Political Quotes

“I wish to join most emphatically with my revered chairman in congratulating the Senate today, in thanking the majority and minority leaders. We have risen to a moment which was ominously in doubt. Last week, as the week progressed, two things took place: One, on the Senate floor, as we now have established, we had 74 votes just to proceed with the bill--we will have more when this is done. Even so, we found ourselves in a procedural tangle not unknown to the body which was thwarting the will of an emphatic majority--and not just a majority for this legislation but a majority for a tradition of openness in trade that began 65 years ago with the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934 at the depths of the Depression, the aftermath of the Smoot-Hawley legislation, with our system of government very much under challenge. That challenge would grow more fierce and would end in the great World War. We were then, even so, confident enough of the promise of trade that we could go forward in this matter. We have been going forward for 60 years. However, 5 years ago we stopped.”