I deem it a great privilege to be here tonight, not only because of my esteem for the guest of honor, but also because of my sense of gratitude for your invitation. Senators are not always asked to participate in ceremonies lauding economy and budget reductions. On the contrary, some schoolboys believe the Constitution gives the House the power to originate taxes and the Senate the right to originate spending. And Will Rogers always said that "It is not the initial cost of a Senator we have to look out for, it's the upkeep. He may be the deciding vote on an appropriation bill that will cost us more than a hundred high priced men."
One way in which we in public life can assist you who labor long and without notice in the cause of governmental economy and efficiency is to help clear up misconceptions in the public mind which impede your work. There are three popular misconceptions about the work of the Second Hoover Commission which I would like to mention tonight.
First is the mistaken belief held by a few cynics that the greatest benefit given the Commission by former President Hoover was the use of his name and reputation. But anyone who makes this assertion doesn't know Herbert Hoover very well. He is totally unlike Senator John Sherman of Ohio over half a century ago, who was famous for two laws: the Sherman Silver Purchase Law and the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, although a contemporary Senator observed: "The first was adopted against his protest; the other he introduced by request. I doubt very much whether he ever read it, or, if he did, whether he ever understood it."
No. Herbert Hoover does not propose measures he has not read, nor approve those he does not understand. At the age of 81 – when most men are firmly fixed to their rocking chairs – he accepted without hesitation the challenge offered by President Eisenhower to undertake once again an examination of the Executive Branch of the Government. And I have it from an unusually reliable source that he was a working chairman, probably the "workingest" chairman any commission or committee ever had. His prodigious efforts were reflected in the preparation of every draft and report, in the harmonizing of men with conflicting attitudes, and in the acceptance of their findings by the public, the Congress and the Administration. The name of Herbert Hoover has truly become synonymous with efficiency and economy in government; and I am privileged to join with those gathered here tonight to pay tribute and thanks to you, President Hoover, for your notable achievements in the improvement of the operation of our government.
Secondly, I want to mention a misconception which has resulted from the adverse comments of some pressure groups and politicians – and some of my best friends are politicians – and that is the notion that the Second Hoover Commission was a biased, reactionary group which reached preconceived conclusions in a slanted, controversial report that would deny services to millions of Americans. This position is best refuted by the facts. During the 84th Congress, a Democratic Congress, it was my privilege to act as Chairman of the Senate Reorganization Subcommittee, to conduct hearings on many Hoover Commission legislative proposals and to participate in the Senate's discussion of them. Of the 59 measures relating to the Second Hoover Commission's recommendations which were referred to the Senate Committee on Government Operations, 36 were favorably acted upon by our Subcommittee. After consolidations and approval by the full Committee on Government Operations, 16 bills, incorporating the objectives of these 36 bills on which the Subcommittee had acted, passed the Senate, all by unanimous vote; and of those 16, 13 are already law.
Still another Hoover Commission measure I was privileged to co-sponsor, with Senator Lister Hill, far from being a step backward, established our nation's first great medical library. Still another measure expanded, not reduced, funds for basic research in medicine and other fields. Whatever differences President Hoover and I may have politically or otherwise, this will never prevent us from working together in the interests of better government.
Third and finally is the misconception that must discourage you the most – the notion that since the Hoover Commission has completed its work the job is over. "What happened to all those budget savings?" taxpayers are going to be asking in a few months. But the job is far from complete, despite the gratifying progress which I reported to you. The legislative process in a democracy is a slow process, and it always will be. For as Winston Churchill once said: "Democracy is the worst form of government – except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
However slowly, there is every sign that we will continue to move ahead. A major piece of unfinished business is the bill which passed the Senate unanimously last year, and which provides that our national budgets be based on the actual expenditures to be incurred by the Federal departments and agencies during the budget year, the cost-type budget. This bill is important not only in terms of the savings it will bring, but even more significantly, I believe, in terms of developing greater cost consciousness on the part of all citizens, employees of the Government and otherwise.
If all of us, in the Congress, in the citizens organizations and in the general public, can share but a small part of President Hoover's unselfish dedication to this task, regardless of critics and pressure groups and political considerations, then continued progress and achievement are ours. We may say of him whom we honor tonight as Edmund Burke said of Charles James Fox:
"He has put to hazard his ease, his security, his interest, his power, even his … popularity … He is traduced and abused… He may live long, he may do much. But here is the summit. He never can exceed what he does this day."
Source: Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 896, "Dinner honoring Herbert Hoover, Washington, D.C., 4 February 1957." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.