"We Are All Guilty"

The low public esteem into which Congress has fallen has worried many a thoughtful legislator-and not just for personal political reasons. With a branch of the U.S. Government under attack, it is high time for Congressmen to brace up -- not to save their own hides but to preserve the principle of democratic legislation One such worried Congressman is 40-year-old Aimer Stillwell Mike Monroney.

A onetime newsman, friendly as an Airedale pup, Furniture Merchant Monroney arrived in Congress four years ago from Oklahoma City. To grow up as a good Congressman he listened, kept his mouth shut, studied hard, said nothing until he had something to say. What he said then usually made sense. This week earnest Mike Monroney stood up in Congress, brushed back his mop of hair, peered at his colleagues, and let them have it.

"We are all guilty," said Mike, speaking without rancor. The 76th Congress declared the war, but what had it done about it? Quoted Mike: "'We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.' "

According to Mike, Congress missed the mark:

> On price control-"a weak and ineffective bill."

> On conversion of the Government plant to war, by leaving virtually intact the "gangling, duplicating bureaus of non-defense agencies."

> By failing to slash nondefense appropriations.

> On taxation, which falls far short of preventing inflation, fails to "recapture excessive war profits." ^By failing to crack down on high union initiation fees, not eliminating labor bottlenecks, not preventing "jurisdictional and inter-union disputes."

Said Mike Monroney: "The people are ahead of Congress in their willingness to do anything and everything necessary to win the war. Congress has got to lead and not follow in the awful test that faces us. . . . The Legislature must not fail in this greatest of all tests. Every member has this responsibility to hand down to the next generation and those that follow: an unimpaired Democracy. . . ."

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