Remarks by Representative Kee Of West Virginia Mrs. KEE. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in paying tribute to the late Senator MATTHEW M. NEELY whose death on Saturday brought great sorrow here and in his home State of West Virginia. MATTHEW NEELY will be sadly missed. His long years of distinguished service in the United States Senate, in the House of Representatives, and as Governor of the great State of West Virginia were spent in rendering outstanding assistance to the people he so ably represented. Senator NEELY had great ability. He was a dedicated public servant. His courage and devotion to duty brought him the respect and love of all who had the privilege of knowing him personally. Mr. Speaker, the United States Senate has lost one of its finest Members. West Virginians have lost a wonderful friend, and Senator NEELY's family has lost a devoted husband and father. I join my colleagues in extending deepest sympathy to the family of this great American. Remarks by Representative Neal Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, one of West Virginia's foremost public figures passed away on Saturday morning. He was the Honorable MATTHEW MANSFIELD NEELY, senior Senator from West Virginia, who had served one of the longest continuing tenures in the upper House. He was steadfast and in his convictions had the courage of a lion in public and private life. Although there were many who did not agree with the causes he espoused, it was with admiration that these dissenters viewed his forthright stand on matters of public con cern. His long career had embraced service in both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate as well as a term as Governor of our mutual home State. This long course of public service began in 1911 when he served as clerk of the house of delegates in the West Virginia Legislature. Thereafter, there were only a bare handful of years when he was not in some position of public trust and honor. Members of the West Virginia delegation in this House, I am certain, feel a great sense of personal loss. I, for one, am grateful in the remembrance of his kind advice and counsel in a great many personal ways during my first term here in the 83d Congress. While we were of opposite political faiths and philosophies, we shared a community of interest in seeing to it that the welfare of West Virginia and the United States was advanced at every opportunity. While his last illness had prevented him from leaving any great imprint on the affairs of the Senate for 2 years, it is the prior period of his vigor and activity that will make him long remembered by his colleagues, friends, and fellow West Virginians. He championed many causes and will be recorded by history as one of those to be found in the forefront of any valid liberal cause. I know that his family, especially Mrs. Neely with whom Mrs. Neal and I are old friends, will feel his loss keenly. He will be mourned by a wide and varied acquaintanceship. He was cast in a mold which has no duplicate either here or elsewhere. The people of West Virginia have truly lost a great defender of their fundamental rights and liberties. Remarks by Representative Staggers Of West Virginia Mr. STAGGERS. Mr. Speaker, my family and I mourn the loss of a good friend-the late senior Senator of West Virginia, MATTHEW MANSFIELD NEELY, and extend our heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Neely and her sons and daughter. Long have been the years of admiration and respect I have had for this great West Virginia liberal who championed the causes of labor and advanced the progress of our beloved Mountain State. I recall a time when I was quite a young lad that my father, Jacob Staggers, with great admiration, asked the distinguished Mr. NEELY to shake hands with me. I remember well the straight figure, the penetrating eyes, and the friendly smile-characteristics that identified MATTHEW NEELY wherever he went. From that time since, MATTHEW NEELY has impressed me with his great energy, self-reliance, straightforwardness, and his armor of sureness. I often wondered if at any time he felt that he might be wrong, or maybe just a little mistaken. But I never found an answer to that feeling-always he seemed to be so sure. Although many times we did not agree, I say here with deepest respect and gratitude that I knew Senator NEELY as a friend, as a leader of the Democratic Party of West Virginia, as a representative of the State of West Virginia in the Charleston executive mansion, in the House of Representatives, and in the Senate of the United States. As he progressed up the ladder of fame, he never failed to keep a lifeline open between himself and the people back home. Knowing and loving people was his greatest possession. MATTHEW NEELY has now vacated the Democratic leadership in West Virginia, but he has left behind a store of wisdom and hard facts which will be useful and fruitful to his successors. I shall long remember our campaigns together and the sound advice he freely gave me and other younger candidates. There is no doubt that he was a champion and loved the fury of a political fight. He was a man of mental superiority and great physical endurance, yet he was a man of meekness and gentleness too. MATT NEELY read his Bible with the zest and eagerness of a disciple, and for every occasion and situation he could quote an applicable verse from the Scriptures. Gentle and warm were his accounts of childhood days in West Virginia, and subsequent years of teaching the boys and girls in a hillside schoolhouse. Appropriately writes Bill Hart, one of Senator NEELY'S lifelong friends and editor of the Dominion News, Morgantown, W. Va., in his January 20 column, It May Interest You: What made NEELY great? What caused him to stand out above all his contemporaries for nearly 50 years? There will be many explanations, here are ours: First and foremost was his courage; then his ability; third, his complete confidence in himself to do any task he set; fourth, his genuine desire to know people; fifth, his memory; sixth, his poise; seventh, careful attention to his health; eighth, his deep religious convictions; ninth, an uncanny knack of doing the right thing at the right time in politics; tenth, past master at judging people; eleventh, adroitness in not being maneuvered into any commitment or situation he did not desire to be, and the latter, undoubtedly caused him to have many political enemies. |