The Week

■ The search for missing Americans in Vietnam, which suffered one sharp setback when the Communists won the war, has suffered another. Nhan Dhan, the official North Vietnamese newspaper (there are no unofficial ones), now says the search may not be resumed until the U.S. delivers its “contribution to healing the wounds of war,” i.e., comes through with a hefty ransom. Meanwhile, George McGovern’s pal Fidel Castro, who knows a thing or two about ransoms, wants to let bygones be bygones; maybe he could, as a goodwill gesture, chip in a few tractors.

■ Since 1969 the House of Representatives has steadfastly refrained from increasing its $42,500 salary—even though inflation has meanwhile soared 25 per cent. Instead, the representatives take the backdoor route, which consists of annual increases in tax-free expense allowances and perquisites. This year’s pay boosts took the form of an increase in paid trips home from 21 to 32, letting the Treasury pay for printing two newsletters at a cost of $4,000, and an increase in individual staff allowances by more than $21,000. The Wall Street Journal, after checking to see how the “straight-shooting mavericks who would bring new candor and morality to the Halls of Congress” performed, found that 62 of those freshman representatives voted in favor of the increases. “Perhaps we should take some satisfaction that the new hands are not total iconoclasts itching to shake the government to its very foundations,” commented the Journal. “But on matters that reveal the true depth of convictions . . . there doesn’t seem to be a dime’s worth of difference between the Young Turks and the Old Guard.”

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■ The search for missing Americans in Vietnam, which suffered one sharp setback when the Communists won the war, has suffered another. Nhan Dhan, the official North Vietnamese newspaper (there are no unofficial ones), now says the search may not be resumed until the U.S. delivers its “contribution to healing the wounds of war,” i.e., comes through with a hefty ransom. Meanwhile, George McGovern’s pal Fidel Castro, who knows a thing or two about ransoms, wants to let bygones be bygones; maybe he could, as a goodwill gesture, chip in a few tractors.

■ Since 1969 the House of Representatives has steadfastly refrained from increasing its $42,500 salary—even though inflation has meanwhile soared 25 per cent. Instead, the representatives take the backdoor route, which consists of annual increases in tax-free expense allowances and perquisites. This year’s pay boosts took the form of an increase in paid trips home from 21 to 32, letting the Treasury pay for printing two newsletters at a cost of $4,000, and an increase in individual staff allowances by more than $21,000. The Wall Street Journal, after checking to see how the “straight-shooting mavericks who would bring new candor and morality to the Halls of Congress” performed, found that 62 of those freshman representatives voted in favor of the increases. “Perhaps we should take some satisfaction that the new hands are not total iconoclasts itching to shake the government to its very foundations,” commented the Journal. “But on matters that reveal the true depth of convictions . . . there doesn’t seem to be a dime’s worth of difference between the Young Turks and the Old Guard.”