Matter of Whits

In the seven weeks since the President vetoed the gas bill because of an "arrogant" attempt at lobbying, a Senate Select Committee has been investigating the celebrated $2,500 "campaign contribution" to South Dakota's Republican Senator Francis Case (TIME, Feb. 20). Chaired by Georgia's painstaking Walter George, the committee has listened to 22 witnesses, taken 849 pages of testimony, spent $10,000--all the while following meticulously the Senate's instructions to see and hear no evil other than that bearing on the Case case. Last week the committee delivered itself of a weighty verdict that advanced public knowledge not a whit:

"The objective of the individuals who initiated and carried out this chain of events was to influence by political contribution the vote of a member of the U.S. Senate. The Select Committee condemns such activity. Lobbying is proper; contributions are proper--but they must not be combined for an ulterior purpose. This is a case of irresponsibility run riot."

Here and there the George committee had a hard word to say about the individuals concerned. For example, the Superior Oil Co. of California's $1,000-a-month Lobbyist John Neff "acted with consummate indiscretion in making his promiscuous contacts" in Washington, South Dakota, Iowa and Montana. On one occasion, "while Mr. Neff succeeded in not violating any law here, he appears to have had every intention to do so." Superior Oil's President Howard B. Keck was not responsible for the specifics, but he showed "remarkable laxity" in delegating the expenditure of his "personal funds." As for mild Senator Case, who has never quite squared himself with the Senate leadership for calling attention to the whole mess, the committee could muster up only the lamest kind of praise: "The committee does not intend to cast any reflection upon Senator Case."

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