THE CONGRESS: Vendetta

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AEC Chairman Lewis Strauss was nettled by the repeated charges of Democrats on the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee. Sum of the charges: the AEC spent so much time squabbling over the Dixon-Yates contract that it was neglecting its primary mission of weapons development and production.

Last week Strauss replied. Before New Mexico's Democratic Senator Clinton Anderson, chairman of the joint committee, could start questioning Strauss, some AEC aides entered the hearing room, struggling with five big boxes packed tight with documents. They set the boxes down behind Strauss. Another aide deposited six manila envelopes, tied in a neat packet, on the table beside Strauss.

The committee members looked on, mystified by the proceedings. Democratic members were in no mood for a surprise party; they were still smarting over a Securities and Exchange Commission ruling, delivered the day before, that authorized the issuance and sale of $5.5 million in common stocks to finance the Dixon-Yates power project. Chairman Anderson, ordinarily a mild sort of man, flushed darkly, demanded: "Who is responsible for this display that we have had?" Peering up through his heavy-rimmed glasses, Lewis Strauss said: "I am responsible for it." Then he told why.

Straightening the Records. Strauss indicated the five crammed boxes behind him. In them, he said, were all the papers received by the AEC commissioners from their staff since Jan. i, 1954, exclusive of those having to do with the Dixon-Yates contract. Then Strauss pointed to the six-inch packet on the table: the envelopes, he explained, contained everything the commissioners had read about Dixon-Yates. Said Strauss laconically: "I would now thank you for the opportunity you have accorded me to put the record straight."

Clint Anderson choked back his anger, looked down at the table in front of him, and passed the buck. "I think Senator Pastore will put this his way." Rhode Island's Democratic Senator John Pastore, caught unawares, mumbled: "I think this is now assuming rather ridiculous proportions." Replied Strauss crisply: "I couldn't agree with you more, sir." A few minutes later, Pastore stalked out of the hearing room, muttering "Most unfortunate."

Strauss also defended himself against a charge of a more personal nature. Last Feb. 1 he had told the joint committee that he could recall no AEC discussions of Dixon-Yates since November. On this, Strauss was challenged by AEC Democratic Commissioner Thomas E. Murray (who last year voted for Dixon-Yates, later changed his mind). The AEC, said Murray, had in fact discussed Dixon-Yates on Feb. 1, the very day that Strauss made his statement. Last week Strauss explained that he had been late for the AEC session on that day, had not engaged in the Dixon-Yates talks, and had not known about them. Said Strauss of Murray: "By omitting a pertinent fact, he allowed the impression to be created that I had attended or even participated in a discussion of the contract. I am confident that this was no more than an inadvertence or a lapse of memory on his part."