Marsh Speaks on

Marsh Speaks on

Contest Seatings

Washington — Rep. John O. Marsh, Jr., has made public the following pertinent portion of a letter he has written to a number of correspondents with respect ot contested seat ings in the House of Represen tatives; “There were two seating matters presented before the House on convening on January 10-one, the Representative of the 18th Congressional District of New York, Mr. Powell a Democrat, and the other, the Representative from the 4th Congressional District of Georgia, Mr. Blackburn, a Republican.

"In refdrende to the seating of these twq Representatives they were acted on separately by the House on a motion to stand aside; however, there were a number of parliamentary situations presented before the final disposition of these two cases, and the effect erf the action of the House was to cause Mr. Powell to stand aside pending an investigation, and the House seated the Congressman from the 4th Congressional District of Georgia. “According to the information presented to the House on the Georgia case, there were, however, a number of ballots that w^re either unq6unted,.Or It was my impression, however, from the debate, under Georgia law, Mr. Blackburn was qualified to be seated and from the information available, it would appear that had the contested ballots been counted, the results would still have been in favor of the Representa tive-elect. v“In reference to my action, I joined with others ■ in the House in supporting the seating of the Representative from Georgia, and I can state that I supported in the Democratic Caucus and on the floor of the House the steps thus far taken in reference to rfhe Representative from Nbjv York. “As you are aware, the final disposition has not been made concerning Mr. Powell. Because further action would have to follow what amounts to