THE MORALS OF CONGRESS

...There was that spectacular stock coup involving the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Company, prophetically nicknamed MAGIC...

...Former Representative Thomas F. Johnson, Maryland Democrat, was indicted in 1962 and convicted on Federal conspiracy and conflict of interest charges growing out of a Maryland savings and loan scandal...

...Out of the welter of various disclosure formulas that have been suggested, perhaps a compromise will emerge...

...Paradoxically, it was Congress itself that started the disclosure crusade back in 1953, when the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned General Motors' Charles E. Wilson about his stock holdings as an issue relevant to his confirmation as Secretary of Defense under President Eisenhower...

...Financial disclosure is based on the simple theory that making public the nature and extent of personal interests will produce self-restraint...

...Weiner said the dates were merest coincidence, that Baker had nothing to do with shepherding the bill through the Senate...

...The Baker manipulations have caused many Senators to urge some form of "come clean" disclosure of members' finances, and to deplore the sinking state of legislative prestige...

...By a fifty to thirty-three vote, the Senate salvaged the intent of the Rules Committee's proposal for authority to look into Senatorial and employe behavior...

...In the interim, the voters ousted Johnson from office The manipulations of Texas farm tycoon Billie Sol Estes implicated Representatives J. T. Rutherford, Democrat of Texas, and H. Carl Andersen, Republican of Minnesota, and probably led to their defeat at the polls, also in November, 1962...

...Weiner acknowledged that he paid Baker $5,000 for "legal services" just two days after a maritime licensing bill, in which Weiner was interested, passed Congress in 1961...

...Senator Joseph S. Clark, Pennsylvania Democrat, commented that it was a vote to "sweep under the rug" the whole product of months of Baker hearings...

...MoCloskey conceded "somebody goofed" in his company by clearing the insurance bond overpayment, but he denied any knowledge of a kickback scheme...

...It did not accept the Committee plan, but it did approve a substitute resolution sponsored by Senator John Sherman Cooper, Kentucky Republican, creating a special six-member bipartisan select committee empowered to investigate wrong-doing, subpoena witnesses, and recommend disciplinary actions, including "reprimand, censure...

...The Committee found that Baker did exceedingly well in the financial world while occupying a Capitol Hill office suite...

...But the Committee was persuaded, despite Senatorial sophism, to recommend that it be given specific jurisdiction to investigate conduct of members and Senate employes, and that Senators and employes be required to make limited disclosure annually of their assets and sources of income...

...Further, it was disclosed that Miller made speeches in the House in 1956 and 1958 for tariff legislation to protect felt, but failed to reveal his personal and pecuniary interests in the Lockport enterprise...

...In times long past, it probably was cheaper for the grand old families, such as the Vanderbilts or the Carnegies, just to buy a Congressman...

...They are not likely to convince the majority of their colleagues needed to pass a disclosure law unless the lawmakers hear a clamor from the voters for reform...

...There were Baker's substantial interests in the posh Atlantic seaside Carousel Motel, controlling ownership (now more than ninety per cent) of Serv-U Vending Machine Company, and even intimations that he used party girls to win favors from Washington officials...

...He was, in his own word, "shocked" by the standard of ethics—or lack thereof—that he found among Senators and their employes...

...The Senate Rules Committee, at the insistence of Republicans, launched a lengthy and sometimes stormy investigation into the arcane business dealings of the one-time Democratic aide from Pickens, South Carolina...

...Senator Frank Church, Idaho, revealed that he owned no stocks or bonds and that his savings account had dwindled from $15,569 to $6,833 since he left his law practice to enter the Senate eight years ago...

...The Morals of Congress by HALE MONTGOMERY "TVisclosures of Congressional favors for sale and testimony concerning political payoffs have raised serious suspicions about the moral climate in the nation's highest legislative body...

...Even the more limited proposals for financial disclosure laws continue to be regarded by a majority on Capitol Hill as bad news...

...Students of government believe that there must be some enforcement body if Congress were to enact a code of ethics providing guidance for its members...

...Some cases can be recalled...

...That leaves ninety-three per cent who have not followed the example of their national party leaders...

...But many veteran House members who serve their districts with distinction have been dismayed by the malfeasance of weaker brethren who have stained the reputation of Congress...

...So benumbed were the Senators by voting to police themselves that it was not until eight months later that Senate Democratic and Republican leaders got around to naming six members, three from each party, to the watchdog committee...

...He said that by prior agreement, he padded a bill to McCloskey for a performance bond on the government stadium job by $35,000...

...On another front, some political scientists hope that the $7,500-a-year salary increase which Congress voted itself last August will permit the financially hard-pressed member to be more independent of outside sources of income...

...public service, as a whole, today stands at a higher level professionally than it did decades ago...

...The stock multiplied in value more than tenfold in three years...

...William Proxmire, Wisconsin...

...Probably, if it would have required him to disclose his sources of income...

...There have been suggestions for a special panel of judges to perform this duty, but it has always been distasteful to the legislative branch to have the judicial branch looking down its throat...

...and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana, who says he has no income other than his Senatorial salary—and these Republicans: Hiram L. Fong, Hawaii...

...The hearings ended with more questions raised about this matter than were answered...

...At last count, thirty-six of 535 members of Congress had voluntarily disclosed their finances...

...Harrison A. Williams, Jr., New Jersey...

...To handle the Baker investigation, the Rules Committee hired as special counsel Lennox P. McLendon, a pink-cheeked, seventy-four-year-old North Carolina lawyer who looks, at first glance, as though he might mosey through a Br'er Rabbit style hearing...

...Even among this little band of thirty-six, the disclosures have been made with varying degrees of candor...

...It must have been a traumatic experience...

...Is there an effective solution to the problem of Congressional conflict of interest...

...Appearing before the Rules Committee in a blue suit with a white silk tie—his sartorial trademark in the days when he hustled about the Senate floor as the quickwitted secretary to Democratic members—Baker invoked Constitutional protections sixty times in refusing to answer questions...

...Max Karl, president of MAGIC, later testified the shares were offered for sale to Baker simply because the company wanted "outstanding people" as stockholders...

...Such a trimmed-down plan would require a simple listing of sources of annual income, plus disclosure of any profit-sharing relations with an outside business...

...In July, the Senate by a forty-eight to thirty-nine vote killed the Committee resolution calling for this modest disclosure plan...

...The 435-member House of Representatives has not responded visibly to the shock of the Baker case to the degree the Senate has...

...For a lawmaker from a maritime state to refrain from voting on a shipping bill, or a farm-state member to refuse to vote on an agriculture bill, would leave those states without a voice in Congress...

...But the Senator ignores the fact that members of Congress, unlike tycoons, are trustees of public, rather than private, funds and interests...

...The idea is still pending...

...But such overt bribery is passe...

...Congress also has passed a conflict of interest law applying to the conduct of all Federal workers, but it is not tailored to meet problems effecting members themselves...

...Because of the secrecy surrounding grand jury deliberations, little is known of its work, but it is believed to be looking into possible income tax violations by Baker, as well as other matters...

...During two weeks of renewed hearings in December, insurance agent Don B. Reynolds testified under oath that he was the "bagman" in the scheme...

...Specifically, it would have required Senators—and Senate employes making $10,000 or more a year—to disclose any assets valued at one-half or more of their salary...

...By his own estimate, he was worth $2 million...

...Senate...

...Twenty-one years later, he resigned under fire his $19,600-a-year post as secretary to the Senate Democrats...

...Senator Wayne Morse, Oregon Democrat, commented caustically in a later Senate speech: "It looks as though somebody got caught with their hands in the cookie jar . . ." The 1964 election campaign brought forth the news that New York's Representative William E. Miller, the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, was on the payroll of the Lockport Felt Company at $7,500 a year...

...each chamber polices itself separately in the matter of morals...

...Everyone calls him "Major...

...This would widen the source of campaign funds, and shrink the influence of wealthy contributors...

...Senator Hugh Scott, Pennsylvania Republican, described Baker as a "first rate hustler for a fast buck who took advantage of his position to become a millionaire...

...Presumably Senate Democratic leaders would have reined in their runaway aide and cleaned house earlier...

...It is somewhat chastening," he said, "to have to acknowledge so modest an estate in this chamber, which has so often been referred to as a rich man's club...

...But these rules are rarely invoked, and few observers seriously consider them manageable...

...Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, who has been urging disclosure since 1947 and who has introduced bills to make it mandatory, listed a net worth of about $350,000, mostly in farm properties...

...President Kennedy recommended tax deductions for political contributions...

...cated to avoid conflicts of interest is a system of financial disclosure...

...Nevertheless, efforts have been made and proposals offered to lessen temptations plaguing elected officials...

...Conflict of interest laws, which seek to define what conduct is wrong and fix general rules in a broad area, should not be confused with proposals for disclosure...

...Under it, members of Congress would be required to reveal their personal finances to the public...

...The sorry saga of the Bobby Baker case, and other evidence of improprieties by some members of Congress, have brought increased pressure for reform on Capitol Hill before the country is led from the New Frontier into the Great Society...

...Senator Cooper's select committee, although it keeps enforcement within "The Club," still amounts to progress in the direction of reform—if the six watchdogs are duly installed...

...His reasoning is: do the captains of industry have to tell the world their bank balances...

...Whatever the final outcome, it is clear that pressure is growing for Congress to do some housecleaning—and to begin the sanitizing process in the current session...

...There have been other cases that should have at least shaken the confidence of the voters in their elected representatives...

...and former Senator Kenneth Keating, New York...

...Critics have pointed out that Congress lives in arrogant isolation under an invidious double standard—one astringent standard of official integrity applicable to executive branch nominees, and a lesser standard for its own members...

...Proponents concede it is not a cure-all, but they argue that it would be a powerful inducement for members to hew to the straight path, and help to promote integrity in legislative practices...

...Five Democratic Senators were among the frankest, listing their stocks, bank accounts, farm properties, and other assets with dollar values given...

...Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, Minnesota Democrat, once commented: "For the most part, the gain to the individual Congressman includes advantage or the advancement of an interest which is shared by many other persons, including constituents...

...and twenty per cent were "not sure...

...One reform most frequently advoHALE MONTGOMERY covers developments on Capitol Hill for United Press International...

...Other Senators who have volunteered statements on their finances include these Democrats: Joseph S. Clark, Pennsylvania...

...Big campaign contributors frequently expect some favor in return from the winner...

...Senator Javits proposed that members and employes of the Senate file an annual public statement with the Comptroller General listing any financial interest, direct or indirect, having a value of $10,000 or more in any activity subject to review by a Federal regulatory agency...

...By now, one disclosure has led to more...

...This public cynicism about the moral and ethical standards of Congress has not gone unnoticed by members who must face the voters at re-election time...

...In 1942, Bobby Baker entered the Senate sanctum at the age of fourteen as a knickers-clad page boy...

...legislators must represent the voters who elect them...

...Would a financial disclosure law, applying to members and top employes of the Senate and House, have halted Baker's dollar pursuits...

...the forces of revelation are growing...

...Baker refused to shed any light on the mounting pyre of politically flammable evidence...

...The Rules Committee brought these and other facts to light, and in a formal report last July, found Baker guilty of "gross improprieties," but it did not recommend that any criminal or legal action be taken against him...

...The Baker affair certainly prompted some of these members to hang their balance sheets on the line...

...In the same issue of the Journal Senator Case argued strongly for a disclosure law applying to Senators and Representatives, not as a cure-all, but as a self-policing means of keeping members to the "straight and narrow...

...But self-reform in Congress comes with glacial sluggishness...

...It became an inflexible rule that future Secretaries of Defense divest themselves of valuable holdings, often at considerable personal sacrifice...

...And he was rich, at least on paper...

...After the outcries, Byrnes announced he was turning over his MAGIC profits to an educational institution...

...You have one hundred consciences dictating the moral level of the Senate...

...Consequently, all of these would be unrepresented and would suffer if the individual member refrained...

...After defeating disclosure, the Senate voted to conduct a study of problems of conflict of interest in all three branches of the government...

...This at least would bring into view current outside interests of members and key employes—and it would have exposed Bobby Baker...

...The stock ballooned in value to about $400,000 a year later...

...It does not necessarily follow that a bill is bad if a financially interested lawmaker votes for it...

...A number of plans have been enthusiastically introduced, and just as vigorously avoided by most members...

...Senator Clifford P. Case, New Jersey Republican, declared that a "requirement for disclosure of financial interests would help to dispel the cynicism and disdain with which so many citizens view the political practitioner...

...The latter may be designed to avoid the evil of conflicts, or they may stand alone...

...Election costs constitute a serious barrier to the good intentions of many lawmakers, some of whom must raise more than ten times their Congressional salaries to wage a re-election fight...

...In a mea culpa speech on the House floor last year, Representative John W. Byrnes, Wisconsin Republican, acknowledged, following public disclosure and criticism, that he bought |2,300 worth of stock in MAGIC—the same firm that proved so beneficial to Bobby Baker—at insider prices...

...Of those interviewed, fifty per cent said they felt members of Congress tended to "represent special interests...

...It is the principle which underlies such laws as the requirement that lobbyists register and list their expenditures, that unions file annual financial accounts concerning pension plans for their membership, and that many stock-owned businesses file certain statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission...

...Hugh Scott, Pennsylvania...

...The pay of Senate and House members, effective January 1, rose from $22,500 to $30,000 a year...

...Frank E. Moss, Utah...

...that the moral standards of the "greatest deliberative body on earth" had come under sharp suspicion because of the revelations involving the business capers of one of the Senate's own employes, Robert G. (Bobby) Baker...

...There are no rules and no standards of practice or propriety that tells a Senator where to stop, or that he can fall back on in declining to do a favor," said an indignant McLendon in an interview...

...It did not, but further Committee hearings are scheduled...

...Case added that it might even be a relief for many—that "after the initial shock, I suspect the vast majority of the members of Congress would find it a positive help in carrying out their official responsibilities...

...Congress is notoriously bashful about reforming itself, but it was this abrasive issue that created angry moments last year in the democratic processes of that unique and prideful citadel of power, the U.S...

...Case, and like-minded reformers, mostly liberals, are still in the obvious minority in Congress...

...To me, this is just unthinkable in a civilized government...

...Baker apparently was able to parlay his position as the confidant of Senators to gain early access to the stock...

...But despite his Southern-gentleman appearance, McLendon is a capable advocate with a strong Calvinist conscience...

...Baker invested $28,750 before the stock was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission...

...Senator Stephen M. Young, an Ohio millionaire, disclosed his holdings in twenty-four stocks...

...The proposal would not demand that members divest themselves of financial interests, but only that they make the facts known...

...Dean Bayless Manning, of the Stanford University Law School, has cautioned against efforts to draft overly restrictive conflict of interest laws...

...Senate Republican Leader Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois, for example, has said that inquiry into the personal finances of solons would "make us second-class citizens...

...What one Senator would do depends on his conscience, and what Baker would do would depend on his...

...thirty per cent felt members "represent public interests...

...Writing in the Federal Bar Journal, he expressed concern that further legal restraints might discourage competent men from entering government service...

...One sign of the voters' poor opinion of Congressional integrity was revealed by a Louis Harris poll last spring...

...It has prompted a number of reform proposals keyed to the maxim that Americans must have faith and respect in those who govern them if democracy is to be effective...

...The slogan is "business as usual" in a body where the Old Guard retains control under an almost unbreakable seniority system...

...Nevertheless, rules changes are sometimes made, in response to strong public demand...

...It would apply to members of Congress and their top aides, and also to major officials in the executive branch...

...A Federal grand jury began supoena-ing witnesses last October and quietly opened a parallel investigation...

...or expulsion from office" of Senators or their employes...

...Senator Paul Douglas, Illinois, detailed about $163,000 in assets...

...Present conflict of interest laws are so limited and vague that the Committee —even if it had wanted to recommend prosecution—would have had to find a substantial case of bribery amid its 2,000 pages of testimony about Baker's shenanigans...

...It also would have required them to state any connections with firms or partnerships doing business with the government...

...Republicans greeted the Rules Committee report in July with cries of "whitewash" and succeeded in having the case reopened to scrutinize an alleged $25,000 political payoff on a construction contract for the District of Columbia stadium, a modern sports arena often referred to as the Baker Bowl...

...More than fifteen years ago when Senator Morse first introduced a disclosure bill applying to members, he stood as a lonely minority of one...

...They charged that Baker acted as middleman in a scheme to funnel excess insurance costs paid by Philadelphia builder Matthew H. McClos-key into the 1960 Kennedy-Johnson campaign coffers...

...But the grand jury meeting two blocks away in a Federal court building showed immediate interest by serving Weiner with a subpoena to question him about what looked suspiciously like legislative influence for hire...

...Reynolds swore that he kept $10,000, and gave $25,000 to Baker in five cash payments of $5,000 each, which were to be forwarded by Baker to the Democratic campaign...

...he makes an annual accounting...

...But there was one surprise...

...He had helped the Milwaukee mortgage guaranty company win a favorable tax ruling from the Internal Revenue Service...

...Proponents argue they would not require that members must divest themselves of holdings, which Congress now demands of Cabinet officers, but merely disclose them...

...The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case on appeal...

...The same rule has held true for most of the other Cabinet members, and a host of top-echelon executive department officials below Cabinet rank who must be examined before being confirmed by the Senate...

...When he left, he was the intimate of the influential, the friend of powerful men...

...McLendon drafted a strongly-worded initial report last summer that subsequently was toned down by the six-to-three Democratic majority on the Committee...

...His argument, however, centered on the executive branch, not Congress, and dealt in the main with conflict statutes, not disclosure proposals...

...Members sensed that the citizens back home were restless...

...McCloskey, long-time Democratic Party finance chairman and former ambassador to Ireland under the Kennedy Administration, called Reynolds a liar...

...There is some talk of scrapping any requirement to list a dollar breakdown of assets in an effort to shape a compromise that can get through the Senate or House...

...Nineteen House members have made public accountings of their finances in one form or another...

...Gale W. McGee, Wyoming...

...Who, then, watches the watchers...

...Both the Senate and House have rules permitting a member to disqualify himself from voting on an issue where a conflict of interest may exist...

...Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii, reported assets of about $103,000 and 1963 income of $43,626...

...A Federal court of appeals overturned the conviction which was based on the charge that Johnson had collected money for making a speech in the House favorable to Maryland savings and loan industry interests...

...A New Jersey lawyer-public relations man, Myron ("call me Mickey") Weiner, provided some of the most significant testimony in the December hearings...

...for example, a legislator who has a considerable interest in a railroad may excuse himself from voting on a freight rate regulation bill...

...New Jersey's Clifford Case and New York's Jacob Javits, both Republicans, and Philip Hart, Michigan Democrat, listed securities holdings but not their total value...

...Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, former Ford Motor Company president, had to forego options on Ford stock valued at $400,000 when he joined the government...

...Senator Case also listed bank accounts and insurance but not their worth...

...Senators Case, Clark, and Maurine Neuberger, Oregon Democrat, have sponsored a more far-reaching resolution that embraces reporting of income as well as assets, liabilities, and substantial gifts...