Love's Labors Won

One desultory afternoon last week, New York's Democratic Congressman Emanuel Celler, 76, rose in the sparsely populated House chamber to perform a labor of love. Celler's task: to speak on his bill outlawing gerrymandering of congressional districts. It was a subject close to Manny Celler's old Brooklyn heart.

"You know," he began, "it is said that gold never rusts. Twenty years ago, I put this gold nugget, this bill, away, and it has not rusted. It is just as good today as it was 20 years ago when I first tried to get it through the committee on the judiciary of the House of Representatives and it failed. I have been very patient and on many occasions have made speeches to advance this bill. But I was always frustrated."

What cured Manny Celler's frustration was last year's Supreme Court ruling on redistricting. The court declared that "as nearly as is practicable, one man's vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another's."

What was needed now was some implementing law, and it just so happened that Celler had exactly what the Supreme Court ordered.

His bill requires that congressional districts must be both contiguous and compact -- no more political finagling that over the years has shaped many districts into incomprehensible geographical puzzles -- and specifies that the population of any district may not vary by more than 15% from the average population of other districts in the same state. A total of 130 districts in 32 states now fail to meet that population provision; they would be required to correct matters before the 1966 congressional elections.

Any alternative to these proposals, Celler argued, would be "a veritable mishmash, a hodgepodge. I do not think you want that." He was right. The House accepted the bill by a voice vote and sent Manny Celler's nugget to the Senate, where passage looks as good as gold.

Last week the Congress also:

> Defeated, in the House, a proposal to give U.S. Supreme Court Justices a $3,000 pay raise (to $42,500). Taking its cue from Missouri's Democratic Congressman Paul C. Jones, who bawled, "Let's vote it down and show the Supreme Court what we think of them." The House did just that, 203 to 177.

> Passed, in the Senate, a four-year extension of the Manpower Development and Training Act, which provides up to two years' on-the-job or classroom training for the unemployed who lack skills or education.

> Approved, in the House Judiciary Committee, legislation to provide for presidential disability or for vacancy in the office of the Vice President (TIME, Feb. 5). Already passed by the Senate, the measure is scheduled to go to the whole House next month. Once approved, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the 50 state legislatures before becoming the 25th amendment to the Constitution.

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