The Congress: The Speaker's Family

House Speaker John McCormack is known for his almost puritanical probity. He lives simply, drives a 14-year-old car, has amassed few worldly goods. Thus he sounds in character when he professes ignorance about the influence peddling that has emanated from his Capitol Hill office for years. What plagues McCormack—and threatens his winning another term as Speaker—is that the serial revelations about Martin Sweig, McCormack's now suspended aide, and Nathan Voloshen, the Speaker's longtime friend, make it increasingly incredible that McCormack could have overlooked their activities.

McCormack has attempted to pass Voloshen off as simply a personal friend with no special access to the Speaker's official or political world. Investigations by the Justice Department, the FBI, federal grand juries in New York and Baltimore and journalists have found dozens of conspiracies involving Voloshen, including attempts to get favors for convicted mobsters, to profiteer in land schemes, to get Congressmen and executive agencies to do favors for Voloshen's clients. Investigating Voloshen's activities and his association with McCormack, TIME Correspondent Sandy Smith last week reported: — Voloshen has been close to McCormack for at least 24 years. Last week McCormack said that he had been introduced to Voloshen by an unremembered Congressman "some years ago, more than ten years ago, maybe more than that." Sweig has said privately: "Voloshen was here when I came in"—and that was in 1945. An even closer associate of McCormack's recalls that "the Speaker looked upon Nat Voloshen as his friend and as a member of his family—his political family."

> A real member of Speaker McCormack's family is Nephew Edward McCormack. The Speaker regards Edward almost as his own son and surely as a protegé. In 1966, Voloshen brokered political and financial labor union support for Edward McCormack's unsuccessful campaign for Governor of Massachusetts.

> In 1963, Voloshen joined forces with Bobby Baker, then secretary to the Senate Democratic majority, who was later convicted of theft, conspiracy and tax evasion. Their scheme was to buy the Bank of Miami Beach. Baker promised to swing deposits of Government funds into the bank, and Labor Racketeer Jack McCarthy agreed to pour union money into the vaults. Voloshen was to put together a syndicate to buy the bank. The deal collapsed when Voloshen was unable to meet his part of the bargain.

>According to Herbert Itkin, an FBI informant, Voloshen worked both for and against the Haitian government of François ("Papa Doc") Duvalier. In 1963, Voloshen offered to persuade Congressmen to speak against continuance of U.S. aid to Haiti, for a fee of $5,000 per legislator. A year later, for a retainer from the Haitian government, Voloshen said he would invoke his influence to speed $4,500,000 in U.S. funds to build a Haitian airport. Itkin reported the scheme to U.S. officials, and the funds were immediately frozen, depriving Voloshen of his fee.