Letter from Washington

The vote in that special Pennsylvania congressional election did not prove much of anything about the effect of Watergate on Republican fortunes. True, a Democrat took a seat the Republicans had held for nearly a quarter of a century. But the Democrat won by only a few hundred votes. Big guns from both sides inflicted themselves on the district—Senators Henry Jackson, Edmund Muskie, and Walter Mondale, Vice President Gerald Ford— and the loser wound up blaming (surprise!) the press, which he said had raised the issue of Watergate.

A more realistic test of Watergate’s effect will come soon in a vote in Congress concerning another attempt to raise the minimum wage. Last year Mr. Nixon vetoed an especially flamboyant increase in the minimum wage, and Congress sustained the veto in a close vote. Mr. Nixon may duck a test vote. He may not veto the next increase, citing the continuing increase in the cost of living as an excuse for permitting almost any* increase in the minimum wage.

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The vote in that special Pennsylvania congressional election did not prove much of anything about the effect of Watergate on Republican fortunes. True, a Democrat took a seat the Republicans had held for nearly a quarter of a century. But the Democrat won by only a few hundred votes. Big guns from both sides inflicted themselves on the district—Senators Henry Jackson, Edmund Muskie, and Walter Mondale, Vice President Gerald Ford— and the loser wound up blaming (surprise!) the press, which he said had raised the issue of Watergate.

A more realistic test of Watergate’s effect will come soon in a vote in Congress concerning another attempt to raise the minimum wage. Last year Mr. Nixon vetoed an especially flamboyant increase in the minimum wage, and Congress sustained the veto in a close vote. Mr. Nixon may duck a test vote. He may not veto the next increase, citing the continuing increase in the cost of living as an excuse for permitting almost any* increase in the minimum wage.