Practically Guilty

"The evidence presented to this committee clearly indicates that Senator Bilbo improperly used his high office as United States Senator for his personal gain in his dealings with war contractors."

With this gloved haymaker, the Senate's War Investigating Committee this week summed up its findings against Mississippi's wily, ailing Theodore Gilmore Bilbo.

All in all, the Bilbo report was one of the stiffest condemnations of a Senator by his colleagues ever to be submitted to the upper house. Despite the evasions, gags and protestations of "The Man" and of pro-Bilbo witnesses during the seven-day hearing, the committee had found Bilbo guilty of accepting money or gratuities from at least half a dozen war contractors. "The donation or ... solicitation of political contributions from Government contractors," said the committee coldly, ". . . is prohibited by a federal criminal statute."

Unfortunately, the power to seat Bilbo or throw him out did not rest with the committee, but with the Senate itself. Despite the evidence, it would be extremely painful for the club to cut off its festering member.