Remarks at a Dinner Honoring John W. McCormack, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Reverend clergy, Mrs. McCormack, Speaker McCormack, Members of Congress, all friends of John McCormack, ladies and gentlemen:

Speaker McCormack came to the House of Representatives 39 years ago. He is now serving his 20th term. If ever an American could say with pride that his life has been devoted to the creative use of politics, that American is John W. McCormack.

It is very easy to scorn politics from outside the arena. Sometimes I have envied those whose occupations will permit them to do so.

But for more than 30 years I have been inside the arena myself. And all that time I have been in there with John McCormack and I felt very comfortable to be by his side.

I have been accorded the very great privilege of working with the distinguished Speaker as he and the Congress and a series of Presidents have attempted to make a miracle and to make the world in which we live a better and more peaceful place to live in.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives occupies the very unique position in the American way of government. When he is committed to progress, when he is endowed with compassion, when he understands the qualities of leadership, then things can and do happen in America. When he is not, then all the king's horses and all the President's horses as well can't make any headway.

During most of these last three decades America has been served by two men as Speaker who have shown just what can be done in the arena of politics--Sam Rayburn and John W. McCormack.

What Sam Rayburn did, and what John McCormack continues to do, show what politics in America is really all about.

Look at the record just over the past 22 years since World War II alone--the Marshall Plan, NATO, highway construction, the space program, food for peace, the GI bill, civil rights measures, the Alliance for Progress, the Peace Corps, aid to education, Medicare, the war on poverty. That is what politics is. That is what politics does. That is the living memorial and the living record of John W. McCormack of Massachusetts.

So I say to you, all of you, his dear friends who have gathered here tonight, I say let them all remember that name when they write about politics in America. Let them remember that America and Boston and Massachusetts were elevated and were enriched by John McCormack because he understood and he understands how to make politics serve the average man better and how to make politics serve the best interest of the land he loves.

Every person in this hall tonight is to be commended for finally getting the Speaker to come here and sit still for some praise. And not just praise but for some homage.

I can't think of a man in America, and I don't know a man in America, that I think deserves that praise or that homage more than our beloved friend, John McCormack.

Mr. Speaker, I haven't had my dinner yet. Mrs. Johnson went to an art show and I was having one of my own all day, but when I got an invitation to this dinner--and if I hadn't received one I would have written myself one--I wanted to come here, in all these bright lights at this lovely affair, and tell you in the presence of all those who love you so much, how much you and Mrs. McCormack have meant to me.

Incidentally, there are just five of you who were here when I first came. There are just 20 of you that are here out of the 535 when I first came as a Congressman in 1937.

As a young Congressman, as whip, as minority leader, as majority leader, as Vice President, and finally as President, there has been no person in this room or in this Capital tonight who has been more devoted, who has been more loyal, who has been more courageous under fire, and who has been more compassionate for his fellow man than you have.

To Mrs. McCormack, that wonderful, lovely, great human being, who has been your helpmate through the years, to the entire Massachusetts delegation, who with Mrs. McCormack helps you do your homework, I want to say:

We are grateful. We are appreciative. All America loves you. I am honored and happy that I could come your way and enjoy your friendship and participate in your achievements.