breadth of the land as his mellifluous tones and flowing mane graced thousands of television programs and news pictures. But he was known the length and breadth of Congress, too, not for these caricatures but as a hard working, professional politician and warm, generous friend. He was a professional in every sense of the word and his word was professional in that it was never a thing given lightly. Mr. Speaker, the people of Illinois and the U.S. Congress will miss EVERETT DIRKSEN as will his many friends. To his dear wife and family I extend the Rooneys' deepest sympathy and prayers.

ADDRESS BY HON. JOHN M. ASHBROOK

OF OHIO

Mr. Speaker, in recent years the late Senator EVERETT DIRKSEN was identified with a number of issues of national importance. I. would hazard a guess that if the Senator were to be remembered for any one issue dear to his heart, he would have chosen the subject of prayer in the public schools as the issue which he would have liked to have seen resolved. For those who are not familiar with the wording of Senator DIRKSEN's constitutional amendment "with respect to the offering of prayer in public buildings," Senate Joint Resolution 6, the text is as follows:

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 6

Joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States with respect to the offering of prayer in public buildings

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is hereby proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:

"SECTION 1. Nothing contained in this Constitution shall abridge the right of persons lawfully assembled, in any public building which is supported in

whole or in part through the expenditure of public funds, to participate in nondenominational prayer.

"SEC. 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress."

The need for a classification of the school prayer issue was recently illustrated by a situation which has developed in Netcong, N.J., where a board of education regulation provided for 30 seconds of "voluntary, silent meditation." Protests were forthcoming from the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the former mayor of Netcong in which they charge a violation of existing laws.

The religious news editor of the Washington Star, William Willoughby, in his column, "Washington Perspective," of September 13 gave us an excellent explanation of why Senator DIRKSEN could not help but be involved in the school prayer issue. The thorough and deep-seated religious training which was an intimate part of his youth and which never left him through all of his illustrious public life would not allow Senator DIRKSEN to ignore the judicial restrictions placed upon the time-honored custom of American youth speaking to divine providence in their school assemblies.

When our schoolchildren are permitted once again to send heavenward their spiritual salutations, so pleasing to our Creator, no little credit should be given to the late Senator from Illinois whose religiously-oriented youth knew not the shackles which silence today this Nation's youth.

I insert at this point the above-mentioned column by William Willoughby in the Record:

DIRKSEN PRAYER BILL-DEVILISH PLAN FELL SHORT

(By William Willoughby)

"I don't know all the details yet, but it's going to be devilish," the deep, deliberately theatrical voice declared. Behind the voice was the unmistakable, earthy, impish look in the eyes of Sen. Everett Dirksen—the kind of look he got when he was dead serious about something.

That was about four years ago following a meeting of Sigma Delta Chi, the journalists' fraternity. He was speaking of his intentions to push a prayer amendment through Congress. He wasn't at all pleased that some time-honored

practices in the public schools had been altered by the Supreme Court or by what school officials thought the Supreme Court said.

The Illinois legislator who grew out of a childhood background in the Christian Endeavor movement and the grooming of a mother who took her religion very seriously, had lots of "devilment" in him, as any of his legislative friends and foes readily recognized. At one time he had almost enough of it in him to pull the stunt off.

In September, three years ago, DIRKSEN came within six or seven votes of getting enough strength to get his prayer amendment past one of its many big hurdles. Considerably more than half the senators voted in favor of his measure, but in an effort to amend the Constitution, a two-thirds vote is required, and he lost the whole ball game.

Devilish? At one point he tacked his bill onto a measure that probably had more backers than his prayer amendment—a bill to recognize National Baseball Week. At another time he tried tacking it onto a bill recognizing the UNESCO fund-you know, where the little goblins go out trick or treating, only instead, they collect pennies for the aid of the hungry children overseas. Now that DIRKSEN is dead and buried in Pekin, his Illinois homeland, there is a groundswell among those who still believe a prayer amendment is needed. Back-to-God movements headed by Harvard graduate Rufus Webb in Maryland, Dr. and Mrs. L. H. Blevins in Virginia and Mrs. Bennett G. Miller in the District are pressing Congress to pass S.J. 6 as a memorial to the legislator. Similar appeals are coming from across the nation.

"The anti-poverty bills were passed as a memorial to President Kennedy; the civil rights bills as a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, why not the prayer amendment as a memorial to Sen. DIRKSEN?" Mrs. Miller reasoned. DIRKSEN was dead serious about prayer. No one ever shook him from his belief that, while on bended knee on a train enroute to Baltimore where he was to have an eye removed, God answered his prayer on the spot and healed his eye.

Imagine the surprise when DIRKSEN went up to the doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital and said: "Doctor, I have decided not to have the operation.” "Why did you come here?" the doctor queried.

"I came because other doctors said I should come and see you. But you see, Doctor, I found another doctor."

"Impossible," the doctor said, knowing DIRKSEN could not have had such an encounter. "You couldn't have."

"But I did . . . He's the Big Doctor way upstairs," DIRKSEN said in the way few except maybe Al Jolson could have imitated.

That was 21 years ago, when it looked as if the political sun was going to set on him in Pekin. But to the end, he declared that eye was his better

one.

In the last article he ever prepared for publication, in this month's Guideposts magazine, DIRKSEN said he had plenty of opportunity to learn to pray when he was a balloonist during World War I with the United States Army in France.

During service in the "suicide squad" he said, "I can honestly say that I was devoid of fear because of the presence of the Almighty. I knew He was there..."

When he was a kid back in Pekin his mother made him promise not to become an actor-he had been flirting with the idea. She thought acting was an evil profession and that he should have no part in it.

But who will question that he did not heed his mother's advice? Some of the real color has gone from Congress with his departure. He knew the tricks of the acting profession well.

DIRKSEN Saw Washington as the stage where another act was being performed by God.

"I have found the nation's capital to be an incredibly interesting place. It is where history unfolds and discloses a divine pattern if we will only look for it.

"I believe it must be in accordance with His plan. For if there is a creative hand behind this universe, there must be that same creative hand to shape the unfolding and give direction to this good land."

Curtain call has come for DIRKSEN. Wouldn't it somehow be just a bit "devilish" if a prayer amendment became the final accolade?

ADDRESS BY HON. WILLIAM T. MURPHY

OF ILLINOIS

Mr. Speaker, I wish to join my colleagues in paying tribute to the late EVERETT M. DIRKSEN, the former senior Senator from the State of Illinois.

Senator DIRKSEN will long be remembered for his dedicated and diligent service to his party, his State and to the Nation. The public knew EVERETT DIRKSEN as a colorful personality and an eloquent orator. In Congress, however, this skilled legislator was admired for his sound grasp of the role of the legislative process in a democratic government. Senator DIRKSEN was firmly partisan when partisanship was appropriate, but could be thoroughly statesmanlike when the best interests of the Nation demanded it.

Mrs. Murphy joins me in expressing our regrets and extending our prayers to Mrs. Dirksen and to the family in their bereavement.

ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT C. MCEWEN

OF NEW YORK

Mr. Speaker, the death of Senator EVERETT MCKINLEY DIRKSEN was a great shock and loss to all of us in Congress, just as it was for all Americans. He was a colorful public figure and a skillful legislator.

Alan S. Emory, distinguished Washington correspondent of the Watertown, N.Y., Daily Times; the Palladium Times of OswegoFulton, N.Y.; and the Schenectady, N.Y., Gazette, has written a column catching the spirit and colorful personality of the man. I would like to share it with you.

The column follows:

FROM WASHINGTON: HIS ABILITY TO LAUGH AT HIMSELF MADE DIRKSEN A CAPITAL FAVORITE

(By Alan S. Emory)

"DEAR ALAN," the note began, "I will try to quit falling out of beds or doing other mischievous things that will absent me from those delightful gallery meetings week after week. To me they are as a tonic and I hope the gallery gods may find a little stimulus themselves."

You'd better believe it. The note was from Everett McKinley Dirksen, and no one will miss the supremely colorful, marvelously funny Senator from Illinois more than the members of the press. DIRKSEN'S Tuesday afternoon seances with newsmen- -his "gallery gods"-perched atop a press release table, sipping coffee from a paper container and bumming cigarets from reporters, were classics of their type.

In 1965, from a hospital room, DIRKSEN wrote me, "How good it will be to get back and especially to return to the press gallery and sit cross-legged on my accustomed table and carry on the thrust and parry which is always a delightful exercise with the Fourth Estate."

It was DIRKSEN's wonderful ability to laugh at himself that made him such a favorite in the capital. Once he declared, "Far be it from me to pass judgment on my frail fellow-mortals. We all have frailties and foibles, and this includes your humble servant sitting on the table."

One of his favorite stories was-illustrating the exact meaning of words— about how Mrs. Noah Webster found her husband kissing the maid and declared, "I'm surprised, Noah!" "No, my dear," Webster replied. "You are astonished. I am surprised."