Explosion's Echo

South Dakota's Republican Senator Francis Case took the floor last February to announce to his colleagues that an attempt had been made via a $2,500 "campaign contribution" to influence his vote on the natural-gas bill, aimed at freeing gas producers of federal supervision. In the ensuing explosion, both the Democratic and Republican leaders clucked politely, then hurriedly pushed the bill through, promising to investigate later. President Eisenhower, objecting to the "arrogant" and "highly questionable activities" of gas-bill lobbyists, vetoed the bill (which he favored in principle).

A Senate investigating committee made appropriate noises about a sweeping investigation, then settled for the finding that the money had been offered to Francis Case by attorneys John Neff and Elmer Patman, on behalf of California's Superior Oil Co. Even so, the Justice Department had enough evidence to take Neff, Patman and Superior Oil to court. Last week U.S. District Judge Joseph C. McGarraghy read off the sentence: Lawyers Patman and Neff were fined $2,500 each, let off with one-year suspended sentences for failing to register as lobbyists; Superior Oil was fined $10,-ooo for aiding and abetting their failure.

Indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Scranton, Pa., on charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Government: Pennsylvania's longtime (1945-47, 1949-56) Democratic Representative (and chairman of Philadelphia's Democratic Committee) William J. Green Jr., 46, and former Democratic Representative (1945-47) Herbert J. McGlinchey, 52 (who ran unsuccessfully last month for re-election against Republican Hugh Scott), as well as five Pennsylvania contractors. The indictment against Green charged that he received $10,000 and realized an extra $20,000 in insurance commissions from the contractors, and, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, practiced "fraud and deceptions" on the Army Corps of Engineers in connection with the construction of a $33 million Signal Corps depot in Tobyhanna, Pa.

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