Speech #880050224

As chairman of the UnAmerican Activities Committee he wielded tremendous powers over the lives and reputations of our citizenry who were subpenaed as witnesses under subversive charges. In this delicate operation he was subjected to the most caustic criticism ever leveled against a public servant. As chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Matters again he received the critical lambastings of ethnic groups who questioned the quota limitations of the McCarranWalter Act affecting their respective groups. Yet. in recent years "TAD." as he was affectionately called by his intimates. had not only improved procedure both in the field of investigation and the conduct of hearings. but he also tightened the rules of the admissibility of evidence. He was conscious of the purposes of the committee and perfected its aims as the strongest disciplinary arm of Government operating for the security of the Nation against their persons and subversive programs to undermine our Government. Yet in spite of a burning patriotism to destroy these activities by official exposure to the publiche controlled his feelings and conducted these hearings in a cold impervious way protecting the rights of witnesses and with analytical judgment enforced the rules of procedure as a court of inquiry. After the passage of the McCarranWalter Act he continued the study of the immigrant question which resulted in a new appraisal of certain levels in the immigration problem. He pioneered the liberalizing of these immigration limitations by the passage of bills permitting the unification of families. the entry of adopted orphans. and he made it possible for thousands to join their kin. His legislation to permit the entry of trained artisan immigrants whose talents as marble and stone men and tailors and so forth were needed by industry was a contribution to the economy. His parliamentary astuteness as chairman of the party caucus. of the whole House. or on the floor went unquestioned. We of the Illinois delegation regret his great loss to the Congress. the citizens of the Nation and the State of Pennsylvania of a most distinguished statesman. lawyer. and patriot.