TOO HARD FOR THE POLITICIANS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 98, 9 May 1941, Page 14

TOO HARD FOR THE POLITICIANS

LL America is enjoying the joke against four members of the American House of Representatives who were prevailed upon to enter a radio quiz feature a couple of months ago, and displayed easily as much lack of knowledge on general subjects as the public at large. The session was produced by a Washington advertising man named Henry J. Kaufman and is broadcast weekly from WJSV Washington as a CBS house programme under the title of " No Politics." The first attempt was so popular that it drew more than 1,000 letters, although it was heard at the awkward hour of between 1.30 and 2 p.m. E.S,T. The first Congressmen catechized in "No: Politics" were two Republicans, Brown (Ohio) and Andresen (Minnesota), and two Democrats, Ramspeck (Georgia) and Coffee (Washington). They didn’t know the answers to five out of thirteen (Continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) questions on literature, history, people in the news, etc. News to the Congressmen was the fact that Franz Lehar was a Hungarian composer, that Hervey Allen wrote Anthony Adverse, and that Nomura was Japanese Ambassador to the U.S.A. Most embarrassing was their collective inability to identify James K. Polk, and Joseph Varnum as one time Speakers of the House, Conducted according to Congressional procedure, "No Politics" includes a "Speaker" and a "Clerk." Each time the participants muff a question, the "clerk" introduces a "bill" to give five dollars to the sender. Famous Washington correspondents take the part of the "Speaker." The show goes on weekly with two pairs of Democrats and Republicans revealing further aspects of the Congressional brain at work.