Double Talk

The House was droning through its debate on the manpower bill. Many a black-leather seat was vacant, many a Congressional chin rested in a Congressional palm, when Michigan's veteran John D. Dingell got the floor to make a brief speech on another subject. He spoke of "the rising tide of resentment and criticism among veterans of World War II because of the issuance of an indistinct, cheap, and unworthy discharge button. . ." Afterwards the debate on manpower went on.

A copy of the Dingell speech had reached bustling Cabell Phillips, Washington correspondent for Hearst's Chicago Herald-American, and Phillips saw a chance to get a Chicago man to reply; the Herald-American thinks the present button is good enough. He took the Dingell speech to genial, white-haired Representative Edward A. Kelly of Chicago, asked him to do something about it.

One hour later the accommodating Kelly stood up. Solemnly he orated: "There is a rising tide of resentment and criticism, etc., etc." Word for word, it was the Dingell speech. No Congressional chin left a Congressional palm; the House heard it through again without recognizing it. Reporter Phillips was popeyed.

Mourned Phillips: "I asked him to answer it, not to read it." Said Kelly (who had not heard Dingell): "He wanted me to put it in the record so he'd have a story; I did it because he's a heck of a nice guy." In the Congressional Record, the speech was duly and solemnly recorded twice, in full.

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