Columbus Day is very properly a day of great pride for all Americans of Italian descent. for it is their ancestor. Christopher Columbus. who is being honored as the first to cross the Atlantic and set foot on a New World that was later to become a home for millions of Italians as well as for other people from all across the Old World. In recommending adoption of the Monday Holiday bill in 1968. the Senate Judiciary Committee noted that the observance of Columbus Day as a new national holiday would be an appropriate means of recognizing the United States as a "nation of immigrants." Also it would honor the courage and the spirit. and the great contributions which generation after generation of immigrants from Italy have been able to bring to the land which had been discovered by Columbus and which has become their adopted home. And so it is most appropriate that we should take this time in the House today to note the first observance of Columbus Day as a national holiday. and. as always on Columbus Day. to honor all Americans of Italian extraction. Those courageous men and women not only followed Columbus across the ocean to discover America for themselves. but over the years they also played a major role in building that land into the worlds greatest nation andthey gave to it the special skills. the courage. the spirit. and the unique cultural gifts that for centuries have been so uniquely a part of the Italian heritage.
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