A forceful and effective lawmaker and supporter of rural interests, Senator Schmit introduced bills into the Nebraska Legislature which have gone on to become law. He was the original introducer of legislation aimed at encouraging the production and use of gasohol. Loran Schmit was a successful farmer, cattle feeder and businessman whose concern for the State as a whole were well documented throughout his career.
Fifty-one years and thirty days ago, on a farm in Butler County, Nebraska, a baby boy was born to a farm couple named Nick and Loretta Schmit. Three million other baby boys and girls were born to young American couples that year – 1929 -- a year now etched in almost everybody's memory as not one of our great vintage years. And the six million fathers and mothers of these new Americans all were convinced that their son or daughter was the one freedom-born destined to greatness -- the one who would grow up to really make a difference.
One major depression, a war called World War II, -- (You remember, it was in all the papers -- ) two mini-wars including Vietnam and Korea and one hundred twenty million new Americans later, we are here tonight to see how well one out of those three million born in 1929 has lived up to his parents' expectations.
That 1929 model that Nick and Loretta Schmit named Loran is here with us tonight to hear us tell him and his lovely and proud mother that he did live up to his parents' expectations -- and to hear us tell him that he really is different than most all of the other 1929 models. But nothing we say or do can make Loran Schmit or any other person greater than he or she is. When all is said and done, each man's deeds and the sum total of those deeds and accomplishments are really the measure of what the man is or was and the degree to which we should honor him.
In the case of Loran Schmit, his accomplishments truly are his spokesman. They speak pretty loud and clear. Nationally known as the "Godfather of Gasohol" for almost singlehandedly forcing a seemingly reluctant nation to examine the use of grain alcohol as a nonpolluting renewable source of energy, Loran Schmit continues today to pursue expansion and development of this concept. As the rough hard-line chairman of the Nebraska Senate's Agriculture Committee, Loran Schmit has become agriculture's prime legislative defender, its architect and its recognized spokesman in the Nebraska Senate.
Concepts unique to Nebraska, including our State Ombudsman's Office, our Nebraska Consumer Protection Agency which provides protection from overaggressive central government as much as anything else, a Department of Environmental Control Which is respected and admired by both business environmental interests, and the National Gasohol Committee all owe their existence and direction to legislation sponsored by Loran Schmit.
And hard-working Farmer Schmit has demonstrated repeatedly his ability to address the entire spectrum of state needs including such things as the medical malpractice problems, development for the State Patrol of a drug abuse control program rather than a drug abuser coddling program as some other states have done, a system to collect child support from recalcitrant and non-paying fathers of the children and a system to protect agricultural producers from overzealous federal regulators in the area of land use pesticides.
And who could forget Senator Loran Schmit's bold lawsuit to force the giant chain stores, Safeway, A & P and others to stop meat price fixing and to subject themselves to a set of rules laid down by cattle producers to assure the producers that such restraint in trade would not be allowed in the future. The lawsuit succeeded in getting a large settlement which went to producers to be used to monitor these practices in the future and also resulted in a fixed set of rules supervised by the federal courts to stop meat price fixing.
For me to continue to recite Senator Schmit's legislative deeds and accomplishments would serve little purpose for the people at this particular gathering probably know them far better than I. And in another fifty years, all the three million born in 1929 will be truly equal in almost every sense of the word and the only thing that might distinguish any individual one of them will have been their deeds and accomplishments while they were alive.
And if there is a lesson to be learned tonight, it is simply that one person who chooses to do so can make a difference. He can, so to speak, beat the unbeatable foe. He can reach the unreachable star. He can make an entire nation which is overly dependent upon foreign oil stop in its tracks and examine an alternate idea such as gasohol -- a fuel extender. One individual can challenge the might of multi-billion-dollar chain stores and make them respond and one individual can stand up to the unresponsiveness of the Federal government and its bureaucracy.
And so let us resolve as individuals that the individual deeds that we are personally familiar with of Senator Loran Schmit shall be our example, and our beacon, and our encouragement for the future. And as John DeCamp was once profoundly heard to say, with a bit of a gleam in his eye, "The future; yes, the future, lies ahead."
Hearty congratulations, Senator Loran.
