A Pigeonhole for Alaska

Ever since May 1957, the bill to grant statehood to Alaska has been gathering dust in a House Rules Committee pigeonhole personally guarded by Rules Chairman Howard Smith. Virginia Democrat Smith opposes the bill, at least partly because Alaska would probably send a pro-civil-rights delegation to Congress. Only last week did Smith hold his first hearings on the bill, and monopolized the time by questioning New York's Democratic Representative Leo O'Brien, a backer of Alaskan statehood, until the meeting was broken up by a House quorum call. Cunning old Chairman Smith benignly called another meeting for that afternoon--knowing full well that most committee members would be tied up with business on the House floor, e.g., appropriations for the Health, Education and Welfare Department. He waited around for an hour, owlishly recessed the hearing when no quorum showed up.

By pigeonholing the statehood bill, Howard Smith is clearly bucking a House majority, including Speaker Sam Rayburn. "The Speaker asked me to get it out of the Rules Committee," says Virginian Smith. "I told him I wouldn't if I could help it. I'm against it." By his tactics last week, Smith made sure that nothing would happen until at least mid-April. If he can stall for another month after that, nearly everyone agrees that the bill will be lost in the rush of House business--and Alaska will have to wait months or years longer.

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