It has been said that his life spanned the Appaloosa to Apollo 15. He carried memories of the Civil War and Custer's Last Stand. When he was a youth the population of the U.S. was only a fourth of what it is now, the first airplane had not yet flown, the first gas engine had not yet turned, the electric street car and automobile were not yet on the streets and movies, radio, penicillin and atomic energy were decades away.

But Carl Hayden was not content to watch the changes sweep the land -- he wanted to and did in large measure help guide this nation during a period of fantastic development and sometimes agonizing stress.

These pages are very little space to do justice to the career of this man who served 57 years in the U.S. Congress. But I wanted to share some thoughts with my newsletter readers because I think there are important lessons to be learned from his life.

Perhaps he achieved so much because he was a doer, not a talker. "When you have the votes, don't talk," he'd advise. He often said that in Congress there are workhorses and showhorses. Himself a workhorse, even near the end of his career he outworked his staff.

He grew up with a nation, and particularly a West, that needed building and he set out to help build it. Efficient roads, numerous dams, military bases, and his triumph, the Central Arizona Project, are or will be Hayden's stamps on the American landscape. As John F. Kennedy said:
 

Let us trace those years during which the young workhorse from Arizona grew into one of the most powerful men in government.

Hayden was born October 2, 1877 at Hayden's Ferry, Arizona. Hayden's Ferry later became Tempe, home of Arizona State University where Hayden spent his last years.

His first and only childhood hero was his father, Charles, a Yankee trader from Connecticut. In 1848

Most of Carl's young life was spent around the Hayden farm, on a bluff over the Salt River in Tempe. He went to Tempe public schools and graduated from Arizona Territorial Normal School in 1896.

His father, a well-educated man, decided Carl should go to Stanford University. Carl later reminisced about his college years:
 

Stanford remembered its famous Arizona alumnus in 1967 with the Herbert Hoover Medal for Distinguished Service. During his lifetime Carl Hayden was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Arizona and from Arizona State University.

Charles Hayden had been a very popular man in Phoenix and thus he left his son with a valuable political legacy.

Carl Hayden was easily elected to the Tempe Town Council in 1902, was treasurer of Maricopa County in 1904 and Maricopa County sheriff in 1906. The Haydens, both father and son, knew that if you wanted to get ahead in Arizona politics in those days you had to be a Democrat. Carl recalled his first Democratic National Convention:
 

Hayden admitted he did not quite fit the stereotype of the frontier sheriff:
 

Meanwhile, Hayden had joined the National Guard

The Phoenix Gazette showed prophetic wisdom in an editorial in support of Hayden's candidacy:
 

Hayden received 11,556 votes and his Republican opponent, Jack Williams of Tombstone, received 8,485. Women and Indians didn't vote then, which accounts for the relatively small turnout.

In February of 1912 Hayden came to Washington and later recounted the first piece of political advice he ever heard on Capitol Hill:
 

Hayden made his first speech in Congress on March 11, 1912. In a simple yet eloquent style he argued in favor of more federal expenditures for national forest fire fighting. Hayden told his colleages:
 

Hayden fondly remembered the first President he served under:
 

That same year, 1912, Hayden supported Champ Clark for the Democratic presidential nomination. But he greatly admired the party's and the nation's choice -- Woodrow Wilson. Hayden was a trusted supporter of Wilsonian domestic policies and he also went to bat for the President over the League of Nations.

Always an advocate of national preparedness, when World War I broke, Congressman Hayden joined with three of his colleagues to defy an Executive Order forbidding Members of Congress to volunteer for military service and was sent to Camp Lewis, Wash., as a battalion commander. Armistice came, however, before his unit completed training and he did not go overseas. In a speech to Congress at the end of the war he said:
 

Returning to domestic concerns in 1919, Hayden sponsored the 19th amendment to the Constitution extending the right of suffrage for women. He was author of the language stipulating that rights enjoyed by women at the time of adoption would not be nullified or abridged as a result of suffrage. In the same year, he was the sponsor and floor manager of the bill which established Grand Canyon National Park.

Hayden was learning in Congress that politics is quite accurately called the "art of the possible." He learned that legislation is a compromise; that there must be give and take to accomplish anything.

One of the projects for which Hayden worked hardest was the Central Arizona Project, a dream he had had since the 1920s. He was convinced that Arizona's prosperity and growth depended on getting the water of the Colorado River into the central part of the state. Other states laid claim to those waters and in an effort to work out a compromise Hayden proposed a gathering of the states involved. He said:
 

As it turned out, the states did devise a plan to divide the waters of the Colorado River and signed what is known as the Colorado River Compact in 1922. But the only state which refused to ratify the compact was Arizona, the result of Governor Hunt's pledge to block it. Hayden was a slow man to anger but he was angry over this one. Though he went before the legislature and pleaded for ratification, it was not until 1944 that Arizona finally ratified the compact. After the Arizona-California Supreme Court decision and congressional passage, Carl Hayden's dream of 1921 became a reality on September 30, 1968. As I wrote in 1967:
 

During those long years between the suggestion of a CAP and final passage of the bill, Carl Hayden continued to make congressional history. By 1926, his name was so sure a shot in politics that he easily won the senatorial primary. He was elected to the Senate for the term commencing March 4, 1927 and reelected in 1932, 1938, 1944, 1950, 1956 and again in 1962 for the term ending January 2, 1969.

During his Senate years, Hayden never voted for cloture to cut off debate. He successfully used the filibuster himself, along with Senator Henry Ashurst. They labored successfully for a month in 1927 and two weeks in 1928 against the Boulder Canyon Project Act to protect Arizona's Colorado River water rights and to obtain power from Hoover Dam.

Hayden was an internationalist and a strong influence in the New Deal. In 1934 he traveled to the Philippines and Asia and reported to the Senate on Philippine independence and Japanese war buildup.

As the New Deal tried to get the country moving again, Hayden's role was considerable. For example, he recalled:
 

In 1939, he sponsored legislation authorizing government insured loans to farmers -- Farmers Home Administration.

In those years preceding 1939, Hayden tried to alert Americans to the threat of Naziism. In March 1935 he could be heard on the Senate floor arguing against military appropriations cuts and arguing for new military installations, new warships and for increasing the size of the regular Army. When World War II was finally drawing to a close Hayden successfully sponsored and helped secure passage of the World War II Veterans Readjustment Act -- the GI bill of rights.

In January 1957 and for the next 12 years Hayden was President pro tempore of the Senate, third in line for the Presidency. And his last 30 years in the Senate were served as a Member of the Appropriations Committee, the final 14 years as chairman.

Interviewed by The Arizona Republic in 1967, Hayden had some insightful comments on the functioning of government:
 

The appropriations process is one of immense complexity and subjects committee Members to the strongest pressures. Yet Senator Hayden thrived on the work and on his 90th birthday was still setting a stiff pace. Aides used to complain that the Senator worked from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 7 days a week.

Although there was no deterioration in the Senator's mental facilities, he suffered some major reverses to his

Came the spring of 1968, a new election year, and Carl Hayden did much soul searching. He wanted to return to Arizona for the remainder of his life and he didn't believe he could perform his duties as Senator as effectively as he would want to. I was touched by his words:
 

So he returned to his Arizona and to "retirement". Though troubled by failing health the old workhorse spent much time during his final years at work in an Arizona State University Library office.

Carl Hayden spoke infrequently during his long career. But when he spoke, people listened. My own association with him has been one of the most valuable and memorable experiences of my life. I wholeheartedly agree with the words of Barry Goldwater: