Acting Guilty

The U.S. didn't like the idea of Congressmen voting themselves a chance to buy a pension at Government expense (TIME, Feb. 2). Extreme case: a defeated Congressman who had served five years could buy himself a life pension with one payment of $1.39. In the State of Washington the Spokane Athletic Club started a Bundles for Congress movement: "Don't worry about the war & taxes: get that pension--forget the Axis." The jokers hired a huge truck, announced plans to drive it to Washington, filled with packages of old razor blades, night caps, broken phonograph records of I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, straw hats, old tires, cracked dental plates, wooden legs, crutches, glass eyes. San Francisco offered a shipment labeled Save Your Truck For A Lame Duck.

At the last minute Spokane Club President Joe Albi called off the truck's scheduled tour, said "We know when to stop a joke," and bought $3,000 worth of defense bonds with contributions received.

But it was no joke. The pension provision, buried in a general civil service pension bill, had passed the House without a word of debate, without a roll calla Congressional device often used to avoid later embarrassment. In the Senate, silent acquiescence had been spoiled by the noisy opposition of Virginia's veteran pinchfist, Harry F. Byrd. Their names were writ large on the record.

Congressional mail grew heavy and hot. Members began to dodge and weasel. Some talked back. Snapped Washington's Representative Martin F. Smith: "What object is there in making a Congressman look like an ignoramus and a crook?" Michigan's Representative Frank E. Hook hinted darkly that the Bundles for Congress movement was a Nazi plot. But most knew, with familiar dread, that this one issue might ruin them in their home district. A repeal movement grew.

Pension projects poured in--and no Congressman who had just voted himself a cheap life pension could well refuse constituents their turn at the trough. Already the Senate had voted pensions of about $750 each to 2,276 civilians (or their widows) who worked on the Panama Canal 28 years ago. The Senate had just approved Jesse Jones's latest war baby: a billion dollars to give private property owners in the U.S. and its territories free insurance (up to $15,000) against war damage. Pending in the Senate Finance Committee were two House-passed bills loosening and upping pensions for World War I veterans, widows, children and dependent parents. The grab bag was wide open and the grab was on.

> Of all the 77 U.S. Congresses, none had ever been held in lower esteem than the 77th. Many a citizen made a grim mental note to vote against his Congressman. For many a U.S. citizen it was all too easy to take out his general dissatisfaction on the 77th Congress. To many a citizen, Congress seemed a dreary collection of porcine clowns, of pompous pantaloons, always wrong or greedy or just stupid. Many a citizen remembered the marrow-chilling House draft-extension vote last August of 203-to-202, when one vote saved the nation's Army. Many a citizen remembered that Congress had refused to fortify Guam.*

Congress too felt the general dissatisfaction. The uneasy Senate, passing the buck to the House, feeling the country's accusing eye, tried to absolve itself. Uprose Missouri's Senator Harry S. Truman to defend Montana's Burton K. Wheeler, accused by radioracles of causing the Pearl Harbor disaster (by quashing a bill to let the FBI tap Jap wires in Hawaii). Said Truman: no such bill was introduced in the Senate, although one was defeated in the House; the Government had wire-tapped in Hawaii long before Pearl Harbor. On the subject of Guam, the Senate again found that it was all the House's fault. Longtime Isolationist David I. Walsh of Massachusetts comfortably recalled that the Navy Department had asked only to improve the harbor--not pointing out that harbor improvement is the first step to fortification.

Uprose big Alben William Barkley of Kentucky, bumbling leader for the past five years of one of the biggest Democratic Senate majorities in U.S. history. Leader Barkley, who likes peace & quiet, wanted to cork the argument. He said: "All of us must take more or less responsibility for Pearl Harbor--everybody in the United States and every member of Congress."

Senator Walsh asked if Barkley meant "the general smugness of the American people." Barkley agreed. "Which the Congress shared?" asked Walsh. Said Barkley: "Of course, we are part of the American people; and there was a certain smugness on the part of Congress. For instance, I think Guam should have been fortified. ..." Then the argument was off again.

But Barkley and his chums had cause to worry. While everybody in the U.S. might be to blame, the fact was that only 468 of the total number must run for reelection this year. And the nation was looking hungrily toward the 1942 elections and to the men they might bring forth. One thing seemed sure: the 78th Congress would see many a new face.

*Which the Japanese, presumably, were last week busily fortifying.

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