THE CONGRESS: Kickback

Ernest K. Bramblett, 52, a mild-mannered, fourth-term Republican Congressman from the coastal strip of central California, jumped from a political frying pan into a fire.

Bramblett put his wife, Lois, On the Government payroll as a $4,700-a-year secretary because, he explained. "You don't know who can be entrusted with confidential data." Another secretary might blabber to Communists, he feared. Critics in California charged nepotism. They doubted that Bramblett, as a member of the House Agriculture Committee, handled state secrets. Worried about this political sniping, Bramblett discussed his problem with House Republican Clerk Irving Swanson one day in 1949.

Swanson agreed to an easy solution. In Lois Bramblett's place on the payroll, they decided to substitute Swanson's wife, Margaret, who would then turn the money over to Bramblett. Result: for 16 months Margaret Swanson was carried on Bramblett's payroll, though she did not work for him. She kept only enough of her salary to cover income tax, kicked back to her "employer" at the rate of $3,300 a year.

Meanwhile, Lois Bramblett was off her husband's payroll for only four months before being rehired, this time at $3,400, and without telling the Swansons.

When Bramblett's manipulations came to light, Clerk Irving Swanson lost his job and Congressman Bramblett was brought to trial on seven counts of making false statements to the House Disbursing Office. Last week in Washington a Federal Court jury found Ernest Bramblett guilty. Maximum penalty on each count: $10,000 and five years.