National Affairs: Living Wage

Last month Texas Democrat Ed Gossett left his seat in the House and went back home to become counsel for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. at $25,000 a year, because he found it impossible to support his wife and five children on a Congressman's $12,500 salary and $2,500 untaxed expense account (TIME, Aug. 13). Last week seven Democrats and one Republican thought enough of a Congressman's pay and position to fight it out for the seat in a special election. The winner: husky District Judge Frank Ikard, 37, a Wichita Falls Democrat, who worked his way through the University of Texas as a deputy sergeant at arms in the legislature, served as an infantry private in World War II, was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. Said Congressman Ikard: "I think I can live on it."