Lesson in Fair Play

An old foul blow, struck by Congress in 1943, was penalized by the U.S. Court of Claims last week.

The Congress, trying to knock off three minor New Dealers in one of its rows with Franklin Roosevelt, had tacked a rider onto an appropriations bill denying salaries to Robert Morss Lovett, Government Secretary of the Virgin Islands, and FCC employes Goodwin B. Watson and William E. Dodd Jr. The excuse: the Dies Com mittee said the three were "radicals." All three continued working for awhile, then filed suits for back salary.

The Court, considerably shocked at Congress' bad manners, granted the claims in full: $1,996 to Lovett, $101 to Watson, $59 to Dodd. Wrote Judge Samuel E.

Whitaker: "[Congress was] inflicting punishment on them without a judicial trial." Wrote Judge J. Warren Madden: "A shocking and outrageous injustice."

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