News-Journal from Mansfield, Ohio • 5

Tuesday, March 7, 1978 News Journal, Mansfield, O. 5 After looking at the best and J. worst Ohio congressmen, The News Journal's ington Bureau looks at some other good ones in tomor- ililin'l row's Newscope. Ohio's representatives in Congress rated These 5 rank at bottom of heap 1 "TsI 'F 0 ft if S'jy yypt Nhv'5 '-tv 1 'v LA- Tennyson Guyer As 64-year-old Rep. Tennyson Guyer R-Findl'ay) clings to the brass ring and glides toward retirement, few things about congressional life interfere more with his life than the time-consuming business of legislating.

Debate on the House floor bores him, the drafting of bills in those endless committee scs- sions is too tedious, and that onerous chore of voting in committee, he once I told a reporter, is the "least important" part of his Job. However, there have been moments in his five years on Capitol Hill when Gu- yer would rush to the floor with the spry- ness of a summoned page such as a presidential address to a joint session of Congress. He would arrive early enough to position himself to press the presiden- tial flesh as the chief executive tra- versed the center aisle. Guyer has also made his presence I known with one of the House's gaudiest wardrobes, a continual reminder that he still faithfully adheres to the Ohio Sen- ate's dress code. On a typical day, Gu- yer is decked out in shoes and belt of white patent leather, a blinding necktie and a crazy-patterned, shiny suit he has been known to describe as "a skin dis- ease." Guyer has earned a reputation as one of Ohio's most undistinguished Con- gressmen, and certainly the state's most irrelevant.

"If there ever was a shallow person comments one of Ohio's most respected Republicans, not bothering to finish the sentence. "If the House had 435 like Tenny, the Republic absolutely would not make it" says an- other Ohioan. Guyer was asked several months ago I l)v a Davton Daily News" reporter about his do-little record on the International ..1 nnr, TENNYSON GUYER (R-Findlay) CHARLES CARNEY (D-Youngstown) DOUGLAS APPLEGATE (D-SteubenvUle) DELBERT LATTA (R-Bowling Green) SAMUEL DEVINE (R-Columbus) In yesterday' Newscope, The News Journal's Washington Bureau, under the Listed today are those considered the five worst among Ohio's 23 members of the direction of Richard G. Thomas, listed the five Ohio congressmen rated the best. U.S.

House of Representatives. In rating the delegation, the bureau relied heavily on the standards used by members themselves in judging their colleagues. As the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Washington Bureau reported last year, Carney, one of 13 children of poor, working-class parents, hoarded 81,663 surplus Library of Congress books under a program intented to benefit constituent groups. When he should have been tending Delbert L. Latta Now that Wayne Hays has departed, the title of Ohio's meanest congressman unquestionably falls to Rep.

Delbert L. Latta (R-Bowling Green), a tight- Pledge of Allegiance, which also would have his name on it. "All year long, we had one person in charge of scanning the newspapers, usually the receptionist. She'd come up with things like wedding anniversaries, and I'll tell you, we never missed a 50th. There weren't many 25ths we missed, either.

We had the student achievers who got letters, too. This had to be something special, like 'outstanding You wouldn't make it just being on honor roll." Latta is contemplating retirement. On Monday mornings when Congress is in session, he returns to Washington by way of Columbus International Airport. In recent months he has been observed doodling on his paper placemat in the plane. He's been computing his pension under the new Congressional retirement for mula.

Rep. Samuel Devine The more Senator Howard M. Metzen-baum railed against the natural gas industry in general and Columbia Gas of Ohio in particular, the redder grew the lace of Samuel L. Devine. The scene was a January 1977 meeting of Ohio members of Congress and Columbia executives.

Some 75 onlookers, most of them staff aides and press, were present in the Rayburn Building hearing room. When his turn to speak came a few minutes later, Republican Devine accused Metzenbaum, who had by then left, of "demagoguery." Still livid, Devine then arose to leave, himself. The one-time Mid-American Conference football referee from Columbus strode angrily to the nearest door, as if marching off a 15-yarder for unnecessary roughness against Ohio's junior senator. He pulled the door open. Everyone was watching.

He froze. He had opened a broom closet. To extricate himself, Devine had to walk the length of the room. Fortunately (for him) the TV cameras had been turned off. The blunder might have been forgotten immediately as one of life's embarrassing moments.

But in the case of De-vine, it was symbolic of the dead end his congressional career has reached in recent years as well as his utter frustration at seeing liberals like Metzenbaum in action. Never a workhorse, Devine of late has gotten lazier than ever, and despite seniority that looks impressive on paper, he barely is making a dent in the legislative process. The message is clear to colleagues and congressional observers. After 19 years in the House, 62-year-old Sam De-vine has had enough. He is just going through the motions until retirement sometime in the foreseeable future.

Says an Ohio Republican colleague: "Sam's become one of the certain number of brass-ringers and space-fillers we have in Ohio, like they have in every other delegation. The pattern is the same. After 10 or 15 yearsit dawns upon them that they're never going to be Speaker or a committee chairman, and then they grab the ring and go along for the ride. When they get to the brass-ring stage, they really don't care anymore. You don't see too much of them.

Their staff starts doing everything for them." Says another Ohioan: "What you have here is the classic case of the congressman who is forever the prisoner of the provincialism of his own district." Devine's performance cannot be discussed independently of the powerful Wolfe family, now in its third generation of controlling Columbus. The Wolfes control, among other things, WBNS Radio and Television, the Columbus Dispatch, the physical plant that prints the Columbus Citizen-Journal, the large bank holding company BancOhio, the Neil House Hotel, and a securities-underwriting firm. The Ohio Co. Author Neal R. Peirce wrote in "The Megas-tates of America" that the Wolfes run "what may well be the most powerful and ruthless single-city-based communications and economics establishment of the United States." The Wolfes also control Sam Devine.

He has faithfully done their corporate and ideological bidding, and they have reciprocated by propping him up with fawning treatment in the Dispatch. The most influential news outlet in central Ohio has suspended the adversary relationship in its coverage of Devine. One major Devine story the paper ignored was the strange entry of Independent William Moss into the 12th Congressional District race in 1976, as the third candidate alongside Devine and Democrat Fran Ryan. The background was that in 1974, Ryan, a Columbus councilwoman, had come within 2,486 votes (out of 144,121 cast I of upsetting the previously invincible Devine. She was moving in for the kill in 1976, a prospect that greatly concerned the Wolfe family and other of Devine's powerful friends.

In the summer of 1976, however, De-vine's chances for survival greatly improved when Moss, a 41-year-old black radio personality, suddenly and mysteriously declared himself a candidate. The morning alter the election, his impact was all too clear. Ryan had lost to Devine by less than 2,000 votes (90,987 to Moss received 15,429, the bulk of them from blacks who would have sup neialions uommiuee. i huh we icaai. important part of our job is voting," he said "and that includes things like offering amendments and writing bills.

As tar as my role goes, I want to have a voice and vote, but I don't want to sit for hours just to offer one amendment. I do a better job using my speaking ability in the district, where I can explain what we're doing." While many wonder if Guyer actually knows what we're doing," there is no doubt that this professional public speaker gets out of Washington whenever possible to make his appointed rounds on the Holiday Inn circuit. In 1976 he gave 94 speeches to constituent groups (for free) and more than two dozen talks outside of his district for at least $8,285 in lecture fees Guyer's ideal audience is a High Twelve senior citizens club, which he addressed last fall in Toledo. Afterwards, a woman kissed his cheek and vowed never to wash again, and an el-dpriv man ureed Guver an ordained Ohio's Worst to otticial Business, me congressman was insieau piling out titles lor his Youngstown home, or for one of his several storage rooms in Washington and Ohio. Although he did pass on many of the volumes to organizations in his district, he kept the best titles for himself.

"I never took any money, said Carney. "If you want to call them few books stealing, then I stole." That, from a man who, in the same interview, defended his receipt of special interest campaign contributions bv saving, "They're not going to buy Chuck Carney for $100, I'll tell you that." While Carney pays total obedience to organized labor he sometimes does it so crudely that even union officials are embarrassed. Last June, the Ohio AFL-CIO held its annual luncheon for the Ohio delegation, an occasion designed to build at least momentary goodwill between labor and congressmen of all ideologies and parties. Carney, however, did his best to undo that ambience when he announced that, due to a conflicting engagement, he would have to leave the room before the speech-making had begun. "Don't worry," he bellowed as he headed for the door.

"111 vote any way you guys want me to." Rep. Douglas Applegate It was Sen. Roman Hruska of Nebraska who argued in 1970 that the lackluster G. Harrold Carswell should be confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court so that mediocre people would have representation on the high tribunal.

"We can't have all Brandeises and Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there," he said, unknowingly driving another nail into Carswell's coffin. A Capitol Hill insider, perhaps mindful of Hruska's well-traveled quotation, recently offered a similar defense of Hep. Douglas Applegate (D-Steubenville). Seeking to put his friend Applegate in the best possible light, he said: "Everbody in the House can't be cerebral. If not for Indians iike Doug, who would all the chiefs up here have to lead around?" Applegate arrived in Washington after serving without distinction in the General Assembly between 1961-77 Ho iv.

known around Columbus as a eood ol' boy ills? lipped, spiteful 57-year-old who leads tne state delegation in back-stabbing, browbeating and cheap shots. "Delbert's just fine, except that he's got that chip on his shoulder and he hates the world," observes an Ohio Republican colleague. Although Latta has been in Congress for almost two decades, representing the northwestern corner of Ohio, by his own inclination he has remained largely unknown to all but his constituents and Capitol Hill regulars. Even in the day-to-day operation of the House, where he could parlay his high-ranking seats on the Budget and Rules committees into far-reaching influence, he is surprisingly insular and undistinguished. House Republican leaders know he is a sure vote, and that he will reflexively sink his legislative or verbal hatchet into any proposal that is backed by the Democrats or, for that matter, any that smacks of innovation.

But otherwise they expect little and get less from one of their senior colleagues. Other fiscal con-vervatives, who accomplish more with less seniority, wince at Latta's wasted potential. "He's in a position to play a national role, but he's never risen above the parochialism of his own district" says a conservative associate. Latta's reputation for gut-cutting and blind partisanship was not lost on the Nixon White House. As impeachment hearings loomed in the summer of 1974, the administration saw to it that Latta was appointed to the vacant Ohio Republican seat on the Judiciary Committee (Rep.

William Keating of Cincinnati had just resigned to become publisher of the Cincinnati Enquirer). As television viewers saw so vividly, no defender of Nixon argued with more bluster or fewer facts than did Latta. Even Rep. Charles E. Wiggins of California, who made an eloquent rebuttal of the impeachment case, was offended by Latta's emotional rampage.

"I'm uncomfortable with (New Jersey Republican Rep. Chalres) Sandman and Latta," Wiggins told an Esquire writer. "Theirs is a political, rhetorical technique, not a courtroom argument. It's not in keeping with my idea of emphasizing the law and the evidence." A woman- who used to work for Latta says, "He always reminded me of a kid brought up on sour milk." but argues against any notion that Latta is heartless: She recalls the time several years ago that he spent his lunch hour chasing around Washington for a "Dr. Seuss" book for his daughter.

An influential constituent in regular contact with Latta's Capitol Hill office says: "Delbert's always had a small staff, and over the years he's had few men on it if any. He pays those women a pittance and he never lets them forget who's boss. It's a tight, sterile atmosphere, and every time I walk in there I'm reminded of going into a dentist's waiting room." In fact, Latta's office in the Rayburn Building is more like a mail order house. Over the years, Latta has required staff members to take time from official business to satisfy one of his political obsessions the sending of red-white-and-blue freebies to unsuspecting but grateful constituents. Department of Agriculture yearbooks, tax guides for small businessman, flags flown ever-so-briefly over the Capitol, congratulations on wedding anniversaries.

A woman who worked several years in the office recalls: "It was something we did all year on and off, but the really high point was in the spring, when we'd send a letter of congratulation to every graduating high school senior. Mr. Latta would sign every one of thnoo totters and then we'd enclose a certificate of Church of Christ minister to autograph his Bible. Back in Washington that day, the Rouse, in its last regular session before entering a three-week stretch of pro forma meetings, was hacking away at an ambitious agenda. Guyer told a Toledo Blade reporter he had no qualms about missing such a busy schedule because he had already compiled a 94 per cent voting attendance record for the year.

Guyer arrived in Washington in 1973 after waiting patiently in the Ohio Senate for a congressional seat in western Ohio to open up. It proved to be an excessively long holding pattern, for Guyer was. in the words of one colleague, home bv the time he got Charles J. Carney Rep. Charles J.

Carney (D-Youngstown) wins just about everybodv's prize as Ohio's worst congressman. His style embarrasses not just the state delegation, but the Congress as a whole. A bedraggled, blustery 64-year-old in bad health, Carney is so lacking in congressional stature that he is apt to' be mistaken lor a disoriented visitor who got separated from his tour group and stumbled onto the congressional floor. When the House begins nationwide televising of floor proceedings, the leadership will have either to shape up or closet its several Car-neys. lest Congress take a further beating in the public opinion pulls.

Carney, however, may not be around by the time the cameras roll into town. 'Youngstown Mayor Jack Hunter, a Republican who came within 4.224 votes (out of iibout 177.000 cast) of unseating Carney in 1976, appears ready to run again, and Harry Meshet, the assistant Ohio Senate majority leader, may take on Carney in the Democratic primary. With the Youngstown-Warren area economically crippled by steel closings anil Carney's incptness obvious, the handwriting is clearly on the wall. Incredibly, however, he vows: "I'm ready for battle. I'm running again." Carney actually is no less effective a legislator than a lew other Oliioans in Washington.

But what quickly separates him to the bottom of the lot is that he is unabashedly preoccupied with sleazy politics chiefly, taking care of Charles Carney at a time when the staggering national agenda demands so much more ol its leaders. Whatever Carney has been up to in his seven vears on the Hill padding his Congressional payroll with no-shows, misrepresenting his voting record to constituents, allowing lobbyists to pick up a portion of his daily living expenses his activity has irequently borne the mark of the political hack. with amazing instincts for political survival, but as a low achiever when it came to legislation and other areas of public policy. Given such a hapless performance over a decade and a hall in the state legislature, it is difficult for Applegate-watchers to imagine him doing much in the more challenging national legislature. Indeed, in his first 14 months in Congress Applegate has shown no sign of shaking his mediocrity, notwithstanding his use of the incumbent's advantage to project an image of invincibility to the folks back home, lie sits on the scoop-shovel Public Works Committee, and.

to hear him tell it in his press releases, he has mined the U.S. Treasury for the 18th District as ravenously as Big Muskie and The Silver Spade have dug out the coal veins back home. The friendl 49-year-old backbencher was elected to Congress in November 1976 after the Liz Ray sex scandal had forced the resignation of legendary incumbent ayne L. Hays. To many residents of the district, it was a trade worthy of the Cleveland Indians front office, for whatever Hays' sins of the flesh and of personality, he was never sold short on his brains or his ability to compete with the big boys in Washington.

The I la vs-f or-Applegate deal was a straight player transaction and. judging by the way Applegate is using the incumbent's advantage to entrench himself, there was no player to be named later. here." But Guyer's phase-out to retirement, whether it lasts one or three more years, will not be as serene as the previous five vears. He has been linked innocently but embarrassingly to Dr. Ilancho D.

Kim, the Korean-born businessman indicted in the South Korean influence-buying scandal. Kim is scheduled to stand trial this year, and Guyer may well be summoned to explain why he tried to arrange a meeting between the Korean and President Gerald Ford. Kim and Guver share strong ties to Findlay College in Guyer's hometown, and it appears to have been that fact, rather than anv criminal purpose, that brought them together in Washington and placed Guyer on the periphery of the scandal. Guyer's best defense, in fact, is his reputation lor irrelevance. As one close observer of the Ohioan put it: "Who want to bribe Tennyson Guyer?" some kind for the kid to put on the wall, maybe a ported Ryan in a two-way race.

yui icu lljan hi a Recent rail mishaps argument for subsidization The nrVm is steep grades, they are inherently efficient in their use of inflict on the to certain ill-managed railroads, lhe promem is steep grades, they are inherently efficient in their use of Thp rost nf us nav the lnilici on me iiauuu arrangement, especially when balance states, or hardlv an equitable you consider that railroads get no tax funds whatsoever for the repair ot their roadbeds, even though they, too, pay enormous taxes. At the very least, Congress could alter the tax structure to place a fair and equal burden on both kinds of freight carriers. Another way in which the government could bolster railroads would be to treat them as transportation arteries vital to the national interest. Then Congress could justify diverting some of the billions that we spend on constructing and maintaining highways to repairing what has become the most dilapidated system of railways in any industrialized nation in the world. The choice now before Washington is clear: Either the government revitalizes this important means of transportation or it leaves Americans singing, in the words of a popular folk song, "the disappearin' railroad blues.

energy. And when an upnui sireicn cans iui ua yun, getting it is no more complicated or costly than hooking up an extra engine or two. Thus, no fuel is wasted on high-powered locomotion on level track. All this boils down to a marked advantage of railroad over truck transport: Moving a one-ton load one mile by rail requires, on the average, only a quarter of the fuel that it takes to haul the same load for the same distance by truck. The government has, however, consistently failed to encourage the use of freight trains.

In fact, it heavily favors trucks a position as unfair as it is impractical. In the first place, motorists and other taxpayers subsidize trucking on a grand scale. Truckers pay substantial highway taxes, including fuel taxes, but such revenues cover less than 40 percent of the cost of repairing damage that their vehicles nationwide. Indeed, long before the latest rash ot accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board had pinpointed its source: poor maintenance of tracks and roadbeds. The board will take up the matter in public hearings in early April.

The board should look beyond the immediate question of stricter safety standards, however, and investigate the factors behind poor maintenance, which form another sorry chapter in the largely ignored saga of America's dying railroads. By all rational criteria, railroads should be thriving, not deteriorating physically or financially, in this era of energy consciousness. Think of the efficiency of trains. Steel wheels rolling on steel tracks produce less friction than rubber tires gripping concrete, Moreover, because railroads are built to avoid (EDITOR'S NOTE: James R. Mills is presiaeni pro iem ui the California Senate and a member of the board ot directors for Amtrak, which operates the nation's passenger trains.) By James R.

Mills Tht Lot Anjelei Tlmti In the wake of last month's tragic tank-car accidents, lawmakers everywhere clamored for a strengthening of the safety regulations that govern the movement of hazardous materials on the nation's railways. They have good cause: In Tennessee, where a propane-car explosion left 12 dead, an average of four trains derail each week. Officials now say that saboteurs are to blame for the accident that released a cloud of chlorine and killed eight Jer on" She Fbrida Panhandle. That may be true, but that aTea is still fraught with railroad problems: 36 trains have left the tracks there In the past VM years. But dangerous derailments aren't limited to a few Southern.