Remarks by Senator A.S. Mike Monroney

              Remarks by
Senator A.S. Mike Monroney	December 18, 1958
at Testimonial Dinner for HON. BROOKS HAYS at Washington, D.C.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Tonight we are paying tribute to a modern-day hero, who in temporary political defeat has won a lasting spiritual victory -- and a place in the hearts of millions of Americans.
We are here because we know Brooks Hays for what he is — a man who will not leave the path which conscience sets. His loyalty to those ultimate virtues of love and courage has set a high mark in our political life.  A prefabricated sticker may mutilate a ballot, but not this record.
It has been my privilege to serve with him since he was sworn in as a Member of Congress in 1943. We sat side by side on the House Banking and Currency Committee. That he had the courage required to be a great Congressman was apparent from the start.
My earliest memories of his service -- and his courage -- were in the days of O.P.A. when the great economic pressures of special interest groups plagued our Committee's efforts to hold the line against disastrous inflation. The strife -- and at times the intolerant, unreasoning, inflamed passions of economic avarice — were a small-scale replica of the struggle we now witness over Civil Rights.
It was here that I first learned to respect the careful and tolerant approach to legislative problems that Brooks always took. No testimony or demand was so brash or so unreasonable that he would not carefully hear it out. He was ever courteous, attentive, and fair. And having weighed any testimony — he would then follow the dictates of his mind and his heart to reach what he thought was a just and equitable decision. Often, as now, the decisions he had to make were unpopular with those who sought short range goals and failed to consider the nation's ultimate security and integrity.
Upon his promotion to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House -- he approached our world problems with the same fairminded judgment and with the same far-sighted interest in his nation's welfare. This innate fairness and his love of all his fellow men later made him one of our nation's most effective representatives in the United Nations.