TJ Cox: “there is hanging in the Republican Cloakroom a photograph of Bill Emerson taken on March 1, 1954, when he was a page…”

“there is hanging in the Republican Cloakroom a photograph of Bill Emerson taken on March 1, 1954, when he was a page here. As all of us know, he served as a page on that fateful day when the House of Representatives was attacked by terrorists, and the photograph shows Bill Emerson carrying on his shoulders the prone body of Alben Barkley, a Representative here, who was in fact shot during that attack. That was very early on in Bill's congressional career. When the first Republican House of Representatives, the first Republican majority in 40 years, was sworn in and the gavel was banged in 1995, in January, it was Bill Emerson who was in the chair. He was the only current Member of the House of Representatives who had been here during the last Republican majority because he had been here as a page. Probably, as a result, no one had more knowledge of this institution; and as so many speakers have pointed out this morning, more care for it, more understanding, and more love for the Congress of the United States. It is natural for each of us to express ourselves at a time like this by giving a speech on the floor of the House. That is what we do. Bill himself gave many speeches. He was a fine speaker, but, more important than the Congressional Record, a history of what Bill Emerson did here, was what those of us who worked with him saw and watched. His example is a powerful one.…”