National Reports

...Then isolated voices, asking whether Curley's violations of the country's laws might not be something more than Robin Hood-like altruism, were drowned out in the acclaim for the returned "hero...

...The apparent approval of Curley over the years has long made non-New Englanders wonder what has happened to the rigid moral code of the first settlers here...

...In the instance of veteran Democrat Lane, the initial indications are that there will have to be a lot more indignation expressed than there has been thus far if he is to be denied the nomination in the September 18 primary...

...His exit did not provoke anything comparable to the triumphal return of Mayor Curley to his Boston City Hall roost after serving lime for mail fraud for actions while he was a Congressman...

...Congressman Lane apparently sampled the moral climate of his election district, centering in industrial Lawrence, and decided the jail sentence didn't call for anything more drastic than refusal to accept a Congressman's salary while in jail...

...And it will take even more to defeat him in his overwhelmingly Democratic district on November 6. Only in the most subdued tones is it being pointed out that Lane's fate could be more a national than a local issue, that Congress conceivably could refuse to give him a seat if he is re-elected...

...He has sponsored but little legislation of any consequence...

...When he took office as a Congressman, he professed his full support of New Deal legislation...

...It was estimated that his net worth on December 31, 1951 was $576,222...

...This was rejected by the judge and Lane dejectedly pleaded guilty...

...Just how the average voter, who presumably pays his full share of the cost of government, reasons at the polls will be interesting to see...

...He has thoroughly convinced many of his constituents during his eight terms in office that he attends to their individual and collective interests...

...One basic Lane strength is that he has been one of the most diligent "errand boys" afoot on Capitol Hill...

...Lane was released from the penitentiary at Danbury, Connecticut on September 6, time enough for the intensive campaign which his supporters hope will give him the edge in a five-man field-such a wide dispersal of opposition that the benefits to Lane are obvious...

...he said, the full story of how he came to his impasse would he told...

...Some day...

...As things stand today, the voters of his district may say there is no immediate need for a "fuller" story...

...Subsequently he has shown attention, as far as public statements go, to issues in which labor feels it has a stake...

...The Government prosecutor told the court that Lane had 90 savings bank books...

...The Lane contingent seems not at all embarrassed by the well known fact that one of his most vigorous pronouncements was an attack on the Internal Revenue Bureau's door-to-door canvass for delinquent taxpayers in 1953...

...The Congressman avoided a long, drawn-out court trial with its attendant unfavorable publicity hy first attempting to plead "nolo...

...A jail sentence-four months in the Federal penitentiary in Lane's case-usually can be counted on to deter voters even if it doesn't curb the ambitions of the convicted...

...A subsequent election routed the old-time political boss, but few will attribute his defeat wholly to moral indignation over the prison term...

...The organs of public opinion, the daily newspapers in the district, thus far have been reluctant to oppose Lane outright because of past favors or the feeling that the jail issue is not fair in a campaign...

...He was a lawyer at the time and apparently much of his income still comes from his law offices...

...His opponents in the primary have tread lightly on the jail issue, too...

...You know," mused Curley, "you need the hide of an elephant, the wealth of Croesus and membership in the Republican party to avoid criticism, condemnation and possible incarceration in jail...

...Judging from the figures disclosed by Federal tax agents, this unpaid service was no great sacrifice...

...National Reports Convicted Congressman Runs Again By Courtney Sheldon BOSTON WHEN CONGRESSMAN Thomas J. Lane of Massachusetts tearfully pleaded guilty to evasion of $38,542 in Federal income taxes over a three-year period, it almost seemed safe to conclude the curtain had been rung down on his public service career...

...He did not resign and his staff carried on his duties in his absence...

...This was "unwarranted" and might constitute a "violation of the sanctity of the home," he said, in calling for an investigation of the Bureau...