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Show Know Your Congressman To Make Democracy Work 2y BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. VU Service, 1016 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. The time of the singing of candidates candi-dates has come, and the voice of the mock - turtle is heard in the land. The representatives representa-tives of the people peo-ple are about to assure you that you have been well - represented, represent-ed, and that they would like to continue con-tinue to do the representing. And who are you to say no, if you don't know exactly how well ( . t A i ' i ' ft : i ' it your representatives represent-atives in the house of representatives representa-tives or In the senate have carried out your interests? Issues are being joined, there are sharp cleavages of thought these days. And if you don't take the trouble to vote for the men in congress con-gress who are voting the way you want them to, you have no right to lambast congress. True, it does take some trouble to learn to read your congressman's record correctly. cor-rectly. A simple statement by a candidate that he voted for the X bill (the. one you wanted passed) doesn't mean too much. A number of energetic organizations organiza-tions are out to tell you how to read the lawmaker's records. One organization is the National Citizens' Citi-zens' Political Action committee which reminds voters: "A favorite device of congressmen congress-men is to vote for a series of mangling man-gling amendments, or to procrastinate procrasti-nate with investigations or recommittal. recom-mittal. Then, having partially or completely wrecked the usefulness of a bill, they may vote for the final version. Don't take these votes at face value." In other words, don't be satisfied with the record of the final vote. See how your congressman voted on the amendments. The NC-PAC literature concludes with a warning that any voter, whatever what-ever si.de he is on, may well take to heart: ' "When your congressmen start promising in their forthcoming campaigns, check their past voting records very carefully. Don't take it for granted that if they voted for a measure, they were for it, and ' fought for it. Perhaps they helped cripple it first." Disguise Enmity To Legislation , That is true, and with a little investigation, in-vestigation, you will learn that a lot of congressmen, whose real views and activities you really wouldn't subscribe to at all, may have been voting in favor of some of the bills you would like to see passed. Later, when he is soliciting solicit-ing your support, he will point with pride to these measures, omitting to mention the fact that he helped to emasculate them carefully before be-fore hand. You will also find sometimes that although he has loudly shouted down a bill (which you didn't like, and, secretly, he did), he did not actually work against it. Perhaps, finally, he even voted for it if there was no roll call. Another way in which a congressman congress-man can fool his constituents is to offer an amendment which appeals to his particular locality, but which he knows can't possibly go through. That appeases the constituents constit-uents and, at the same time, doesn't hurt the congressman with the particular interests with whom he may be friendly. They know, as well as he does, that the whole thing is just an empty gesture. Kill Bill With Recommittal The vote to "recommit" is a favorite fa-vorite trick, and usually reveals the true sentiments of a senator or congressman. con-gressman. Not much attention is paid to these votes. When a bill is "recommitted," it is sent back to committee, supposedly for reconsideration. recon-sideration. Actually, recommittal usually means the measure is pigeonholed pi-geonholed forever. On the. other hand, when a powerful power-ful committee pigeonholes a bill you would like to see passed, and your congressman is willing to sign a petition to try to get it out, you can be pretty certain he is sincerely working to get it through. Of course, what goes on secretly in committees is most important, and can usually be found out, for the newspaper and radio correspondents corre-spondents make every effort to report the inside facts. This is not difficult for the reporters, since committee members whose efforts were defeated are usually willing to divulge the machinations of the majority if there were any machinations. ma-chinations. Admittedly getting all this information infor-mation takes time and trouble on your part. But that is the price you have to pay for the kind of government govern-ment you want. The government makes you take time to figure out your income tax and to do a lot of other little chores, but it doesn't force you to inform yourself on how your government is being run. However, How-ever, the information is all there, if you care to take the trouble to get it. Reports of public hearings, as well as the record of what happens on house and senate floors, are available avail-able for the asking. That is a part of y'our congressman's job reporting report-ing to you. As Lowell Mellett says in his "Handbook of Politics": "The true test of a member of congress is not the good bills for which he voted, but the good bills he voted against plus the number num-ber of bad bills he voted for." Nobody can ever take democracy awaj' from you you have to give it away, by default. And such "defaulting" "de-faulting" is no rare occurrence. Within With-in the last few months, I know of four organizations which discovered there was a Communist in their midst. Furthermore, that Communist, Com-munist, using his own energy, and taking advantage of the indifference of the other members, had gained a key position in the group. As soon as the rest woke up and realized the real purpose of measures taken under what amounted to this man's minority rule they threw him out. You know, "eternal vigilance. . . ." Knowledge is power. Know your congressman, don't knock him. Ike Leaves Secrets Untold The final report of General Eisenhower Eisen-hower to the combined chiefs of staff, which has at last been released, re-leased, is a splendid example of terse and comprehensive exposition. exposi-tion. Into less than 123 pages is compressed the epic of the greatest great-est military operation in history, extending ex-tending from D-Day to V-E Day. It is unfortunate, for the sake of mystery lovers, that the document does not go into detail concerning one phase of the invasion which has rightly been 'called "the greatest deception in history" the clever ruses which caused the enemy to make his fatal miscalculations. The Germans knew that the Allied Al-lied landing must be made somewhere some-where within a relatively limited lim-ited length of shore-line, but despite this, they were completely deceived as to where that landing was to be. The result was that the Allies were able to get a toehold which they might never have been able to secure, se-cure, had the Germans guessed the prospective location of the real beachheads. Obviously, the natural place for a landing would be in reasonable proximity to Calais, where the English Eng-lish channel is narrowest. Actually,, the nearest beachhead was established estab-lished more than a hundred miles farther to the west, but the whole German 15th army remained immobilized immo-bilized in that locality until it was too late. - But even after the landings were made, the Germans were not sure they were the main objectives. This was because of a five-prong plan of deception, all the prongs pointing to simulated diversionary attacks by land, sea and air, away from the actual invasion area. One simulated attack was at Cap d'Antifer, northwest of Le Havre, far to the east of the invasion area. There, planes, ships and balloons moved in, gradually producing echoes on the German radar warning warn-ing instruments similar to the approach ap-proach of a convoy. Another fake landing was staged in the direction of Boulogne, still farther east, with 16 ships and accompanying ac-companying planes. The steady patrolling of the skies was taken by the Germans to be the air cover cov-er of an oncoming armada. Far to the west, halfway down the Cherbourg peninsula, and at various vari-ous other points, dummy airborne invasions were carried out. The Germans finally decided that the real thing was approaching Boulogne, and opened up with all they had. Meantime, the actual invasion in-vasion forces crossed the channel without any interference by air or sea. It was a grand fake. I 1 A Case for The Forsaken 'R' As a midwesterner born, I have battled many years for the letter "R." Therefore I was overjoyed to find further distinction for the "Rs" as against the "R-nots." It was in that strangely intriguing "Book About a Thousand Things" by George Stimp-son Stimp-son (whose "Book About the Bible" I have mentioned before in these columns) that I learned that "R' and "L" are the "last and most dif ficult consonants added to speech " I |
