MASS LOBBYING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 202, 16 July 1936, Page 6

MASS LOBBYING.

Political corruption exists in most legislatures, and in some more than others. While with some legislatures on a close examination political corruption would be hard to discover, with others it is obvious and no special efforts are made to veil it. The United States Congress is perhaps degrees better in respect of political corruption than many of the legislatures of Continental Europe, and Congress, it may be said, is bad enough. Deputations to Congress are a normal feature, but in recent years these deputations have become formidable in respect of numbers. An example of this was afforded by the deputation of the Veterans’ Association to demand the passing of the Bonus Bill; without debate the measure was passed, and that, too, over the President’s veto, and by 328 to 79. It is this pressure of large and noisy deputations that tends to supplant orderly parliamentary discussion and action. Deputations can be useful as well as dangerous, and they are tending to become dangerous. No way has yet been found by which the liberties of a people can be preserved except through a free parliament chosen by tiie people; and no parliament can remain free if it is subservient to a dictator or a militant group. Today, thoughtful men in the United States are troubled over the tremendous growth of the mass deputation and mass lobbying, and the part it plays in the enactment of legislation. It is said that the Veterans’ ilssociation subjected members of Congress to the most ruthless pressure. The veterans have received their bonuses, and when pressing for them they probably had in mind the increased compensation which Congress has voted its members.

For many years 5000 dollars (£1000) was considered the limit of salary in Congress and among bureau chiefs. After the Spanish War there began a quiet but systematic boosting of the Congressman’s income and perquisites, states a writer in the Atlantic Monthly. To-day, a member of Congress gets 10,000 dollars (£2000) as pay, a mileage allowance, and from two to tour personal clerks paid by the Government. He franks his mail, and is furnished with an office which he uses mainly for his personal business. The pay for clerks, or at least a great part of it, is “kept in the family,” in many cases, by appointing members of the Congressman’s family to these positions. Altogether a Congressman’s compensation amounts to an equivalent of somewhere between 12,0U0 and 15,000 dollars. He spends on the average about six months a year in Washington, The rise in Congressional pay has brought down upon the holder of a seat in Congress a far fiercer competition than existed in former days. There is a fierce election contest going on in America at the present time.