National Affairs: Too Fantastic

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Hearty, glad-handing Walter Ellsworth Brehm was a leading dentist in Logan, Ohio for a quarter-century before his friends talked him into making politics a full-time profession. He soon worked himself up to Congress, got elected to four successive terms as an unobtrusive Republican from Ohio's Eleventh District.

Last September, when Brehm (rhymes with seem) was running for his fifth term, Columnist Drew Pearson lined the 58-year-old Congressman up in his sights. Brehm, wrote Pearson,* was "another quiet operator in the congressional kickback circle." Over a period of three years, said Pearson, the Congressman had compelled his elderly office clerk, Mrs. Clara Soliday, to kick back a regular share of her salary; at the top, he had taken back $240 of the $442 the Government paid her each month.

Soon after Pearson's story appeared, Mrs. Soliday, then 75, filed suit against Brehm, asking $7,340 for kickbacks paid him, plus $10,000 for damages. She had been told, Pearson elaborated, that the kickbacks went to a G.O.P. campaign fund. Snorted Brehm: "Too fantastic to reply to," and his district re-elected him by a 4,000-vote majority.

Last week a federal grand jury in Washington voted an indictment against Ohio's Brehm. Its charge: seven counts of "accepting" campaign contributions from his clerks. And it went Pearson one better: it also accused Brehm of extracting $1,000 from Mrs. Soliday's successor, Mrs. Emma S. Craven. Each count carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of $5,000.

Said Brehm: "I have never at any time or any place or under any circumstances committed a criminal act. Now maybe we can get the facts on the record."