Politician at Work

House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who has been re-elected 15 times in a row, is not one to miss a political trick. This year he decided to surprise the 2,000 graduating high-school pupils in his Texas district with little parchment "diplomas."

What made Sam Rayburn's new wrinkle newsworthy was that the diplomas were lettered by six Army draftsmen, working in the Pentagon building behind a door marked SECRET. Hastily Sam Rayburn announced that he was footing the bill ($339.61); indignantly he denied that he was mending political fences. He just thought it a good year, he said, to greet high-school students.

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