 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope. A television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company. Maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? Larry Lasser and John B. Oaks from the editorial board of the New York Times. Our distinguished guest for this evening is the Honorable Chauncey W. Reed, United States representative from Illinois. Seems fitting, doesn't it, that one of the long-time representatives of the state of Illinois in Congress should also be one of the four most congressional experts on the man from Springfield, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. Representative Reed, do you agree that during Lincoln's presidency things were tougher than they are now for Eisenhower and his presidency? Undoubtedly. The country was torn in a civil war, which of course is really worse than any other kind of a war, a foreign war. And Lincoln had problems that no other president has ever had to contend with. Do you think the country is much more homogeneous now than ever before? Oh, yes. Do you think that he had as much trouble with the Republican Party in his day as President Eisenhower is having today? I think he had more trouble, yes. Did you, as a conservative Republican, feel that Lincoln was radical in some of his views? No, I think he was rather conservative in his views. He didn't believe in amending the Constitution any more than was absolutely necessary. He, of course, he took the radical, what was called then the radical view, in that he was for freeing the slaves, which was then considered the radical view. But it afterwards turned out that it was not so radical. Well, he also thought, I believe, that the Mexican War was wrong, didn't he? Yes, when he served in Congress he was against the Mexican War. That was under President Polk. And after he had voted against the entering into the war, but after the war had been voted, he then voted for every appropriation to carry it to a successful conclusion. What about Lincoln's record in Congress, Representative Reid? He was a member of the House of Representatives in, was it 1847? 1847-48. What was his voting record like then? Did he support the party? Yes, he was the only Whig that was elected from Illinois that year. There were seven in the House and he was the only Whig. The others were all Democrats. But he supported President Polk who was a Democrat in the conduct of the war. And he voted the Whig line pretty much in his entirety. You say he was a strong party man and moderate? Yes, he was a moderate. Or a left-wing Republican? No, of course there weren't any Republicans then. He was a Whig. Well, if he were alive today, do you think he would have been a Republican? Why? Well, I think that he would have espoused all of the things that the Republican Party stands for now. What about the Senate? He never quite made that, did he? No, he ran for it twice. And the first time that he ran for it, he could see that if the legislature cast any votes for him, that they would probably defeat Judge Trumbull, who was then a senator. And so he pulled out of the race and let Trumbull be elected. The second time was when he ran against Douglas. And he received the popular vote at that time, but the state was not divided or apportioned evenly. And Douglas received the majority of the members of the legislature. And of course the Senate had one half of their membership that didn't run for reelection. Of course they were holdovers, and that together gave Douglas the majority. We were talking before about his term and the House of Representatives. But what sort of pay did Abraham Lincoln get in those days? He got eight dollars per day. Well, so you're asking for a little more now, aren't you, as the rightful member of the Judiciary Committee? What's that going to be like? That will raise our pay from 12,500 per year to 22,500. Do you consider that to be inflation or the value of a representative now? I think it's the value of a representative. They haven't been raised for many years, and the work of a representative is much greater than it has been. The sessions of Congress are much longer, and those who have professions or businesses and who formerly could go and make a little money at their various professions and businesses can't do it now. Mr. Reed, you spoke of Lincoln's difficulties with his own party and his problems as president. Do you feel that the party nowadays is in any danger of dissolution or splitting? I do not think so, no. Do you feel that there is a right wing, left wing split within the party at all? There is a division. It's not a very marked division of the, you might say, the die-hard conservatives and the very strong liberals. But the division is not very marked, and many of the conservatives are taking the liberal point of view now. And some of the, those who have been very liberal are being a little bit more conservative. I think we're molding the thing together. You include yourself among conservatives who are taking the liberal point of view? Yes, I think I am. What about the political attacks that Lincoln faced in his day, Representative Reed? Do you think they were more bitter than they are now, or are things about the same? Well, I think they were more bitter. The cartooning was very marked in those days, and the candidates were rather bitter in their campaigns, I think more so than they are today. Lincoln always seemed to have a theory, didn't he, that, like Harry Truman, that if you couldn't stand the heat of the kitchen, you'd better get out of it. But he always liked to lighten things with a laugh, didn't he? Yes. He could, he could get warring factions and bring them, they'd come over to the White House to see him, and they'd have blood in their eyes. And Lincoln was able to tell them an apt story, and they'd go away laughing, although some of them didn't like it. I recall that he was asked what he felt, how he felt it was like to be present when he said it was like being written out of town on a rail, that if it weren't for the honor, he'd prefer to walk. Yes. Representative Reed, what about yourself, as a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee now, aren't you backing a bill that would reduce income taxes to some extent? That's correct. The bill would limit income taxes to 25%, and would do away with inheritance taxes, they would go back to the states. The 25% could be raised to 40% by the Congress if three-fourths of the members of both houses voted in favor of it, and if in case of a national emergency or a war, they could raise the limit entirely. Well, now it's been estimated that that would cost the Treasury about $13 billion that Representative Reed, I imagine that you're a believer in a balanced budget, how do you make up the difference? Well, we have an idea that with the income tax raised or lowered, that the Congress will have to lower its expenditures because it won't... You, for instance, have been opposed to foreign aid on any sizable scale at all, would you take that as one of the areas of cutting expenditures? I would take that, regardless of whether the income tax amendment goes through or not. Representative Reed, would your income tax amendment be a 25% income tax on everybody's income? Yes. That this figure must not be exceeded? It will not exceed that. No, it can't go above that. You, as a real admirer of Lincoln, of course, would recognize that he was a strong president, wouldn't you, Representative Reed? Yes. How do you think he would have felt about the Bricker Amendment as an example of a limitation on the power of the presidency? I would have no idea how he would have felt about that. That's a problem that your committee may have to handle? Yes, we may have to handle it. It's an amendment, and all amendments come to our committee. Well, Representative Reed, do you think that the fact that Eisenhower has gone to the Congress to ask for authority to prosecute the Formosa War means that the Bricker Amendment has been met and challenged and done away with? No. No, that was merely, he would not have had to come to Congress at all if he didn't choose to do so. But he preferred to have the backing of Congress in any act that he may take to preserve the situation as it now exists in Formosa. Well, do you think that was a political stroke by President Eisenhower, or was that actually a move to make the country homogeneous behind him? I think that was, the latter is correct. And do you think that the Bricker Amendment will still come up in this term? Well, I'm sure it will come up. I don't know how far it will get. I understand that Senator Bricker has amended it in some respects, and perhaps done away with the objections that the President had to it. How do you feel about it yourself? Well, I'm rather non-committal on it. I don't know yet how I would be on it. I honestly don't know how I would vote on it. Well, I suppose you used your fondness for Lincoln as a touchstone on many things. I do think that there is a room for some sort of an amendment like the Bricker Amendment. I think there's room for it. Because I don't think treaty law should supersede the Constitution. Thank you very much, Representative Reid. Very glad to hear from you tonight. The opinions expressed on the Launcine Chronoscope were those of the speakers. The editorial board for this edition of the Launcine Chronoscope was Larry Lusser and John B. Oakes. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable Chauncey W. Reid, United States Representative from Illinois. Launcine is the world's most honored watch, and by any standard of comparison, Launcine is ranked as the highest achievement in modern watchmaking. The greater your discrimination, the greater will be your appreciation of the quality, the beauty, and the unsurpassed performance of a Launcine watch. Now here are the facts. Among the finest watches of the world, only Launcine has won ten World's Fair grand prizes, twenty-eight gold medals, highest honors for accuracy at the great government observatories, and yet, in spite of surpassing quality, you may buy a fourteen-carat gold Launcine watch for about one hundred dollars or even less, a gold-filled watch for as little as seventy-one fifty. 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