Evening star., 1945-06-02

Most of the accounts of this san
culinary affray have dealt chiefly
with the battle itself and the princi-
pals own accounts of how well they
acquitted themselves. None that
I have seen has gone into the deep
underlying cause of the conflict 1t
has been told that the gentlemen
disagreed over the bill to raise the
pay of Congressman, but while gen.
tlemen and Congressman disagree
constantly, they fight seldom. What
was there in the situation to make
these two veterans lose their self
control?
There was this, most battling
and humiliating state of affairs
congressman need more pay and
they don't know how to go about
getting it.
Offers Figures.
Recently a former Congressman,
Maury Maverick, offered figures to
show that it costs the average Con-
gresham $16,219 to live in Wash
ington, whereas his salary is only
$4,000, Maverick asserted that
many Congressman have no dress
suits and that most of them can
no longer afford striped britcheS
and cutaway coats for official fu-
nerals. AS for the average Con-
gressman's wife, he reported, in 1914
she could buy only one winter hat,
one wool suit, one afternoon dress,
one rayon, one cotton casual dress,
one-half of dinner dress and one
half of a street dress.
That's the fix Congressman is
In. You ask why doesn't he do
something about it. He can name
his own salary and appropriate the
money to pay it. He raises the pay
of judges and executive officials from
time to time. Why not do the same
for himself? All he has to DO is
to pass law.
But the condition cannot be cor
rected quite that easily. There are
certain psychological factors in
volved. In the first place, the Con-
eresSmans constituents wouldn't
understand. Most of them look
upon $4,000 as 5qulte nice pay
check. Well, why can't the Con-
gresham explain the situation?
There's the rub. Back home the
Congressman is pretty big fellow;
he's a man who has arrived; he
represents success. Can you imagine
him standing up before a throng of
his admirers in the courthouse
square. telling them of the hard
time ne has trying to get along in
the Nations Capital, telling them of
his need for new striped britcheS
and his wife's need for the other half
Of that dinner dress? No. you can't. |
The Congressman might hold his lis |
teners, but he would not hold their .
votes.
Needs Raise.
Yet he does need the pay increase. |
So. during this session some mem
bers put their heads together and
worked out a solution. They pro-
posed that each member should
have, In addition to his salary, an
allowance of $500 for expenses. !
The House passed the bill.
The Senate, whose members suffer
the same money shortage, refused
to follow suit. The Senators okayed /
the appropriation for the House
members, but declined it for them
selves.
That resulted in some rather raw
feelings on the House side. The
Senate had put them completely in
the wrong, the House members felt.
and unjustly so. What they SAID
privately about their pals at the
other end of the Capitol could never
be printed in the clean pages of the
Congressional Record or go through
the mail, franked or otherwise. And,
with the House in this exacerbatea
state, the Gentleman from New
York let it be known that he felt
the same way the Senators did.