Silvio O. Conte Papers

The Biographical Files provide background on Conte's life and political career. This series has been artificially created by drawing from other series within the collection. Materials within folders in this series are arranged chronologically and include biographical sketches generated by aides; feature articles on Conte; transcripts of interviews; guest lists and notes regarding both of Conte's well-known annual celebrations the Labor Day Atlantic salmon party (1985-1989) and his birthday party (1983-1986) at the Botanical Gardens in Washington, D.C. There are also obituaries and several folders containing news clippings with substantive biographical content. This series contains a compilation of the famed rhymes he recited on the House floor and a few of his published writings. Tax returns from 1959 to 1975, and a few cards and notes from family members round out this key series.

The State Senate Files document Conte's eight-year tenure as a Massachusetts State Senator representing the Berkshire District. This series makes possible insight into Conte's formative years as a politician and public servant. The files reflect Conte's early involvement in what would become his major career interests: health and human services, education, the environment, and transportation. As a State Senator he served on more committees than had any other member of the state Legislature, and was the youngest legislator, in the history of the Commonwealth, to serve as chairman of the important Committee on Insurance.

This series documents his extensive involvement in legislative and investigative committees and his correspondence with constituents. Included in the nine boxes are campaign materials, correspondence, speeches, and subject files.

The one box of campaign materials is arranged in chronological order according to campaign year. Files for each campaign include addresses, correspondence with constituents and colleagues, newspaper clippings, endorsements, and campaign expenditures. Senator Conte's campaign addresses are particularly useful in revealing his political convictions as well as issues central to 1950s politics.

The four boxes of correspondence are the largest group of files within the State Senator series and reveal his diligent attention to his district's concerns and his dedication to serving his constituency. The correspondence, comprised of both incoming and outgoing letters, is almost entirely constituent-oriented with nearly one quarter of the correspondence consisting of general requests made by constituents, all of which were dutifully completed. The files are arranged both alphabetically by the name of the correspondent and by general subject.

Perhaps more than any other group of files in this series, Conte's speeches reveal his personality and opinions. Conte's speeches were candid, often humorous, and suggest that he was not afraid of difficult fights. The box of speeches is arranged in alphabetical order by subject or location of speech. Often folders contain more than one speech made on a single subject.

The subject files consist of three boxes and are arranged alphabetically. Each subject file contains an assortment of materials including correspondence, background material, newsclippings and Conte's handwritten notes. Most of the files pertain to legislation or committee activity. Prominent issues reflecting public sentiment during the 1950s McCarthyism, the Cold War and defense spending, unions, and the push for public works are recurring themes. During his years as a State Senator, Conte was particularly well known for his investigative work into mismanagement of union health and welfare trust funds; for authoring legislation establishing accident and health insurance for all state, city, town, and county employees, the first such law in the United States; and for introducing a bill outlawing communism in Massachusetts.

Also well documented in the subject files is his interest in the environment, evidenced in his work as chairman of the Conservation Committee and illustrated by his repeated efforts to obtain new state conservation and recreation areas.

His efforts to curb juvenile delinquency and his investigations of such health insurance agencies as Blue Cross and Blue Shield foretold his future vigorous support for health and social service programs in Congress. Conte also received attention for his vehement opposition to Governor Foster Furculo's proposal to establish the first sales tax in Massachusetts.

Included in the subject files are five folders of newsclippings provided by a newsclip service to which Conte subscribed. The clippings are extremely useful in obtaining background information on Conte's legislative and campaign activities.

The variety of subjects represented shows the diversity of Conte's interests, ranging from farming legislation to foreign affairs, and from an investigation of Gypsy Moths to authorship of a "Witches Bill" which exonerated the final eight victims of the Salem Witch Trials. Many topics represented in the subject files also appear in the State Senate speech files.

The Travel Files is one of the few series in the collection to reveal at length Conte's own thoughts and impressions. These appear in the handwritten letters and taped recordings he sent to his staff while he traveled. This series contains itineraries, correspondence, background materials, transcripts of personal reports, newsclippings, press releases, thank-you notes, and speeches. The files are arranged chronologically and total two boxes.

Many of Conte's early trips stemmed from his service on the House Appropriations Committee and its Subcommittee on Foreign Operations. The trips were often inspection tours of America's foreign aid programs to developing nations. The most complete files concern Conte's six week tour of Africa and Europe in 1961, accompanied by his good friend and fellow committee member Robert Michel R-IL, and constitute nearly one-half of this series. Here Conte offers interesting commmentary on topics ranging from industrialization, agricultural practices, and political structures to descriptions of the climate and local customs. On that 1961 trip Conte made a stopover in Berlin. There he witnessed the flow of East German refugees into West Germany and the hardships endured by the German people as a result of the official separation of the city of Berlin by the construction of the Berlin Wall. His personal accounts of these events and others exemplify his concern for human rights and help to explain his strong support for well-funded foreign assistance programs to developing nations.

Although primarily known for his activism on the domestic front, Conte also played an international role by representing the United States when dealing with foreign leaders. His forays into diplomacy are documented in the China and Soviet Union files. The efforts of the Carter and Reagan administrations to improve Sino-American relationships are reflected in the files on the China Trips in 1977 and 1983. In 1985 Conte was a member of the first Congressional delegation to meet with the Soviet Union's leader Mikhail Gorbachev. As Tip O'Neill said in his eulogy of Conte: "I don't know how many places we went around the world together, but Sil could ask the leader of a nation the most pertinent question that would have taken a diplomat two years to ask. He could get to the point."

Conte occasionally made taped recordings while traveling and these audiotapes are included in the collection often accompanied by a typed transcript. The trip to Africa and Europe in 1961 is especially well documented with audiotapes and transcripts for nine different countries.

The VIP Correspondence series consists of three boxes of incoming correspondence designated by Conte or his staff for inclusion in a special "VIP" album. For preservation reasons all letters have been removed from the albums and placed in acid free folders.

Most frequent correspondents in the VIP series include: James A. Baker III, Charles E. Bennett, William Brock, Jimmy Carter, Lawrence Couglin, Elizabeth Dole, Michael Dukakis, Vic Fazio, Gerald Ford, Edward Kennedy, Robert Michel, James C. Miller III, Tip O'Neill, Leon Panetta, Ronald Reagan, Donald Regan, George Shultz, Olympia Snowe, David Stockman, and Jamie Whitten.

Although designated "VIP" by Conte's staff, many of the letters are routine they reflect the networking activities and daily interaction among members of Congress. There are notes thanking fellow members of Congress for small gifts (often home-state products), thank-yous for co-sponsorship of a bill or resolution, Dear Colleague letters, and occasionally a more substantive letter discussing an important national or local issue.

The preponderance of letters from such individuals as David Stockman, White House Budget Director; James C. Miller III, Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and President Ronald Reagan document the major reworking the national budget sustained during the Reagan presidency and underscores the administration's need for Conte's cooperation as the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee in order to implement "Reaganomics." These letters illustrate the growing urgency of the federal budget deficit as a potent political issue by the 1980s.

Over the course of 17 congressional elections Conte won both party nominations three times and ran unopposed eight times and often won elections by 70% of the vote or more. Full-fledged campaigns were seldom necessary.

The files for each campaign include Conte's official candidacy announcements, correspondence expressing support or congratulations to Conte, information on the Republican party campaign fundraisers and national platform, and Conte's campaign newspaper, The Conte Record.

The later campaign files (1978-1990) contain the so-called Issue Books, which were prepared by Conte's staff to provide detailed, factual summaries of Conte's recent (usually in the last Congress) legislative accomplishments and his stance on important campaign issues.

The 10 boxes in this series consist of accepted invitations and daily schedules. The original size of this series was reduced by sampling. Whenever possible daily and weekly summary sheets of Conte's appointments were retained. Arranged chronologically, this series reveals the sheer volume and diversity of requests made on the Congressman's time.

The 80 scrapbooks in this collection cover Conte's eight years in the State Senate as well as every year Conte was in Congress. Compiled by staff, the majority of the scrapbooks comprise news clippings in which Conte's name appears. There are also campaign scrapbooks from the years 1952, 1954, 1958, 1960 (2), 1964, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1976, 1984, 1986, 1988, 1990, topical scrapbooks on the 1976 Republican presidential primary, the 1976 election, the 1980 election, the Fall 1987 budget appropriations process and three scrapbooks documenting the annual congressional baseball game for the years 1973-1974 and 1977-1979.

There is a small amount of memorabilia contained in Series 8. Items include a model General Electric power transformer, a framed Treasury check payable to the University of Massachusetts, and House of Representatives cufflinks. There are numerous campaign pins, bumper stickers, and fliers.

A few of the many plaques and awards Conte received over the years can be found here as well. These have been listed below in chronological order.

The Voting Record contains printed summaries of Conte's votes in Congress. In addition to the record supplied each member by the House Clerk, this series also includes vote analyses supplied by special interest organizations such as the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Farmer's Union. From the 86th to 89th Congresses there are charts comparing Conte's vote with the votes of House and Senate leadership and the GOP; and from the 87th to 91st Congresses there are useful summaries that provide a synopsis of the bill's intent and the rationale for Conte's vote.

Beginning with the 99th and continuing through to the 102nd congress the more voluminous Clerk-produced "Legislative Activity Guides" replace the smaller Roll Calls. To supplement these guides there are "Legi-Slate" reports for the 98th and 99th congresses. These reports were obtained for members by the Congressional Research Service using a commercial on-line database and are simply a compilation of all votes by the congressman for that particular session, with a short explanation of the bill.

This series represents Conte's staff's efforts to maintain files on the bills sponsored or cosponsored by Conte. The bills are arranged in chronological order by Congress. Except for the first two Congresses in which Conte served the 86th and 87th covering the years 1959-1963, and the 96th and 97th Congresses which cover 1979-1982 each bill is in an individual folder and arranged by the assigned number.

Exceptions to the folder level arrangement include the 86th Congress, which consists of one folder containing a list of Conte sponsored legislation, and the 87th Congress, which consists of two folders for each session, each containing a list of Conte-sponsored legislation along with a printed bill. Other exceptions to folder level arrangement by bill number can be found in the 96th and 97th Congresses (1979-1982), which have computer generated "Legislative Profiles" produced by the House Office of the Clerk. The profiles summarize bills sponsored or cosponsored by Conte under broad topic.

The contents of the folders vary depending on which staff member maintained the files. Many of the files contain printed bills and drafts of bills, reports, statements, correspondence from constituents, members of congress and lobbyists, press releases, newsclippings and Congressional Record tear sheets; other files contain only a copy of the printed bill.

All types of legislative proposals: bills, both public and private; House Resolutions; House Joint Resolutions; and House Concurrent Resolutions are included and have been arranged in that order. Within each type the folders have been arranged numerically. There are numerous private bills interspersed among the public that pertain to individual matters, such as claims against the government, immigration and naturalization cases, and land titles.

Prominent issues reflect Conte's interests and committee assignments. There is much legislation in the areas of small business, farm subsidy reforms, social security, medicare, clean air and conservation, energy issues especially concerning oil import quotas and trade.

There is overlap within the collection and other series that are likely to have information supplementary to this series include the Legislative Subject/Correspondence Files, Floor Statements and Appropriations Committee Files.

Series 3, House Appropriations Committee Files, consists of the files created and maintained by the minority staff assistants who helped Conte to meet the responsibilities of his position as ranking minority member of the Appropriations Committee.

This series does not fully cover Conte's Appropriations Committee activities. Prior to Conte becoming ranking minority member in 1979, most appropriations-related materials were filed by his staff in the Legislative Subject/Correspondence files.

The files span the 1970s through 1991, and contain documentation of many of Conte's favorite issues and important legislative initiatives. In addition to a subseries for each subcommittee, there are also subseries for General Budget Files, Correspondence, and Markup Books.

Several of the subseries have been further divided. The Interior Subcommittee files have been subdivided into four segments: Acid Rain files, Department of Energy files, Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (MBCC), and Tim Shea Subject Files. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee files have been further divided into Health and Human Services (HHS) files and Education and Labor files and the one box of materials on the Joint Commission on the Coinage has been placed under Treasury-Postal Service Subcommittee files.

There are no files on the Legislative Subcommittee or the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary.

The General Budget Files represent files not directly related to any one subcommittee but created as a result of Conte's leadership role and expertise in the appropriations process.

Subseries 3l, Markup Books, consists of the background information compiled by staffers in their effort to monitor Subcommittee Appropriations bills. The typical markup book consists of a looseleaf binder containing budget justification tables, correspondence from lobbying groups, committee recommendations, report language, and floor statements.

Subseries 3m, two boxes, Appropriations Correspondence, consists of copies of minority staff assistants' outgoing correspondence, filed by the name of the staff member within chronological periods.