The 'Wright Stuff' still has its benefits

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After denying that any problem existed, the Democrats have had to confront the charges of "unethical" behavior against Speaker Jim Wright. But they point to one favorable side effect. The new brouhaha has pushed the embarrassing question of pay raises for congressmen off the front pages.

Concern has been expressed that incumbent members of Congress have such heavy advantages over their opponents that they get re-elected time after time. In recent years, between 98 and 99 percent of those seeking reelection have succeeded—a higher rate than in the Supreme Soviet under Leonid Brezhnev.

In the meantime, life in the tederal bureaucracy goes on. U.S. agencies stamped "top secret,"

Jim Wright "secret," or "classified" on 2.5 million original documents in 1988. That was 24 percent more than during the previous year, a presidential report said.

Texas officials have announced that National Guardsmen will patrol the U.S.Mexican border camouflaged as cactus plants to help fight drug trafficking and illegal immigrants. The innocent-looking plants will reveal their true identity and snap on the handcuffs when the unwary undocumented traveler passes by.

Meanwhile, a ditch four miles long, 14 feet wide and five feet deep will be dug along the U.S.Mexico border near San Diego. The Immigration and Naturalization Service assures us that it will not harm air, water, wildlife, or vegetation in the area. And what about harm to people?

Should American Drug Enforcement Administration agents get a search warrant when raiding houses in Mexico? Yes, says a federal court in San Francisco, in suppressing evidence obtained in search of the home of Rene Verdugo Urquidez, a suspected Mexican drug dealer. President Bush declared he will appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Many might wonder how American drug agents can carry out police operations in another sovereign country. The DEA has agents in 45 countries and has participated in investigations that led to 1200 arrests in foreign nations.

The Reagan administration undercut efforts to halt the drug trade when it conflicted with foreign-policy objectives, a Senate sub-committee has charged. The State Department paid $806,401 to four companies that distributed Said to the contras but "were owned and operated by arcotics traffickers."

It actually costs the taxpayer money to sell federally owned timber to private lumbering operations. For example, the government receives only 26 cents in revenue for every dollar it spends on timber sales in the Beaverhead National Forest in Montana. Much of the loss comes from the cost of roads the Forest Service builds for the lumber interests.

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report states that 10.4 billion por nds of pollution is spewed into th : air in this country every year. That's 42.5 pounds for every man, woman, and child.

what is probably a more realistic picture. Branch details King's education and gives us insights into the development of King's philosophical outlook.

King emerges in this book as a gifted, talented, thoughtful, intelligent person who is thrust by history into a role that would make him one of the most important Americans of modern times. It was a role, we find out, that King is not comfortable with.

We see him beset by anxieties and frustrations. Branch also shows us that King did not always make the right decisions on important issues. One of the more illuminating parts of the book explains how King succumbed to intense pressure and virtual blackmail as a result of red-baiting tactics used by the FBI and the Kennedy administration.

"Tired of being trampled"

Tying this period of history together is Branch's prose, his ability to describe scenes so vividly. This is not only great history but great literature as well. In a description of one of King's first major speeches, Branch writes:

"He paused slightly longer. 'And you know, my friends, there comes a time,' he cried, 'when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression.' "A flock of 'Yeses' was coming back at him when suddenly the individual responses dissolved into a rising cheer, and applause exploded beneath the cheer-all within the space of a second. The startling noise rolled on and on, like a wave that refused to break, and just when it seemed that the roar must finally weaken, a wall of sound came in from the enormous crowd outdoors to push the volume still higher.

"Thunder seemed to be added to the lower register-the sound of feet stomping on the wooden floor-until the loudness became something that was not so much heard as it was sensed by vibrations in the lungs. The giant cloud of noise shook the building and refused to go away."

It is fitting that this book recently won the Pulitzer Prize for History. It should be required reading in every high school and college across the land. A second volume is to follow. It will be titled Pillar of Fire and will cover the remainder of King's life.

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