strongest advocates and supporters. His only boy, I am informed, was just recently commissioned in the Navy; and he was intensely proud of that boy.

I am further advised that there is being completed at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station-which was BILL DITTER'S destination last evening when the fatal accident occurred-a chapel which will bear a plaque at the entrance, the inscription for which was chosen by BILL DITTER. That inscription will read:

A house of prayer.

And then these words, from the Psalms:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. I have faith that his life has been acceptable to the Redeemer and that his soul is in God's keeping.

Mr. CANNON of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, the casualty lists from the battle fronts are lengthening. Every morning there is delivered at the door of homes throughout the Nation telegrams which read, "Regret to inform you that your son

But all the war casualties are not on the other side, and we have one tragically reported here this morning. Congressman DITTER was as much a participant in the war effort, as much a part of the American forces as any boy who mans a machine gun or pilots a plane across the enemy frontiers today.

As a member of the Committee on Appropriations he not only cooperated in the heavy responsibilities of the committee in providing funds for the support of the entire war program, but as ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on Naval Appropriations, he gave unstintedly of his time and attention, and of his great talents, to the work of that committee in the development of a two-ocean Navy and of American sea power which has given the United States the greatest Navy ever launched under the flag of any nation in the history of the world-a Navy which has been up to this time, and will continue to be with increasing emphasis,

a determining factor in this war of extermination and survival now waged in every quarter of the globe.

WILLIAM DITTER was a man of exceptional ability. He was an outstanding figure in the Congress and in the Nation. He rendered a distinguished service to his State, to the Congress, to his party, and especially to his country.

He died at his post of duty and in line of action, and if he could have sent us a last message I am certain that message would have been, "Carry on." In the words of Saul, as paraphrased by Lord Byron:

Warriors and chiefs! should the shaft or the sword
Pierce me in leading the host of the Lord.

Heed not the corse, though a king's, in your path:

Bury your steel in the bosoms of Gath!

Thou who are bearing my buckler and bow,

Should the soldiers of Saul look away from the foe.
Stretch me that moment in blood at thy feet!
Mine be the doom which they dared not to meet.

Farewell to others, but never we part,

Heir to my royalty, son of my heart!

Bright is the diadem, boundless the sway,

Or kingly the death, which awaits us today!

Mr. WOLFENDEN of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Simpson].

Mr. SIMPSON of Pennsylvania. It is hard to speak of a so recently departed colleague. The Honorable J. WILLIAM DITTER of Pennsylvania has gone from our midst at the zenith of his career. To speak of BILL DITTER from this spot of his triumphs is difficult-to realize his absence in future deliberations of this body impossible. He was called by our All Knowing Father for an even higher purpose—that of furthering His design for Mankind. By his absence the burden each of us assumes is increased. May we assume it

willingly.

To his dear ones remaining we extend our sympathies and express our regrets. We know that in remembering their loved one they will find a lasting satisfaction.

Mr. WOLFENDEN of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Wigglesworth].

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Mr. Speaker, the tragic and untimely death of our able colleague and distinguished friend the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Hon. J. WILLIAM DITTER, carries with it a sense of shock and deep personal loss.

For years I have worked closely with BILL DITTER. I have worked closely with him as a member of the Committee on Appropriations, as a member of the subcommittee in charge of deficiency appropriations, as a member of the Republican Congressional Committee. In days gone by he has come into my district to speak in my behalf. Only a few days ago, as the Members will recall-in perhaps his last speech on the floor of this House—his friendship was evidenced in striking manner.

No one could work closely with him as I have without having for him both high regard and deep affection. I shall miss him greatly.

BILL DITTER's death is a great loss to the Nation. His contribution to the Navy and in other fields of outstanding importance is well known to us all. His gift of expression, his capacity in debate, his power of analysis, his knowledge of human nature combined to give him a continually increasing influence on the floor of this House and held for him the prospect of an even brighter and more useful future in the service of his country. The Nation can ill afford, Mr. Speaker, to lose one of his high character and outstanding capacity in these difficult days.

I join in heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Ditter and to the members of the family who survive him.

Mr. WOLFENDEN of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Lambertson].

Mr. LAMBERTSON. Mr. Speaker, we are downcast today over the passing of our two colleagues. J. WILLIAM DITTER was sitting by me Friday in a committee hearing. We shall miss him much, for he was an able Member of the House. Besides

being penetrating, he was conscientious and forceful. While he occupied a position of leadership in the party, he was a thoroughgoing American and at his zenith in public usefulness. May his memory help us to do our duty better.

It was never my privilege to have served in a committee with Mr. Steagall, but I have observed him for nearly eight terms on the floor. I appreciated his high worth. It is very unusual to lose two men in the same 24 hours. It is so rare that they should both be men of such distinguished leadership.

Mr. WOLFENDEN of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Plumley].

Mr. PLUMLEY. Mr. Speaker, my long-time and never-to-beforgotten connection with J. WILLIAM DITTER, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Appropriations for the Navy, on which I served with him at his solicitation, was too confidential and too intimate; my personal relations and those of my family with him and his family were and are so close that I do not trust myself to try at this time to pay to his memory so just and rich a tribute as I hope later to be able to pay, somewhat commensurate with his desserts.

Until then and upon this mournful occasion may I say only that so well did I know BILL DITTER, I dare to say that could he have been heard to have spoken as he met the grisly thing called death, he might have been heard to say as he went to the reward of just men made perfect:

Let me live out my years in heat of blood!

Let me die drunken with the dreamer's wine!
Let me not see this soul-house built of mud
Go toppling to the dust-a vacant shrine.

Let me go quickly like a candle light

Snuffed out just at the heyday of its glow.
Give me high noon-and let it then be night!
Thus would I go.

And grant that when I face the grisly Thing,

My song may trumpet down the gray Perhaps.
Let me be as a tune-swept fiddle string

That feels the Master Melody-and snaps!

Mr. WOLFENDEN of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Rodgers].

Mr. RODGERS of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, once again the black camel of death has entered our midst knelt at the threshold of the earthly home of two of our colleagues, and summoned them to go on that long journey to that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler e'er returns.

When I received early this morning the information at my hotel that BILL DITTER had been killed in an airplane crash I could not speak; words failed me. It fails me now, it fails all of us, to find words properly to express our regret and our sorrow at his untimely passing. We shall miss his cheery greeting, his ever-readiness to be helpful to us in any way that lay within his power. His place in committee, on the floor, in the councils of his party will be hard to fill. His community, his State, his Nation, has suffered a great loss. To the bereaved family we extend our deepest heartfelt sympathy in this hour of sudden tragedy.

Mr. WOLFENDEN of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts [Mrs. Rogers].

Mrs. ROGERS of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, the full scope of our loss today is not realized I believe, by any one of us. We are too stunned and shocked. We have lost two of the great leaders of the greatest legislative body in the world, the House of Representatives.

Very soon a Member learns to measure the ability, the character, and equipment of his fellow Members. These two gentlemen were well prepared when they came to the House, but they grew steadily year by year in stature and in their ability to get things done for America.

A great writer once said: "It is not life that matters but the courage we bring to it." Both these men always showed rare courage. Both these men had a great belief in God, a firm conviction in the hereafter, and that if you lived properly and courageously you went to that Great Beyond. It is