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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1956)
Mail Flood idajor Headache to! Congress But Solons 'Love It' StaTrwun. Salrtn, (he., fil , Ji. II. l'.7i (" - !i)-7 dreW of Irtlers about M, he writes firnt llirr or four replies him rlf. Thai sets lit lone lor hi slalf of thre secretaries to answer th ret. As lor letter I r m preiaur groups, 0 Hurt Mid h tun spot them "a mil off." "When I rt a flock 0 Utter with the turn Mm and ofte tlx Mm wording from four or flv slates, I know !h hrt li on." he Mid. "I know Iff (he handiwork of a skilled, organized pressure group. "Ir'oc example, I received very heavy mall on the lau of social ized medicine. Some of my con alltuent lent mc stereotyped let Playback of Apology Heard By Educator as "a great boo-boo." In the original broadcast, Lewis erroneously identified Mrs. Wana maker as tb sister of a former government me pnl oyeor uEepi government employe in Europe who took "asylum" in Communist Czechoslovakia and criticized the United States. of his broadcasts to speak for her self or for the White House con ference. Mrs. Wanamaker has not commented' on what her decision may be on the radio time offer. ( I tutor's Mirtei rn(rrn a ka 1 lit if mIoh and, for nul ( the naUna's Uwaiaktrt, lM mr 1 a litr-rea la In lnm. Inn mull that tanri Ihrlr driki during regular srsnlnns, Mrre'i what hap wkre jmt write a le Her U yeur eMgrtia maa.) .. By ROGER I. (.Itr.ST. ' ' AP Newifeaturei Writer WASHINGTON (AP) Just lh mention of "Potomac ever," in affliction that eaune a man t swell without growing, Is enough to set any on of the na tion's lawmrkers shuddering. fcome ar smitten without ; tcrs which had obviously been sent knowmg It. All avoid ! like thto them by their family doctor." plague. The symptoms ar tricky. Hous Postmaster If. H. Morris but here's in exampl of how it said conjrressional mail has fallen ( : off since World War II. but a ft To the nation's lawmakers, one cent spot check showed Hous or tne higge.it heidaches in a pleasantly harrowing business is th millions of letters they get- ana nave to ans r from all over the country. Many of the lcttei ask favors, such as hard to-get hotel reserve . tions during Washington's spring time Cherry Blossom Festival. Others want Jobs, or perhrp an appointment to th U.S. Military or Naval Academy. Soma even seek marital advice. 'Lv Letter' Yet on all Capitol Hill there's not a legislator to be found who won't say, with a .me How-voiced Ting of sincerity: 1 love to hear from my con stituents.' The reason, at least in part, 1 th dread of Potomac Fever. Once a congressman or senator starts Ignoring the home folks or otherwise losing touch with the grass roots, the word soon te's around that the bug of big busi nesses claimed another victim. In politics, that's usually fatal. Thus the lawmakers, with nary visible gulp, loudly proclaim that while they have to work like demons, they dearly lo.c to e bulging U.S. mail sacks spill reams of letters acro.-i U.eir thres holds. What happens when yoi write your congressman? To find out I Interviewed a typical congressman from a heav ily populated district, Rep. Bar ratt O'Hara (Dill.). Like Headaches "If letters from home sre a headache," said OUara, "then you'd hav to say I like head . aches. "It's the letters that keep us on our toes in Congress. They show us how the people feel on controversial issues. Often they decide how we vote." O'Hara. now serving his third term in Congress and represent ing a constituency of more than 330.000 persons in six Chicago wards, said he used to get more than 1,000 letters a week in eat- ' lier sessions of Congress. During th past season he grappled with about 100 a day. The 73-year-old O'Hara-a small, bright-eyed man who lied about hit age (he was then 16) and fought alongsid Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish Amer ican War-said be got 13.00 let- . ters in three dayi during lh list Congress. That was during a hulla baloo over a bill to deny federal aid on transportation for parochial scnool children. Pur la' I O'Hara said the letters really pour in when one federal agency or another starts tinkering with th nation's landscape such as projects to build giant dams which would engulf 1 0 w n 1 or historic landmarks. "Members of congress have sud denly found that the conservation ists have one of the most power ful voices in the country," he said. "They want to save the natural beauty, of America." O'Hara said he welcome visits from his constituents even more than letters from them "I like to take them to lunch in . th House restaurant. Speaker Sam Rayburn or Republican leader Joe Martin usually drop over to the table to say hello, and it gives the folks from back home a real thrill." O'Hara conceded it is difficult to answer all the queries he gets from his constituents. Sometimes . it takes hours to track down the required information on a single question. Advice Asked He recalled the case of a wom an who wrote that she had hard ening of the arteries and her doc tor had prescribed a little whis key, but she was allergic to whiSr key. What should she do? "We thought gin might do the trick," O'Hara chuckled. "We final ly got the information she wanted after phoning half the government agencies in town.'V The Illinois legislator said that with his mail answering chores added to his other duties, he often works from 1 a.m. to midnight or later and usually spends sever al hours at his office on Sundays. Z .Asked if he thinks congressmen are overworked. O'Hara said "I don't think anybody can work too hard, but I'll say this - you can't do the Job in a 40-hour week. You just can t be a Jazy congress man any more." O'Hara said he is completely op posed to suggestions for a four year term, instead of the present two years, for House members members alone rrrrivfd J7J mail hags of a limit 700 letters per bag In a aingi average daya Mai of U0.4U) letters. That would mean 41,114.000 a year! j U ...... I .I.... ii ... w j . 1 v 1 a Morris said new members of , rigris usually get more letters than the old timers, probably be cause they arc eager beaver and like te send out lots of fancy quest. lonnalres to "tak soundings" on I bow their newly acquired constitu-1 enfs feel about th big Issues. j "Sometimes a single member lends out K OO questionnaires en in Issue like farm prices," Morrii ; said. "In reply, he'll get anywhere ! from MO to l.oo letters day for 1 week or 10 days." The postmaster explained that Congress members are authorized to us their free-mail (franking); privilege only on official business, ; such as replies te inquiries or news let'ers te constituents, "When they send out mail te drum up votes during a campaign. they have te buy stamps just like -1 anybody else, he Mid. "Most member ar very con acicntous about using the frank ing privilege. We get many call every day when Congress is In session about borderline rases. One congressman, a Texan, wasn't quite sure whether a big batch of letters he was sending out quali fy EATTLE U Mrs. Pearl Wan amakrr listened Thursday to a playback of the broadcast apology fled as free mail or not. He wound of Fulton Lewis Jr. and said after- up buying $2,700 worth of stamps ward: I have nothing to add at out of his own pocket, this time." I House Minority Leader Joe Mar- The stale aunintendent of nun. tin (R MassI get SO many letters lie induction said previously she" can't begin to read them all' would file a libel suit against the Personally, iney average nrouna national radio commentator for his 1.000 a week, references' to her in his broadcast Digest Made of last Friday. instead, his staff makes a digest Lewis devoted eight minutes of. and "briefs" him every few days his Monday commentary to an on the trends of popular opinion apology to Mrs. Wanamaker and! toward pending legislation. an explanation of how he had hap- Speaker Rayburn (D-Tex gets pened to make what he described, at least 1,000 letters a week On the Senate side, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson of Texas said he averages about 300 letters a day from all over the nation. "There's been a fall-off in the last few years," said one of John son's aides. "We used to get 800 a day. and it went to l.tot dally during the Senate hearings' after t- . i H a n 1 TviimaM tirmA flAM YVuitf. It. Jl J ! I,: I 1 I I iijiuin iuiiw m.a t uuwuascu in iruuai iune MacAtlhtlT Mli "M,mu ?eri! rel ? lead" "A big row like that alwayi rtin er in the White House conference up giorrn ef leilm.. on education. Scn Pu DougM D-IU). who In the apology. Lewis offered to gets about 400 or 500 letters a day, let Mrs. wanamaker take over one ! uiH rwenllv: 1 Bing Crosby to Give Profits To Gonzaga U. SPOKANE, Wash. J - Bing Crosby will donate his . profits from the motion picture "Any thing Goes" to the Crosby Me morial Library fund at Gonzaga University here, the singer told the Spokesman-Review Wednes day night. Cosbyr in- a telephone interview from his home at Pebble Beach, Calif.,, told the paper said the pic ture, which hasn t been released, could net in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. He wouldn't estimate how much of this would go to the library fund. The picture also feature Mitzi Gaynor and Donald O Connor. Just last week. Crosby donated an additional $100,000 to the li brary fund, be started several year ago. , That contribution brought the fund total to aoout 1241.000. - Crosby grew up "only " a block away from Gonzaga and . was a pre law student at the university in the 1920s. Plans for the building include a "Crosby ana Room" to house many of the singer's mementoes. 'There is a fairly widespread feeling throughout the country that , Congress in many respects has lost 1 the necessary touch with the peo ple." Some Trail' Conceding there is "some truth" 1 in the accusation, Douglas never theless declared that most con gressmen "make prodigious ef forts to keep in touch with the home folks" and are "alway alert 1 for every scrap of news from the grass roots. il 4 That may explain why the law- I maker applaud, with scarcely a quiver, when Fourth of July or Labor Day orators wind up with the stirring exhortation: "Write your congressman! Ex-Mayor of L. A. Reveals 1953 Marriage LU3 yixu.ur wn --nan ij. Shaw, 79, ex-mayor of Los An geles, walked down the gangway of a freighter at nearby Wilming ton with a pretty nionoe on nis arm. and told newsmen: "Fellows, I'm going to let you In on a little secret. This is Mrs. Dortha Sheehan Shaw, my wife since Feb. 2. 1953." Shaw said he and the 23-year-old ex-secretary had just returned Wednesday from their third hon eymoon. This time they visited South America, he said. Previous junkets were to Hawaii and Eu rone. - Shaw was mayor from 1833 to 1038. His first wife, Cora, died in 1951 at the age of a. "We're very happy." said Mrs. Shaw, "the difference in our ages makes no difference to us. Burglars Loot Actor's Home It would mean they mightlake things easy the lira two years. LOS ANGELES I - Burglars They wouldn't be watching their jlootd Actor Kirk Douglas' home votes on every bill. Now tneres ot approximator w.wv 1.1--t . ,n,. ii wittuiiit anxious r rinthinc. art works and other fares. The v know the wrong vote ; items, his secretary told police. will count against them and th, Thursday. - . next. etectionU. just aroUnd the. The aecreUry said, the articles Corner, So is the next mail deli-, were missing when she entered rv itre nome ai iw -" . . n . . . t,; Mir Thursday, ws18 i.are In Palm Springs Answers Mall ; .,. O'Hara said b always tries answer each letter personally-up to point When a major contro versy li raging and he fa u- All of the actors ciotnes ana even th content! of a freexer taken. Don't Let A Cough Cotch You! 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