Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields

20. BUILDING A NEW WEST VIRGINIA

Chapter 20 z BUILDING A NEW WEST VIRGINIA n Thursday, March 29, I stood in a courtroom in Clarksburg where I had once played the fiddle to entertain voters. On this occasion, I beamed as the first three workers for what would become the new FBI Fingerprint Identification Center were sworn in at temporary FBI offices. I addressed the FBI officials who were gathered there. “You are coming to a state which has long retained, and been proud of, its values. We here in West Virginia maintain allegiance to a strong work ethic, a strong family ethic, a strong religious ethic. You won’t be bothered with high absenteeism here. It is a competitive workforce, and it is not a transient workforce. West Virginia is on the move. The FBI determined that it was 50 percent more cost-efficient to move the facility toWestVirginia than to rebuild inWashington.It is a win-win situation for the state, for the country, and for law enforcement everywhere.” That evening, the members of the American Legion in Clarksburg presented me with their annual Katherine P. Goff Award. After receiving the community service award, I stated: “It doesn’t matter how high in the world we may be privileged to go, when we come down to the end, we are all of one size. It takes about the same amount of earth for each of us.” I continued: “When Robert Byrd goes, they’ll remember him for about ten days, and before the last shovelful of dirt is laid down, they’ll be jockeying to be appointed by the governor of West Virginia to take Robert Byrd’s seat in the Senate.” In other words, I held no illusions about fame and power. O building a new west virginia 511  Byrd Cartoons  My ability to obtain projects for West Virginia had spawned many jokes. “Did you hear that Washington’s been given one of two new baseball teams?” “Yeah, and Senator Byrd’s just had the franchise transferred to West Virginia.” Another was that I had slipped language into a supplemental appropriations bill transferring the Pentagon to West Virginia. Among the many humorous mementos of my career, my favorite newspaper cartoon showed me while being interrogated by two federal marshals: “Senator, we just want to know where you took the Lincoln Memorial and the Senate Office Buildings.” The clear implication was that they were hidden away in the hills somewhere in West Virginia. Former Representative Bill Frenzel, a Minnesota Republican and vehement critic of congressional spending habits, was quoted in an AP story in mid-April: “He [Byrd] is one of the most effective and powerful not just appropriators but legislators in Congress. When you’re watching him, you’re watching a real legend operate.” On April 30, I spoke at the groundbreaking symbolizing the start of construction for the new Sixth Street Bridge in Huntington. Governor Gaston Caperton also participated and spoke.As we put our hands on the shovel where dirt had been put in place for the ceremony, I motioned toward Governor Caperton and said,“I buy‘em, he builds‘em.”Both Caperton and the crowd of bystanders laughed and applauded.  Ground Broken for New Pocahontas Telescope  More than five hundred people gathered on a wind-swept meadow at Green Bank, in Pocahontas County, on May 1, 1991, to watch the breaking of ground for the world’s most advanced and most sensitive radio telescope. I had added $75 million to a supplemental appropriations bill in 1989 to replace the telescope that had collapsed in November 1988. The collapsed telescope had served scholars from around the world for a quarter of a century, and had been used to map otherwise unchartable areas in deep outer space, study pulsars and“black holes,”and search for signs of intelligence in other realms of the universe. But the new telescope would be many times more powerful, and would be capable of probing every area of the sky, unlike its predecessor. 512 chapter 20 National Science Foundation DirectorWalter Massey spoke at the groundbreaking : “It will have a lasting impact on our ability to understand the universe . It is an integral part of the rebuilding of the nation’s infrastructure— which is not restricted to roads, dams, and the like. The research and education it will produce are directly related to the economic strength of the nation.” Dr. George...