THE CONGRESS: Men, Money & Methods

”When Dr. Townsend accuses me of political ambitions he talks like a fool!” roared the Poet Laureate of California one day last week. In the National Townsend Weekly, Representative John Steven McGroarty had just read a statement by Dr. Francis E. (“The Plan”) Townsend crying a pox on efforts to lure California Townsendites from Republicanism to Democracy, elect a Townsend slate of delegates to the Democratic convention with Representative McGroarty as their Presidential favorite (TIME, April 6). Asserting forthwith that Dr. Townsend had deserted his plan to finance $200-per-month pensions by a transactions tax and now proposed to issue billions of dollars worth of tax-exempt bonds, the angry Poet Laureate called on “millions of Townsendites” to repudiate their original leader.*

Thus did the father of the Townsend Plan, having lost his No. 1 organizer when young Co-Founder & National Secretary Robert Earl Clements resigned last fortnight, also lose his No. 1 Congressional spokesman. But it remained to be seen whether these two apostasies meant, as newshawks reported, that the Townsend Plan was in process of collapse. For Dr. Townsend, serene in the conviction of his messianic destiny, they apparently meant only that he had rid himself of two pushing, self-willed associates who had been trying to edge in on the power & glory which rightfully belonged to him. Promptly the 69-year-old onetime country doctor popped out with a “plan of democratic management” for Old Age Revolving Pensions, Ltd. which he said he had been preparing for months. Hereafter, said he, a seven-man board of directors would “assist me in completing the final chapter of the history we are writing for a better day.” Furthermore, a national advisory committee chosen by Townsend Clubs would “counsel with me and with the board of directors.”

“The Townsend Plan,” cried Dr. Townsend, “belongs to the American people who support it.”

The Townsend Plan, testified Co-Founder Clements before the special House committee investigating it last week, now belongs exclusively to Dr. Townsend and his brother Walter. By the California law under which Old Age Revolving Pensions was incorporated, they may at any time dissolve the organization, pocket its assets. Brother Walter was taken in on the deal with him and Dr. Townsend, explained the Co-Founder, because the law required a third incorporator. Brother Walter, 45, is head porter in Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel.

Other revelations of Townsend men, money & methods turned up last week as the House committee’s youthful Counsel James R. Sullivan of Kansas City barked leading questions at imperturbable Co-Founder Clements:

¶ Townsend Plan organizers work on a commission basis, keeping a percentage of dues and fees paid by Townsend Club members in their territories. The commissions of the organizer for northern California, Witness Clements admitted last fortnight, amount to $1,800 to $2,000 per month. At this disclosure the organizer in question, one Edward J. Margett, wired the committee that his commissions were actually about $2,500 per month but that his office expenses took all that and more, leaving him personally “thousands of dollars out of pocket.” Last week Counsel Sullivan revealed that in 1915, while a Seattle policeman. Organizer Margett had been thrice indicted—twice for grand larceny, once for extortion in “obtaining the earnings of a prostitute.” Next year he had been charged with unlawful possession of 1,800 quarts of whiskey. All the charges but the one of extortion, of which a jury had acquitted him, had been dropped for lack of evidence. “At that time I was a kid of 19 and secretary to the chief of police of Seattle,” explained Organizer Margett last week. “The charges grew out of political feuds.”

¶ Clutching a copy of the National Townsend Weekly, Counsel Sullivan declared that 99% of its revenue came from patent medicine advertisements of the “Married at 120, too good to be true,” and “How to live to be 100, buy paradise for a buck” variety.

“Dr. Townsend.” cried a committeeman, “was always held up in meetings and everywhere as an eminent physician, wasn’t he?”

“Yes,” said Witness Clements.

“And the patent medicine advertisers recognized this as an asset to them in using his paper?”

“That,” said Witness Clements, “is a logical assumption.”

Producing a letter written by Mr. Clements to the Weekly’s advertising manager last autumn, Counsel Sullivan quoted the following excerpt: “Personally, I have never taken any lotabs, neither have I taken any Currier tablets, but Dr. Townsend says Currier tablets have cured him of everything and he eats them by the handsful. Why not try to get a Currier tablet ad? Just for fun I would even run one of them with a naked woman on it. Wonder how much they would pay us if we put into the ad ‘Dr. Townsend is never without Currier tablets, taking them daily; attributes his ability to speak long and often to the curative effects of Currier pills, etc., etc.’ ”

Witness Clements explained that his suggestion had been “facetious.”

¶ In a letter to Secretary Clements last October, Dr. Townsend urged adoption of a plan to hire salaried organizers for a whirlwind Townsend Club membership drive. Wrote Dr. Townsend, “There might be millions in it.”

¶ After more than two weeks’ inspection, the accounting firm of Price, Waterhouse & Co. reported to the committee that Old Age Revolving Pensions accounts prior to July 1935 were so incomplete and muddled that a reasonable audit of the books would cost some $40,000.

¶ At a Los Angeles rally addressed by Dr. Townsend last February, a collection of $1,700 was taken up. That money, declared Witness Clements, was never turned in to the organization’s treasury. To newshawks Dr. Townsend’s personal attorney, Sheridan Downey, explained that the money had been collected not for Old Age Revolving Pensions but for a Townsend third party. When it was decided to drop the third party idea, at least until after November 1936, said he, the money was “impounded.”

With these disclosures, which added up to nothing which informed citizens had not previously known or suspected, the committee called a two-week halt on public hearings, announcing that it was on the trail of a new ”hot tip.” Dr. Townsend’s turn in the witness chair was being saved for a climactic finish some weeks hence. Observers agreed that the investigation’s finish would have to be considerably stronger than its start if the committee expected to impress those U. S. citizens whose idea of sound ethics and finance is to have the Government offer a reward of $200 per month to any citizen who reached the age of 60 without having been in jail.

*Introduced in the House by Montana’s Monaghan last week was a resolution to make Representative McGroarty honorary Poet Laureate of the U. S., “out of recognition for the manifold poems of elegance and beauty his pen has contributed to the poetic lore of our nation, and especially the poem entitled ‘The Lady Eleanor,’ written in honor of and dedicated to the First Lady of the Land. . . .” Excerpts from that poem, as printed in the Congressional Record last month: What seeks the Lady Eleanor In her wide quests from shore to shore? She seeks the faltering heart, and they Who bear the burden of the day. . . . And with a smile that leaves a light Like sunlight through the gloom of night. Upon her quest from shore to shore So fares the Lady Eleanor. Reported Washington Columnist Doris Fleeson last week: “Sternly repressing any inclination to shudder, Mrs. Roosevelt merely commented that the country hasn’t had a poet laureate and probably won’t start the innovation now.”