not only leaving behind him a reputation as a very great chairman of one of the most difficult committees in Congress, but he goes out of Congress with perhaps a more intimate knowledge of the Government of the United States and a more technical knowledge of the rules that control this body than any man now in public life. He is not only a parliamentarian who knows the rules but he is one of those more rare people who knows the reason for the rules. And in this day of misjudgment of rules, of criticism by the thoughtless, the unthinking, it is worth while to have in Congress a man who can justify the procedure here because of a knowledge of the reason for that procedure. And so we lose not only a man whom we all admire and many love but we lose one who has been to the country PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES of distinct service, who has justified and ennobled service in the Congress of the United States. [Loud applause.] Mr. Cannon. Mr. Chairman, perhaps I could most eloquently say what I desire to say, and then sit down, by indorsing the letter of Representative Mann and the remarks of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Gil- lett] and of the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Sherley]. I most heartily indorse all that has been said, and better said, I presume, than I could say it, and yet I will add a little thereto. The Committee on Appropriations was formed 65 years ago. Prior to that time the Committee on Ways and Means not only reported the bills to raise the revenue but also reported the bills to put the money on the wheel — to appropriate the revenue. The first chairman of that committee was Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania. His service was for about three years. My recollection is that he died during his service as chairman in 1869. Many distinguished, many great men have served as chairmen of that committee. I have the names here. They are Thaddeus Stevens; Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, whose term was short; Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts; James A. Garfield, of Ohio; Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania; J. D. C. Atkins, of Tennessee; Frank Hiscock, of New York; and then myself, of Illinois [applause]; William S. Holman, of Indiana; Joseph D. Sayers, of Texas [applause]; James A. Hemenway, of Indi- ana; James A. Tawney, of Minnesota; and John J. Fitz- gerald, of New York. [Applause.] Since the creation of that committee in 1865 up to the present time many things have happened. The population of the country has increased by threefold. The Union 12 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD Pacific and the Central Pacific were the first railways across the desert, tunneling the mountains to reach the Golden Gate; but since then they have been followed by I know not how many, but I think I can say from 10 to 15 transcontinental railroads have been constructed since that time. The population, as I have already said, has increased by threefold plus. There have been stormy periods in this House and the country since that time. Partisanship, earnest, at times ferocious, and necessarily so. This is a Government under the Constitution, the fixed law, by the will of the majority, as manifested at the ballot box from time to time. Some things have been done by the party of which I am a member and some by the party that the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald] is a member in that time, but, so far as I am concerned, would have been left undone if I had had my way about it. And sometimes, perhaps, I would have preferred to dwell in a recollection a different result. I do not know how many men have served in the House of Representatives since I became a Member, but several thousand. My honored friend here, Gen. Sherwood, and I entered Congress together. [Applause.] I believe we two, with Mr. Hazelton, of Wisconsin, are the surviving Members. I am not speaking of myself, but these men who have been chairmen of this committee, whose names I have read, have nearly all crossed over. Nearly all of them were giants intellectually, and they were partisans. I have no defense to make or excuse to make for partisans. Great Heavens ! If we all belonged to one party and were wishy-washy; if we were cowardly and all belonged to one party, God help the poor devil, you know, PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 13 if there happened to be one anywhere in the country, that disagreed with us. [Applause.] Some time, perhaps, before I die, I may have a little more time to speak of the rules of the House of Representatives, of the mistakes that we have made from time to time, and of the consequences of those mistakes. Something in the not distant future will have to be changed, whichever party may be in power, touching our procedure. With the bill pending, however, it is not the proper time and it is not expected of me to enter upon that matter. Of those great men that I have spoken of who have crossed over — and nearly all of them have crossed to the other side, although Mr. Tawney and Mr. Hemenway and Mr. Sayers are still living — there were men who had more notoriety than the gentleman from New York who is about to retire to private life. I have known them all since 1873, and have served with them all, from the practical as well as from the intellectual standpoint. While some of them have held great positions — Mr. Garfield became Presi- dent — and made great reputations, I want to say, and I say it without reservation, that the gentleman from New York who is about to retire as chairman of that committee has been equal in his service and in his ability to guard the Public Treasury, not ignorantly but wisely; he has been equal to any of them. [Applause.] Think of it! Since war was declared in April last the committee over which he has presided, and of which I am a member, has been almost constantly in session through the day and frequently at night, and has recommended appropriations and authorized contracts for appropriations in round number aggregating $20,000,000,000. The hear- ings thereon, in tolerably fine print, stacked up, I presume 14 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD would just about be covered by my two hands, held 2 feet apart; and I want to say that in my judgment there has been nothing appropriated or authorized to be met by contracts under future appropriations that did not meet his approval and that of his committee, including myself. By means of the investigations incident to the preparation of those bills I think I am within the bounds of truth when I say there were $2,000,000,000 left unappropriated or unauthorized, without any harm to the public service. I exceedingly regret the departure of the gentleman from New York. I wish there were some way — there is none, however; but I have frequently wished it, and I wish it now more than I ever did — by which adequate compensa- tion could be made for him for the support and main- tenance of his wife and the care of his children pending his service in the House of Representatives. I met the children once when they were younger; the children were little bits of lads and lasses from 3 feet high down. [Laughter.] He leaves Congress, he tells us, in justice to his family. I wish it were possible that at least during this great emergency, during this great war to which we are committed — committed by the appropriation of treasure, committed by proper legislation, committed for service across the sea — that it had been possible for him to have remained as a Member of this House and as chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. [Prolonged applause.] Mr. Kitchin. Mr. Chairman, when I first saw the announcement that the gentleman from New York had decided to resign as a Member of the House, I said that the House and the country could better afford to lose any other Member than John J. Fitzgerald. [Applause.] In this crisis of our country the House and the Nation PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 15 need his counsel, his wisdom, his judgment, his integrity, his courage. In all these virtues no man in this body is his superior. We have many able and wise and diligent Representatives here, men who faithfully represent and serve their con- stituents; but to how many of us could the term statesman properly apply? Fitzgerald comes as near measuring up from every view to the standard of statesmanship as any man in this Capitol. [Applause.] As a Member of the House he has given the country — the entire country — 19 years of faith- ful, honorable, and effective service. His record stands to justify our high estimate of him. We know him. We associate with him daily. We esteem and admire him, and more, we love him. He has our respect and our con- fidence. As a man, we know Fitzgerald to be brave and loyal and truthful. He has never turned his back upon friend or foe. I sometimes fear that too many of our colleagues set up as the true measure of service here the amount of money which they can filch out of the Treasury into their districts and States for creeks or rivers or public buildings or the like. Fitzgerald's idea — and effort — has been to keep the money in the Treasury and not take it out except for the country's needs. I have known him to oppose appropriations that he knew would endanger his popularity at home. With respect to every question or measure he asked not "Will it pay? Will it help me?" but only "Is it right? Will it help my Government and the country?" There have been many eminent men chairmen of the Committee on Appropriations in the last half century. 16 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD Their names have been recalled in your presence by the distinguished ex-Speaker, Mr. Cannon. In my judgment, the three who loom out preeminently for their distinguished services as chairmen of that great committee are Holman, Cannon, and Fitzgerald. [Applause.] Mr. Chairman, I but reflect that which is in the heart of the entire membership of the House in expressing profound regret that our beloved comrade in service here feels it his duty to separate from us, and in extending to him the best wishes for a long life and for an abundance of success and happiness. [Prolonged applause.] Mr. Madden. Mr. Chairman, when I came to Congress my first assignment was to the Committee on Appropria- tions, and in my capacity as a member of that committee I had the privilege of serving on a subcommittee with the distinguished gentleman from New York. During that service I learned to realize his incorrupti- bility, his interest in the public welfare, his disinterested devotion to duty. During all of my service and intimate relationship with him in committee work I never knew him to cast a vote upon any question with any idea in mind as to how it would affect him politically. His interest was the public interest. His devotion to the public service is equal to that of any man I have ever known in public life. He has ability, which has been displayed upon the floor of this House on many occasions, courage beyond that of most men, singleness of purpose that no one can question. He has earned the right to the confidence of the American people. He has earned the gratitude of the Government, if there be such a thing as gratitude in the Government. He lives a clean life; his character has been above reproach; he stands among the great public servants in America PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1 7 [applause], and I know of no title that can be conferred upon any American greater than that of a worthy public servant. [Applause.] It is unfortunate that the Government has not the power, or if it has the power, not the desire, to retain a man of his ability in public office. If he were employed by a private corporation and had performed the service for that corpora- tion which he has performed for the Government of the United States, he would not be permitted to leave the service, no matter at what price; they would retain him. You could not employ the services of a man like John Fitzgerald for $50,000 a year. The service he has rendered to the Government is above price. I regret to see him leave this body, for he has displayed an unselfish devotion to public duty and an ability that justifies not only the confidence of his associates but the gratitude of the American people. And now that he finds himself forced to leave public life in order that he may provide for his growing family when he shall have passed away he takes with him from this body the confidence, the respect, and the love and devotion of every Member of the House. I shall always remember my association with him as one of the pleasantest parts of my official life, and I wish him Godspeed in the business upon which he is about to enter and unbounded success wherever he may go and in whatever he may engage. [Applause.] Mr. Clark of Missouri. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I confess that this is a very painful occasion to me. I was not very much surprised when I heard that Mr. Fitzgerald was going to resign, but I was very much grieved. I do not know whether you have all observed it or not, but in the popular estimation the four great committees in this 18 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD House are Ways and Means, Judiciary, Appropriations, and Foreign Affairs. Actually the Members of the House know, that in addition to these two the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and the Post Office Committee are forcing themselves into that same class. These are the six committees that are always the greatest of our legislative committees. Occasionally some other committee becomes exceedingly prominent. It is a strange thing that during the seven years I have been Speaker of this House we have lost the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, the chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, and now we are about to lose the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. We have also lost the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, always an important committee, and during these troublous days one of the most important. Gen. James A. Garfield once said that there was no place on earth. where a man could reach his proper level more quickly than in the House of Representatives. The posi- tion that Mr. Fitzgerald has occupied for several years, being recognized as one of the very strongest men in this House, is an illustration of Garfield's proposition. In my time here several men have become authorities in this House on some one subject. Mr. Fitzgerald enjoys the peculiar distinction of having become an authority on two very difficult subjects, one of them finance and the other parliamentary law. Men do not achieve places of this kind unless they have brains in their heads, courage in their hearts, and a great deal of industry. There is a fable extant in this land that if the executive departments did not hold Congress in check we would PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 19 appropriate everything there is betwixt the two oceans. [Laughter.] Exactly the reverse of that is true. [Ap- plause.] The chairmen of the Appropriations Committee, the great ex-chairman and ex-Speaker [Mr. Cannon], and the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald], and those who have come in betwixt and between as chairmen of the Appropriations Committee, have waged a constant warfare with the executive departments of this Government to hold the appropriations within bounds. [Applause.] Generally, they have held the appropriations below the estimates of the executive departments. The newspapers of the country could not do a better thing than to reverse the tale they have been telling, and tell the exact truth as to appropriations. [Applause.] A good many of you men have come in here in recent years. The heads of departments got so in the habit of exceeding the appropriations that Mr. Fitzgerald and the rest of the men on the Appropriations Committee, after warning them four or five times, finally put a clause into an appro- priation bill making it a criminal offense for them to exceed the appropriations. I do not know that that has been referred to in any of these newspapers' excoriations of Congress. I will refer to it if nobody else does, and I have as good a right to speak for this House as any man living. [Applause.] When Fitzgerald first came here he was the youngest man in the House, and by assiduous industry and close attention to business, I have seen him go up year by year. I like to see these Members go up. It is one of the strangest things in the world to sit up here in the Speaker's stand, where you can see everybody in the House, and see men going up and men going down — ebbing and flowing. It is not always a steady march in one direction. 20 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD The resignation of Mr. Fitzgerald ought to be exploited all over this land as an illustration of one thing: Here he is, in the very prime of his splendid powers and flower of his years, going out of a body which he likes to serve in, one that he is especially adapted to serve in, giving up one of the greatest positions in the House, because he is so poor financially that he deems it his duty to his wife and children to give it up to make money enough for their proper uses, notwithstanding the fact that not only millions but billions of dollars have passed through his fingers during his service in this House, not one penny of which stuck to his palms. [Applause.] After a conspicuous career he de- parts from our midst poorer than when he came. I read a newspaper squib the other day — I do not know whether it was about Adamson or Fitzgerald; it was about one of them — which said that one Congressman had resigned, and that it was that much clear gain. Now, it is not clear gain for a seasoned Representative of approved ability to resign. It is a clear loss to the United States Government and to the American people. [Applause.] A man does not become a leading Congressman except by immense toil and great ability, and every Congressman who comes here, I do not care where he comes from or what he is, has to learn to be a Congressman, and the reputation that a man has outside of this House does him precious little good when he gets into this House. He must learn to be a Congressman just like a man learns to be a carpenter, a blacksmith, or anything of that sort. It is a great pity that the circumstances of the case force men like these chairmen I have named to quit their great offices and retire from public life when they have just learned how to be of most service, PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2 1 It is very lucky for Mr. Fitzgerald that he was put on the Committee on Appropriations. I asked Gov. Dingley once about service on committees, and he said that the ideal service would be to serve a while on Appropriations and learn to master details, then serve on Wavs and Means and learn the generalization of legislation. He was a success, and his words are worth quoting. These men who have been chairmen of the great Appro- priations Committee rank high in the estimation of mankind and in the history of the United States. They have rendered a great service. When I was first elected Speaker the newspapers said I was green as a gourd about parlia- mentary matters, and they did not overstate it. [Laughter.] I never had paid more attention to parliamentary law than any other man that had been as active in the House as I had, but you can not stay here 16 years without learning something about it. When I first came in I consulted privately quite a number of parliamentarians in the House. I wanted to make a good record. Mr. Fitz- gerald was one of those I always consulted. I might have had some hesitation about taking the opinion of a crack parliamentarian when he was engaged in a hot controversy on the floor of the House, but I had no sort of hesitation in taking the opinion of a crack parliamen- tarian in private when I asked his opinion. I wish that Mr. Fitzgerald could stay here. [Ap- plause.] I not only admire his shining talents but I entertain deep personal affection for him. Of course, we will get along, but to have an expert as he is in financial matters quit at such an exigency as this is in the affairs of this country is a pitiable comment on the rewards of politics. [Applause.] He had natural ability, but the 22 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD thine that stood him in the best stead in this House was o his persistent industry. He has achieved a great name, and the young Members — of course, they can not change the quantity of brains they have; some may have as much as he has and some may not have as much — but all of them can imitate Mr. Fitzgerald in the quality of his industry. [Applause.] The sweetest of all American poets said: The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night. Those words fit the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald] like a glove. [Applause.] Mr. Gillett. Mr. Chairman, I have used all the time in discussing the bill that I care to at present, and I wish the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald] would use some of his time. [Applause.] Mr. Fitzgerald. Mr. Chairman, no one could be other- wise than deeply affected by such a generous expression of sentiment toward my service in this House and its impend- ing termination. During a somewhat active career in this body many times some of my friends have been worried because of difficult situations in which I was involved, and they were somewhat perplexed as to how I should extricate myself. I honestly believe that this is the only time in my 19 years of service that I have been really' embarrassed and found it difficult to express myself. [Laughter and applause.] Indeed, if those gentlemen who have so generously spoken, instead of heaping so many golden words of kindness upon me, had savagely assailed my career, I could with much more enthusiasm, and PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 23 unquestionably with much more effectiveness, have responded to their addresses. [Laughter and applause.] It is not an easy thing to leave the House of Representa- tives, and I go with considerable regret. If I consulted only my personal preferences, or if I alone were involved, I should not go. Neither would I go at this time if I did not know that the work that I shall drop will be carried on by men as well qualified and as eminently fit to dis- charge the duties of the position which I shall relinquish. I might have left Congress at the end of the last Congress if it had not been for a statement by a good friend that I could not come back. [Laughter.] I was somewhat influenced at this time in quitting now lest, perchance, some other unfortunate utterance might compel me to make the one who made it demonstrate his ability to retire me from Congress. [Laughter and applause.] But I love this body ! I believe that it is the great bul- wark of our liberty, and upon its wise, intelligent, and courageous action depends the prosperity and the happi- ness of the American people. [Applause.] I had an early ambition to become a Member of it. Long before I left college I looked forward to the day when I might sit in it, and before I was graduated I had consid- erable familiarity with the rules of the House. During my service and for some years prior to it, I read every publica- tion to which I had access that treated of the history of the procedure and of the rules, not only of this body but of the Commons in England. I spent many nights in careful reading of what many consider the dry discussions had at different times when comprehensive changes in the rules of the House were proposed. Whoever knows the philos- ophy of the rules of this body and understands the under- 24 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD lying principles responsible for many of the rules can have but very little patience with outside agitation against this body for not making chaotic the transaction of public busi- ness by the adoption of many well-intended but ill-advised and impractical reforms. It is difficult for me to at all adequately express the sincere appreciation I have of the most generous expres- sions that have been uttered regarding my service. I know fully my own limitations and failings. They have been ignored, and such manifestations of friendship chain me more firmly to those who are so loyal in their affections. Early in my career in Congress I read a speech that made a deep impression upon me. Mr. James G. Blaine, in his matchless eulogy upon James A. Gar- field, delivered in this House, I believe, on February 27, 1884, said: There is no test of a man's ability in any department of public life more severe than service in the House of Representatives; there is no place where so little deference is paid to reputation previously acquired or to eminence won outside; there is no place where so little considera- tion is shown for the feelings or the failure of beginners. What a man gains in the House he gains by sheer force of his own character. If he loses and falls back he must expect no mercy and will receive no sym- pathy. It is a field in which the survival of the strongest is the recog- nized rule, and where no pretense can deceive and no glamour can mislead. The real man is discovered, his worth is impartially weighed, his rank is irreversibly decreed. I know this House is never deceived in men. It is generous at all times, but ever in its own estimation the place of Members is accurately fixed. I have tried in all my service, as far as it was possible for one to do — and I have the same human weaknesses that all other Members have — to do the thing that I believed was the best for the country regardless of its effect upon my own political fortunes. It has not been an easy road to travel. I made PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 25 up my mind early in my service that, regardless of how long I served in this body, when I left it I would go away with one satisfaction, and that was that I would have the knowledge that every act and every spoken word by me as a Member of this body would be my own act and not the act of anyone else, and that for everything I did I would myself be personally responsible. [Applause.] Gentlemen, I could not if I tried express in words the appreciation which I feel for this demonstration. I have been overwhelmed with kindly expressions in the few days since I announced that I was to retire at the end of the present month. If it were possible for me to remain I should not leave. But it is one of those inevitable things which men can not control. As I have already said, I love this body, and the work, although arduous, has been congenial. When I am outside I can look back with great satisfaction to my service here. I am going from public life forever. I am free to speak about some matters that other Members may be reluctant to discuss. The most unfortunate thing about the public is the willingness to believe evil of Members of this body. It seems incom- prehensible that men who at home are loved and esteemed and highly honored, as soon as they are elected to Con- gress seem to be regarded in an entirely different light by their constituents. Their every act is regarded with suspicion. One of the more recent manifestations, of which perhaps I can speak when others will not, is the pre- posterous notion that the salary of a Member of Congress can in any way be construed as containing excess profits which should be subject to a special tax. [Laughter.] I had at one time hoped that if a certain reform here were effected, I might be here to participate in it. I have repeatedly urged that all of the appropriation bills be 26 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD consolidated in one committee. When I had no thought of quitting this body I made the statement that I would willingly retire as head of the Committee on Appropria- tions and from the committee itself to bring about that reform. One of the objections is that it would give great power to a small group of Members. It undoubtedly would do so. But this House needs to concentrate power and responsibility if it is to maintain its unique and un- rivaled position in our system of government. We have emasculated the speakership. That office, which de- rives its name from the fact that its occupant was the chosen spokesman of the Commons to present to the King the grievances of the people and demanded their redress before the Commons would make grants required by the Crown, has been so stripped of its power in this body that the Speaker is not the important and influential factor he should be in our system of government. We so diffuse our power that we do not exercise the influence in the affairs of the Government that the House should exercise. I am glad that the President has made this recommendation. I believe it is the most important reform that this House can adopt if the continual encroachments of the Executive upon the power of the House and the rights of individual Members is to be checked. Mr. Chairman, I am a member of a commission to re- construct the Hall of the House of Representatives. I shall resign from that commission, for under the law I would continue a member of it even after I resigned from Congress. I intend to resign from it, because, in my opinion, if that work is ever done it should be done under the control of Members of the House itself. At one time it looked as if the reconstruction might take place, and I PROCEEDINGS IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 27 had studied carefully the plans in the hope to find an appropriate place where they would always impress not only the Members of this body, but those who visit this Chamber, the words of a very distinguished British states- man, Edmund Burke, which accurately picture the rela- tionship and duty of a representative. In a speech to his constituents at Bristol on November 4, 1774, he said: It should be the glory, as well as the honor, of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, the most unre- served communication with his constituents. Their wishes should at all times have great weight with him, their opinions high respect, their business unremitted attention. But his mature opinion, his unbiased judgment, his enlightened conscience he should not surrender to you, nor to any man, nor to any set of men living. These he does not derive from you, nor from the law, nor from the constitution. They are a gift from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply responsible. Your representative owes you not only his industry, but his judgment, and he is betraying instead of serving you when he sacrifices that judg- ment to the opinions of another. Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that Edmund Burke in those immortal words has pictured for members of a rep- resentative body the true measure of their conduct. It requires courage to exercise judgment, it requires courage not to subordinate judgment to the opinions of others. Yet the whole course of this Government and the safety and the happiness and the prosperity of the people of the United States depend not only upon the intelligence of Members of Congress, but, much more, upon the courage with which they exercise their own unbiased judgment. [Applause.] I wish to say that in going from this body I go with the highest opinion of its Members, of their integrity, of their industry, and of their patriotism. During my service here I have been in many, many bitter controversies. I have hit hard and I have taken hard blows in return, but 28 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD I never carried from the floor of the House any feeling of antagonism whatever toward the Members with whom I had been engaged in controversy. I discharged on the floor of this House my duties as a Member of the House according to my best lights, and when I left this Chamber I left here all acrimony, partisanship, and bitterness. I rejoice in the fact that in leaving this body I go, as I believe, with the same friendship and good will which I entertain for every individual Member of it. [Applause.] I shall carry away and cherish the many, many pleasant associations of my service, and they shall not be crowded out by other occupations. I have served the best part of my life in this body. Its Members have uniformly been kind and more patient than I had reason to expect. They have been tolerant when my views differed from the majority: they have frequently given me loyal and unstinted support in many difficult controversies. I wish to express my thanks and appreciation for the innumerable expressions of esteem and friendship and for the unques- tioned loyalty and assistance that have been so liberally accorded to me by Members here regardless of party, and I assure the House that this day will be recalled with reverent affection till the end of my life. [Loud ap- plause.] Proceedings in House of Representatives, December if, IQI? NOTICE OF RESIGNATION The Speaker laid before the House the following notice of resignation: To the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Sir: I have to-day transmitted to the governor of the State of New York my resignation as a Representative in the Congress of the United States from the seventh district of New York, to take effect December 31,1917. . Respectfully, yours, John J. Fitzgerald. * . * * * * Mr. Cannon. Mr. Speaker, on Queen Victoria's fiftieth birthday Tennyson, the poet laureate, said: Saxon or Dane or Norman we, Teuton or Celt, or whatever be, We are each all Dane in our welcome of thee. I am charged, as the agent of the House of Representa- tives, to state that within the last hour the Members have expressed a unanimous desire upon their part to extend a memorial to our departing friend in public life, the Hon. John J. Fitzgerald, a memento for him to take with him of our love and respect, to the amount, when selected, of a thousand dollars. [Applause.] I can suggest to him that — Democrats, Republicans, Progressives are we, But we all unite in our love for thee. We love him as a man and as a legislator. [Applause.] One thing further. The leader of the minority, who has the respect of every man in this House, is sick at [29] 30 RETIREMENT OF HON. JOHN J. FITZGERALD Johns Hopkins Hospital, and we have also concluded to send to him on Christmas morning; a floral tribute of our love and respect for him. [Applause.] Mr. Webb. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Fitzgerald]. Mr. Fitzgerald. Mr. Speaker, I do not desire the Record to indicate that I had not expressed my over- whelming gratitude for this addition to the innumerable favors I have received from my colleagues in the House. I wish to express to them my sincere thanks for this added manifestation of their kindness. [Applause.] Gaylord Bros. Maker*