rendered and the masterful way in which he discharged every trust.

Patriotism is the crowning virtue. No life can be full and complete without recognition of the obligation which the citizen owes to his country and the loyalty which patriotism inspires to follow the high traditions of service in peace and dedication in war. Senator SMITH was a part of America, but America was just as much a part of him. He breathed the spirit of love of country, and he was willing to live for it in peace and to die for it if necessary in war.

I have not spoken of the religious life of Senator SMITH although he was deeply religious and had an abiding faith in the greatness and goodness of God. He followed the example of Christ His Saviour in doing good. He loved his fellow man. He believed in him and trusted him. He loved the Methodist Church of which he was a member, but his love was as broad as the whole family of the children of men. He loved his State, and he was a great North Carolinian, but he also loved America and he was a greater American.

A great many very beautiful tributes have been paid to Senator SMITH in editorials in the papers in North Carolina and throughout the Nation. I am presenting some of the editorials from the North Carolina papers and shall ask that they be inserted in the body of the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

Life is real and likewise mystical. The high estate of man's creation makes him a little lower than the angels and gives him dominion over all other created and elemental things. He is the inheritor of all the past ages. From the dusty pages of antiquity the progress of man has been illuminating the processes of life over the long centuries. Into the real life of today has been projected the mystical life of tomorrow. Immortality begins on earth. The struggle of man has been to build an enduring civilization here and to adorn it with the revealed and discovered truths of God. The search of man has been for truth and in his quest for its

attainment he has mastered much of the universe and made it subservient to his imperial will.

But there is appointed a time for man to die. There is something majestic about death. Its very universality makes it a dreaded visitor in the homes of kings and subjects, Presidents and citizens, rich and poor, white and colored, around the whole world. It levels all rank and makes a common denominator of all men. Sickness and death are not the tragedies of life; they are only the sadnesses. The age-old question propounded in the Book of Job, "If a man die shall he live again?" is affirmatively answered by the faith of man in immortality and all nature shares that faith as it experiences a beautiful resurrection each springtime from the death of winter.

May I speak a personal word? I esteemed WILLIS SMITH as a friend, cherished him as a colleague, and loved him as a man. He was big of brain and body, masterful in mind and manner and stalwart in faith and love-and having known him it is easier to accept and believe the declaration in the stately passages of the majestic first chapter of Genesis that God made man in His own image and stamped him with His own divine personality. Today I salute our distinguishea colleague and my friend of the years and bid his memory stand erect a sovereign among his peers.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have a number of editorials, published in North Carolina newspapers, printed in the Record at this point, as a part of my remarks.

There being no objection, the editorials were ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:

[From the Dunn (N. C.) Daily Record of June 26, 1953]

A GREAT MAN HAS GONE

The tragic death of United States Senator WILLIS SMITH early this morning brings the forceful realization that a truly great man has gone.

His passing is a great loss not only to the State of North Carolina, but to the Nation and the world. His influence for good knew no

boundaries.

WILLIS SMITH was born a poor boy, his father died when he was a very small child, and he came up the hard way to make his mark in the world. He was successful in every field of endeavor in which he entered. His success story exemplified America as a great land of opportunity.

He rose to great heights. His election to the United States Senate was just one of his many accomplishments. He had been honored by two Presidents of the United States and his fellow lawyers elected him to the highest legal post in the land.

In the field of politics he was a scrapper. He fought hard and tirelessly not for personal gain but for the American way of life which he held sacred and loved so dearly.

WILLIS SMITH was more than a great Democrat, more than a great Republican. He was a great statesman and a great American.

He was not a politician. His closest associates frequently admonished him for his forthright, honest stands on issues which they knew would not help him politically.

But WILLIS SMITH never gave his own political welfare a second thought. He would vote his honest convictions in the face of sure defeat itself. He never swerved from the true path of duty.

There was no question but that WILLIS SMITH was headed toward bigger and higher positions in American government. Had he lived, he would have brought still greater recognition and honor to our State.

Above all other things, WILLIS SMITH was a real Christian gentleman, a man devoted to his family and friends and intensely loyal to all of them.

Unfortunately, his political enemies frequently succeeded in painting a false picture of him to the people.

They called him a big corporation lawyer, yet the last court case in which he ever appeared was in behalf of a widowed mother suing a big corporation.

The worst thing we ever heard him say about his opponent was, "He's my friend.” That's the kind of man WILLIS SMITH was.

They accused him of injecting a racial issue into his campaign. Actually, he threatened to withdraw from the campaign if he caught his staff engaging in such.

WILLIS SMITH was a man of remarkable vision, keen insight, vast knowledge, and great personal kindness.

When others got upset, he had the ability to keep calm and think. When his critics were unfair and unkind he ignored it and marked it up to the heat of the campaign.

The most famous court case in which this great legal expert ever appeared was that of a poor Raleigh Negro who had a just claim against a prominent political figure.

Other lawyers were afraid to take the case, but WILLIS SMITH took it and won it for the poor Negro.

Some of his critics called WILLIS SMITH a Republican because he had the ability to think and act for himself.

Had WILLIS SMITH been a member of the Republican Party it would have found it just as hard to keep him in strict party lines as the Democrats. He wasn't that kind of man.

He was a man who put the welfare of his country ahead of all other considerations; a man who could clearly define the issues and get at the bottom of things.

It was impossible to know WILLIS SMITH without loving and admiring him. Those in his presence always had the feeling and the full realization that they were in the presence of a great man.

The editor of this newspaper will always be happy and proud that he had an opportunity to be associated with WILLIS SMITH, and to know him as a friend.

Only history will record his true greatness.

HOOVER ADAMS.

[From the Charlotte Observer of June 27, 1953]

WE LOSE A DEVOTED PUBLIC SERVANT

The death of Senator WILLIS SMITH deprives North Carolina and the Nation of the services of a man who in less than one term proved himself to be one of the distinguished men of the Senate.

Mention of his name in any company composed of people well informed on public affairs was likely to elicit words of respect for his fine abilities, and his devotion to the best interests of his country had made him known throughout the country.

His election in 1950 was one of the first faint signs, no bigger than a man's hand, that the American people were beginning one of those periodic self-examinations to which they subject themselves after every debauch of reckless irresponsibility in government. He became, therefore, a herald of the return to sanity.

His conduct in the Senate has never disappointed those who put their faith in him. The socialist-welfare state cabal was still powerful when he took his seat in the Senate, but he did not compromise with it, because he had the clarity of vision to see that, though the tide had passed the flood by an almost imperceptible degree had, nevertheless, turned.

He was a Democrat who believed fervently in the fundamental principles of his party and could not be led astray by the left-wing element that had gained control of it. At the same time, he refused to desert the party, because he was sure that he could do more to revive its principles by loyal work within it than by going over to the opposition and criticizing it from without.

That left-wing element was still vociferous at his death. It had only been checked, and no one knew better than WILLIS SMITH that a long, hard battle lies ahead before the coup de grace can be delivered. And no one was a more devoted fighter in that cause. He endured all the vituperation that is the lot of those who take up the gage of battle against an entrenched demagogery, but he never faltered in the course he had laid out for himself.

It is not too hazardous to conjecture that if fate had allowed him to complete the career that seemed to be open to him, if he could have fought through the fight he had only begun, WILLIS SMITH might have become one of those great Senators whose names stand out on the pages of our history as men who saw and understood the issues of their times and led the way for those less discerning.

[From the Asheville Citizen of June 27, 1953]
SENATOR WILLIS SMITH

In the 20 days before he was stricken with what proved to be a series of fatal heart attacks, Senator WILLIS SMITH had made 24 public appearances. Three times within this period he flew down to North Carolina from Washington and returned the same night. It is no wonder that in the aftermath of Senator SMITH'S death many expressions of shock and sorrow have reflected the brutal punishment of official duty to which public servants are subjected.

WILLIS SMITH surely must have been aware of the strain on his faculties. But he was a man of great drive and prodigious energy. It is to be doubted that he would have held off or slowed down, no matter the pace demanded of him.

His rise to public eminence was almost a proverbial poverty-toriches story. He made his own way to the top of the legal profession and to considerable affluence by hard, grinding work. The Senate accepted him as a willing hand and not a time-server by charging him with responsibilities unusually heavy for a freshman Senator. He was never disposed to trim his sails or dodge an issue. Consistency was one of his abiding virtues.