Evening star., 1951-11-18
By Robert K. Welsh

District Crime Subcommittee staff
seeking replies and reactions have
this much in common:
They toll and sweat under time
pounding pressure. They struggle
with problems, emotional and legal,
human and technical, personal and
official, ethical and practical. And
both sides wonder how the whole
misunderstanding themselves-will
end up.
And that is where agreement seems
to stop at this point in the pro-
ceedings.
This question of the QUESTIONABLE
has aroused plenty of theory. con-
stitutional and curbstone. However.
a condition Immediately confronts
this city, Congress and perhaps
eventually the courts:
After the Kefauver committee on
organized crime unearthed signs of
crooked tie-ups here. the Senate told
a District subcommittee to investi-
gate. That subcommittee authority
expires January 81 unless extended.
a continuation devoutly wished by
the staff, but doubted by some others.
For that reason. if for no other
reason, a QUESTIONABLE covering al
most everything including the cost OF
the kitchen stove has gone out to
some $50 of the approximately l.700
people on the Metropolitan police
force. This seems to be the first
move of its kind anywhere in the
country-except in New York City,
where the aim and scope were es-
sentially the same but the procedure
was differen..
The temptation is practically over
whelming to quote the Gilbertian
line about the unhappy lot of police
men. It's especially hard to resist
in the case Of those who smother
(unquestionable with difficulty their
feelings in answering 27-page
mimeographed assortment OF queries
about constabulary duty and more
or less related activities.
Nothing to Feor, but -.
The honest policeman. according
to subcommittee sources. need not
fear filling out the QUESTIONABLE.
Yet, whatever the merits Of the legal
wrangle over right Of privacy" the
policeman might well conclude he
needs at least a six-year household
budget book, if not lawyer or
public accountant, when he first
beholds this awe-inspiring @ and A
apparition in the privacy OF his
home or office.
Gradually the bulky. bewildering
document takes on a more systematic
shape. There still are approximately
1,700 bits boring for information
about income and outgo, holdings
and debts. relatives and hobbies. as
sets and liabilities and various other
doings and devices annually back to
January l, 1945 But they fall into
natural groupings-and when the
dust settles there turn out to be 68
basic question groups to be answered.
Not all the questions need be an
swered. But whether there are 68
or 1,700 questions. they take in such
far-fung fields Gall since 1945> as
telephone numbers - social scurlty
numbers of working wives-names OF
parents. in-laws, dependents and
paying roomers insurance and
mortgages-cars and garage rent
costs and other data about weddings.
combinations and so forth-stocks
and bonds-bank accounts and de-
posts and withdrawals-charitable
and other contributions-club and
organization dues L. real estate, as
we'll as personal property such as
radios, jewelry, and furniture-in-
heritances-loans made or money
due to others-average weekly cost
Of food consumed at home-enter-
tainment and vacation expenses-
amount spent for domestic help
average cost of gas. electricity and
telephone estimated total cost of
clothing and income from a regular
job or any other source. +,
Problem Of Relatively
A big chunk of the QUESTIONABLE
deals with real estate and other prop
erty in the name or actual possession
of wives, children and dependents.
This has stirred special legal argu-
ing, rivalling even the controversy
over legality of issuance of the ques-
tionnaire itself.
Consider the claim that wife may
not be competent" to testify against
her husband, on the avowed ground
that such matters are confidential
communications. Pity, too, the plight
of the policeman whose wife can't or
won't tell him about domestic finan-
ces. What about the policeman whose
adult children refuse to disclose their
property holdings, earnings, or op-
erations in the stock market? And
what of policeman's first wife, or
the children of his second wife's first
marriage?
AS the perspiring policeman scrapes
the bottom of the QUESTIONABLE, he
may stumble under table. The con-
cluding table, that is, replete with
dots and dashes and wide open spaces