The Wilmington morning star., 1944-08-15
By WEsTBROOK PEGLER

By WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK, Aug. 14.-To the proposal that
the salaries of Congressman and Senators be
raised from $1O,0 600 to $25, 900 comes quick
retort that many Of them are overpaid, even
now, an unfortunate truth encountered also
in many of our factories and, as the law
says, facilities However, having adopted
the principle that monkey is as good as
a man, we now have to consider whether we
should be kind to those who make our laws,
or brusquely refuse to consider their prob
lens and necessities. We might also bear in
mind that if we treat them so they could be
real mean to us.
This small group Of about 600 men is one
Of the very few elements of the American peo-
pie having no collective bargaining rights or
agent. Although, with questionable wisdom,
they provided these boons for others, with
special benefit to thu bargaining agents, them
selves, our lawmakers bashfully neglected to
improve their own position and, meanwhile,
have been compelled to raise their own in
come taxes They, almost alone among us,
have held the line along their own little sector
against inflationary wages.
Long before the CLIO was even mschievous
CLEAN in the brooding eye of John L. Lewis,
congress was operating on that basis which
is sometimes called levelism in the jargon of
the night school economist. The best was
pay the intelligent, diligent man no more for
his long hours and superior work than we pay
the clowns, loafers, nonentities and frauds.
Like many sluggish, unsklled and highly over
paid hands employed in the war industries,
some members of both houses are little bet
ter than useless and, in some spectacular
cases, are little worse if you insist.
But surely they have not thought things
through, horn trimmed essayists say
nor weighed the implications, who would turn
off this proposal in this high handed way.
should like to get the word impact in
here somewhere and casual use of pattern"
to show that am up on my reading, but to-
morrow is another day.
Certainly experience should have taught us
that if you arrogantly refuse to sit down and
bargain in good faith you cause explosions.
And certainly the American people who are
the boss in this case, have been lnsncere
in their approval of the right to bargain if
at the first test we rudely say that these SER
wants are lot of buns who are getting too
much now.
You just can't reach people that way, these
days. You have to open your books and ex-
plain your financial position; you have to be
polite and, above all, even if you are running
at loss at the time being, you sometimes
have to raise their pay so that they can catch
up with the advanced cost of living
/ There is another point or two in our popular
treatment of congress which should be recon-
sidered We demand altogether too much SER
Witty. In private industry even the president
or the chairman of the board in his plug
hat and plush weskit, spanned as the Alger
books used to- say, by heavy gold watch
chain, cannot fire sweeper in the plant for
calling him any of the popular simple or COM
pound names That is the sweeper's human
right and the situation is one to be met man.
fashion or in the courts Yet, no congressman
dares call his employers by any OF the names
that he might have good reason to apply to
them and we, in our inconsistency, would fire
anyone who did. We do demand high respect
from these people, however little we try to
deserve it; and the very fac that we get
if should make us suspicious or their honesty.
But if an honest candidate told US his real
opinion of us would we elect him?
We might question, too, our employer-espion-
age on these our hired help For, while Con-
gress has provided that employers are guilty
Of intimidation and provocation who snoop
and peer in the shop, and after hours, it is our
| own ractice to check the Congressman's votes
on current issues, to mark down how much
time he spent in his seat. and if he is seen
with certain people that news is quickly
spread. We don't even grant him the right to
select his own social company and he, like as
not. if challenged for what we consider to be
evil cornpanionship, instead of telling to go
to hell, explains that he was investigating
something for some committee.
! Congressmen are human and can be driven
too far. Goaded just so much, they might get
good and sore and pass pension law giving
everybody $1,000 week from the cradle to
the grave It would be cheaper to grant that
J raise and keep them in a good mood.