SERVICE AT THE WHITE HOUSE
September 13, 1970

by Brooks Hays

Mr. President, Mrs. Nixon, My Friends and Colleagues ... May I take a moment to say two things very briefly. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            First, Mr. President to thank you for recognizing the Judd-Hays team -Walter and I served together on the Foreign Affairs Committee and were known as continental barnstormers for a sound foreign policy. Some of our fellow legislators thought it rather interesting that a Northern Republican Con-gregationalist and a Southern Baptist Democrat could exhibit such solidarity in certain vital areas of policy. And neither asked the other to relent in his party loyalties, although I suspect that at times Walter thought I resembled the old man who said, "If there is anything wrong with the Democratic Party or the Baptist Church I'd rather die without knowing it."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Then, Mr, President, I want to thank you for becoming a member of the Former Members of Congress, Incorporated, and for inviting us to this service. When your application and check arrived it created quite a stir. We hated to cash the check, and I suppose you would have been glad for us just to frame it as we thought of doing. I suppose it isn't telling secrets to say that it was on a joint account, and Mrs. Nixon, we are pleased that this good example was set, encouraging us to trust the wives with our money.                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The 220 members welcome our most distinguished member. We believe that it will have the result hoped for by the Kentuckian who tried to enter his fast running mule in the Kentucky Derby. His nephew said as the old man sadly received the news that the mule was not eligible, "But, Uncle Henry, you know he couldn't have won." "Yes, I know," he said "but he would have profited so from the association."