The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-08-25
Lobby Front Pops;
Probes Planned;
joe Ball On List

Washington (LPA) - ALREADY
roasting from the heat, the nations
capital was steamed up over lobby
ing also during the past week.
Resolutions for an official in
vestigation of lobbies and lobbying
made headway in the House and
Senate. Under the proposals, each
chamber would appropriate $5O,OOO
for the inquiries, though there was
still a prospect of agreement on a
joint probe rather than separate
ones. The House okayed a separ-
ate inquiry last week.
A development that aroused a
lot of comment on Capitol Hill was
the disclosure that former Sen.
Joseph H. Ball Cd, Minn.), who
was bounced out last November
by Hubert Humphrey, has man.
aged to get a sizeable hunk of the
lobby money floating around Wash
ington.
Ball had been out of work
though not on relief rolls-for
much of the time since he was
licked in the last election. But he
has just been taken care of, to the
tune of $3475, for a couple of
months work for his old sidekick,
Ilobbyist-lawyer Gerard D. Reilly.
This was revealed in Reilly's
own last quarterly report filed
with Congress under terms of the
Lobby Regulations Act.
The report showed that Reilly
one-time Labor Department solici-
tor and NLRB member, who flop
ped over to the management side
collected $7864 during the quar-
ter from General Electric, $4,000
from General Motors, $500 from
the Pond Creek Pocahontas Coal
Co., and $1,000 from the Printing
Industry of America, Inc, which
has been fighting the TYPO"
union. That's his income from the
four firms for which he lobbies; he
gets lot of other fees besides.
The most interesting item in
Reilly's report was the disclosure
that $1737.50 of GE's payment
went to "Joe" Ball, and the same
amount from GINS cash.
This showed, labor spokesmen
said, GE and GM used Reilly as
go-between to reward Ball for his
work in helping to put through the
Taft Hartley act and for his eff
forts to get still sitter anti-labor
Legislation.
Reilly anxiously insisted that
Ball didn't do any actual lobbying.
"He just digested the transcripts
of congressional hearings for me"
Reilly said.
Quarterly lobby reports cast
lot of other light on the capitals
lobbyists. They showed Purcell l..
Smith is still the highest salaried
lobbyist. He gets $65,0O0 year
and expenses from the National
of Electric Companies,
the Power Trusts front. Also, the
NAEC and individual utilities have
a string of other lobbyists regist-
cred at salaries ranging up to $685.
600 year, and expenses.
The Natl Association of Manu-
facturers lists a corps of five lob
byists in the capital at salaries
from $4,000 to $4,000, but the
NAM hasn't as yet reported its
own income and expenditures re-
quired by the law. !
Registrations showed little
army of agents for the various
units of the Realty Lobby-the
Natl Association of Real Estate
Agents, Natl Association of Home
Builders, Natl Apartment House
Owners Association and others.
Highest paid lobbyist in that group
is Frank w. Cortright, who gives
his salary and expenses at $685. I
Edward A. Rumely, convicted
during World War l as a German
agent, is rolling up nice kitty as
lobbyist for the anti-labor Com ,
mite for Constitutional Govern
nent, in which Frank Gannett,
,hain newspaper publisher, is the
.hiaf "anpel" He gives his "take"