Evening star., 1939-03-28

cause whoever
drafted 1t forgot yll
that out of in go
dividual incomes --
there must be
paid State and city taxes and that
If incomes are virtually confscated
when war begins the whole structure
= of private credit might collapse and
bring on financial crisis at the very
moment when national unity was
most desired.
Why, it will be asked, did so SEN
atorS sign such prepoSterouS pro-
posal, and why didn't they read it
carefully before giving even informal
approval? The incident brings to
the forefront of attention problem
on which relatively little has been
said, but which Is really at the root
OF our legislative situation, namely,
the inability of members of Con-
gress to give personal attention to
the thousand and one things that
&. crowd before them, and the made
quacy of their Office stats to handle
communications from constituents
and others.
Pressure Is Scandal0us.
The way the Congress of the United
States is forced to do its work is
nothing short of public scandal.
Just at the time when the citizens
are deeply interested in an impor-
tant bill or the repeal of an existing
law and the mails are flooded with
letters and kilograms, the Senator
or member of the House may be tied
up with other matters which are
his particular province of inquiry.
He is importuned for answers to let
tiers and he is asked for personal in
terviews. He really does not have
either the time or the staff to han
die effectively the duties of his Office
unless out of his own pocket he Is
able to hire additional staff.
The entire cost of the salaries of
The House and Senate members and
their respective Offices is about $8,-
100000 year and yet this group of
b31 men is expected to pass minutely
on appropriations totaling around
s100O0,000,000 year. 1t might be
thought that the congressional COM
mittees have special stats available,
but they do not. Each committee
has clerk or secretary, and occa-
slonally an extra assistant Is en-
gagged, but on the whole the COM
mittees do not have any special
staffs.
If the Congress should appropriate
a small amount of money each year
to permit the hiring of a staff of at
least two extra persons for each Office
OF a Senator and Representative and
make the salaries large enough to
engage some one with business or
economic experience, so that legis-
lation, actual or proposed, could be
carefully analyzed, the result might
be a saving of hundreds of millions
Of dollars year.
Research Means Limited.
II member of Congress wants to
get a piece of research done on a
measure that is pending or one that
he is thinking of introducing, where
can he go? Often he consults the
executive departments or agencies,
but there again the personnel isn't
supposed to work for the legislative
branch OF the Government and, be-
sides, these officials have their own
work to do. Lately it has been sug-
gested that some members might be
able to avail themselves of the serv-
ices Of private research organiza-
~tions, but there are not many which
can afford to do work for nothing.
Worst Of all is the situation that
exists on Capitol Hill with respect
to committees. It is not at all infre-
quent for a Senator to find his cal
endar calls for attendance at three
different committee meetings at the
same hour. He cannot possibly 20
to all three so he goes to one, stays
while, and goes on to another, or
else he misses two out of the three
Yet the system assumes that each
Senator who is member of a COM
m1ttee will be present when legisla-
. ton Is being drafted.
Time for Action at Hand.
Members of Congress hesitate to
add to the legislative pay roll be-
cause OF the demagogic outcries that
usually arise in such instances, but
the time is at hand when, unless the
Senate and House get extra staffs,
not only to handle the huge volume of
letters and kilograms nowadays, but
ia analyze the numerous proposals
\a4d suggestions that come to them
N serious attention, the people Of
e United States may expect even
pre- ill-considered and patchwork
kislation in the future than in the
What makes the situation even
vi rse than ever before is that nine
out Of every 10 proposals for legis-
la4on which come to the Senate and
House nowadays relate to basic
economic matters-either business or
industry or agriculture or taxation
or cognate questions The day of the
relatively simple piece OF general
legislation Is long since passed. It
Is an era of technical legislation in
which expert analysis is required,
and yet the Congress has about the
same equipment as it had in the
horse and buggy days Of a half CEN
tury ago.
Small wonder that Senators and
Representatives, giving hasty glances
at what seems to be worthy or COM
mendable bills, go on record favor
ably only to find later that some one
else has made an analysis showing
that more harm than good would
come from adoption of the proposal.
Copyright. 19399
Pedestrians crossing on green
lights have right of way over auto
mobiles making turns.
Grace Gray DeLons,
THE Helpful One
Psychic with the Uys. Il