Memorial Addresses

Remarks by Representative Kennedy

Of New York

Mr. MARTIN J. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, ladies, and gentlemen, on December 17 Dr. WILLIAM I. SIROVICH, chairman of the House Committee on Patents, died in his home in New York City. The shock saddened my holidays, and I am sure it similarly affected the other Members. Representative SIROVICH was elected to Congress in November 1926, from the Fourteenth District of my State.

No more shall we hear that brilliant oratory that held us spellbound, nor shall we know that friendly encouragement he offered. During the 13 years that he served as a Representative I doubt a more keen mind, a wider vocabulary of the ancient languages, or a more remarkable memory could have been found in this House. Nor was there a more benevolent character.

It is ironical that he, who warned us against overwork and of the necessity for lightening our tasks with proper diversion, was himself a victim of that very zeal. He was never idle mentally. He ignored symptoms that would have aroused him if they had developed in a friend. At times he must have had a premonition that his earthly time was short, because during the last two sessions he frequently was on the verge of collapse but refused to give up any of his official duties.

I attended the funeral services and followed the cortege to his last resting place on this earth. Now and then, as I look about this Chamber, I picture in my mind his welltailored figure, the ever present red carnation in his lapel, his

friendly smile, and his overpowering sincerity as he held our attention.

The night before he died he attended a formal dinner of the Rose Sirovich Relief Society, a society named after his mother. I like to think that his last thoughts were of the woman who had borne such a brilliant son.

Dr. SIROVICH was a humanitarian—a physician and surgeon by profession. He attained high rank as a statesman, and he gave all of his legislative ability to bettering the economic conditions of his people, just as he gave his services as a doctor to heal the ills of his people.

His modest home was his office, and when he was not here working as a legislator to correct defects in government he was to be found in his surgery prescribing for and attending old friends who came to his home to have the doctor remedy the defects of the body.

Before he came to Congress Dr. SIROVICH was active in welfare work and at one time he served, by appointment of Governor Sulzer, as a member of a special committee on widows' pensions. On the same committee was Franklin D. Roosevelt, then a State senator. One of the last official acts of Dr. SIROVICH was to pay a visit to the President at the White House, and I can well believe that one of the topics he discussed with the President concerned the welfare of the underprivileged.

As a physician and surgeon, as a Member of Congress, and as an individual he was a great benefactor. His fame grew and his plurality increased each time he stood for reelection to Congress. Probably because of his intense interest in behalf of the less fortunate, Dr. SIROVICH never married. He once referred to himself as the "stepfather of 40,000 orphans," and there are many orphaned children growing to manhood and womanhood who will long remember his unselfish character and kindness.

Those of us who were here on the floor just a minute before the special session adjourned last November witnessed a scene

that demonstrated his loyalty. An employee of one of the Government departments had been criticized-unjustly, he thought-on the floor that day, and the last utterance of Dr. SIROVICH was a defense of this employee. He ended his tribute as follows:

It takes a lifetime for a man to build up an honorable character. It takes but a moment to destroy it.

Dr. SIROVICH left his work unfinished, but he left it well done and everlasting. I can only hope that over his grave the winds blow soft and gently and the sun shines warmly, as did his heart beat for the people of all races and creeds.

Remarks by Representative Sabath

Of Illinois

Mr. SABATH. Mr. Speaker, "He was a good man, and a just."

Mr. Speaker, I join in the estimates of the late Dr. WILLIAM IRVING SIROVICH which have been so eloquently pronounced by ripe scholars; and I share in the general grief caused by the premature closing of a career which only a few weeks ago was so rich in achievement and full of promise for the future.

It is no mean achievement to serve as a civic and political leader in city, county, and State and to represent an intelligent and important constituency in the National House of Representatives for 13 years. Such is the enviable record of Dr. SIROVICH.

During his active and useful career our departed friend witnesses the mightiest strides in material development the world has ever seen. He saw the Republic grow from the chaos of civil war to its present commanding place among the important nations of the earth. He saw the great Empire State, of which he was a son by adoption, leap forward with giant bounds, valiantly maintaining her place at the head of the mighty procession of the States of our majestic Union. His pride in the forward strides of the State and the Nation was justified, for in the upbuilding of both he played the part of an active, earnest, and publicspirited citizen.

Neither a laggard nor a drone, for more than 35 years he was in the thick of the conflict which accompanies and stimulates progress. Throughout his whole life Dr. SIROVICH was a popular type of the American optimist, and he imparted confidence and enthusiasm to all within the influence of his delightful, magnanimous personality. Industrious and

successful in private enterprise, he was alert and influential in public affairs, and he ably contributed to that ceaseless mental combat and attrition of thought whose constant flashes light the guiding torch of civilization that illumines the pathway of liberty and law.

His impulses were generous, his sympathies broad, his intellect keen. Wherever this good man was, in whatever sphere he moved, the friendless had a friend, the fatherless a father, and the poor man, though unable to reward his kindness, found an advocate.

It was when the rich oppressed the poor; when the powerful menaced the defenseless; when truth was disregarded or the eternal principles of justice were violated—it was on these occasions that he exerted all his strength; it was on these occasions that he sometimes soared so high and shone with a radiance so transcendent, as filled those around him with awe and gave him the force and authority of a prophet. His voice was virtue's consolation. At his approach oppressed humanity felt a secret rapture, and the heart of injured innocence leaped for joy.

Dr. SIROVICH was a patriot. He understood and loved his country and its institutions. For many years, at great personal and domestic sacrifice, he gave loyal, generous, and disinterested service to his country's honor. He had an illimitable faith in the Republic for which he did so much and which did so much for him; he had unwavering confidence in his fellow countrymen and in their attachments to the principles of liberty and their capacity to right wrongs and uproot evils. In their active, watchful, and vigilant patriotism he saw the best security against the evils that beset all governments. His best tribute was the repeated expression of confidence and approbation that came to him by way of election and reelection from his fellow citizens in New York City, who knew him so well and valued his character and attainments so highly.