Speech #930001020

I came to know and love Maurice Thatcher as a man of great compassion. understanding. and humaneness. He worked indefatigably. even through his 10th decade of life. in behalf of the thinning ranks of men and women who had risked their lives and health working in the Canal Zone during the years when the canal was being constructed. He was the spokesman for the Roosevelt Medal holders and also. in numerous ways. for the West Indian and other noncitizen construction workers who had been recruited for the hard tasks of building the great waterway which linked the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for the benefit of world commerce. He came to see me often to urge congressional action in behalf of the aged and often impoverished veterans of the canal construction period. and he was a most persuasive advocate in a humane cause. Mr.