Monday, Jan. 13, 1975
Parting Words
It is the season for elected officials to take office, in Congress and in statehouses across the land. It is also a time for some of America's most experienced public officials to retire, either voluntarily or because of defeat at the polls. Many of them leave behind some parting words of advice for their constituents and the nation. Among them:
> William Fulbright, 69, Democratic Senator from Arkansas for 30 years, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee: "This inflation is a terrible, terrible burden. It was inflation, primarily, that caused the great mass of people to lose confidence in the Weimar Republic. We keep hearing calls for new leadership, which is what happened in Germany. It begins to sound more and more like what people want is a man on a white horse, a dictator. I'm not saying we're going to have Seven Days in May. All I'm saying is that it is possible if we don't act wisely."
> H.R. Gross, 75, Iowa Conservative Republican who fought for 26 years in the House to restrain spending: "No effective measures have been taken to stop inflation. The No. 1 thing is to get the budget balanced, do what we ought to have been doing long ago: make expenditures match income. Without that, they can use all the gimmickry known to mankind and it still won't work."
> Francis W. Sargent, 59, moderate Republican Governor of Massachusetts for six years: "The Federal Government, in its incredible anxiety to computerize the lives of everyone, has made some very serious invasions into people's privacy. There has been all too much snooping. We should not get rid of computers, but we should give more thought to what goes into them."
> Sam J. Ervin Jr., 78, Democratic Senator from North Carolina for 20 years: "My greatest regret has been my inability to enact some very basic laws that would guarantee individual freedom. I believe that you ought to leave as much governing as possible to the people at the local level."
> George D. Aiken, 82, Vermont Republican and dean of the Senate, where he served for 34 years: "Again, I wish to urge a constitutional amendment ... that would limit the President to a single six-year term. I would also recommend an amendment that would prohibit any member of Congress from becoming a candidate for President or Vice President until he has been out of the legislative body for at least two years. If we could do this, we would find that both the President and the members of Congress could concentrate on doing the work for which they were elected."
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