Hello, Yingva

A significant and pregnant fact was clear last week to U.S. Senators and Congressmen : almost all of those who had regularly used the Congressional radio rooms to keep in touch with their constituents had also been re-elected in 1942.

The radio rooms are the brain child of wizened old Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas, who is a past master of the science of getting reelected, and of a Washington recording engineer named Robert J. Coar. In 1936 they hit on the idea of recording personal messages to Capper's electorate and shipping them to Kansas for local radio stations to play. With his aid, Coar set up equipment in the House and Senate Office Buildings. Now about 150 Congressmen package their voices for home consumption as often as twice a week. The charge is $5 for a 15-minute recording plus coaching in showmanship.

Most of the canned oratory is the sort of stuff weary U.S. voters have heard for years. Senator W. Lee ("Pappy") O'Daniel of Texas records his hillbilly band and everything. But wind and witlessness are not all. One of Coar's favorite performers is Representative Karl Stefan of Nebraska, onetime radio announcer. His district is full of Danes and Swedes. He addresses them personally and in their native tongue. Translated sample:

"Hello, Yingva, how's the wheat crop? Has the cholera bothered your pigs this year? What do you think of the new amendment to the price-control law? Are you having trouble getting help?"

The potential spread of this year-round activity was suggested last week by the House Small Business Committee. Back from a recent tour of the South and West, the Committee announced that it was ready to record the small business beefs it had heard and answer them. Coar will make six 15-minute recordings and distribute the records to 60 Southern and Western radio stations.

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