Three noted pork barrelers

* Lyndon B. Johnson - Mr. Johnson was sworn in as a freshman representative on May 13, 1937. By December, LBJ had pried out of the US government $5 million for a controversial dam, a new grandstand for Smithville High School, a new firehouse for Austin, an extension to Austin City Hall, and a new federal building in Elgin, among other things. In 1938 his district received federal funds for 16 more municipal projects.

* L. Mendel Rivers - chairman of the House Armed Services Committee from 1965 to 1970. Mr. Rivers had in his Charleston, S.C., district a government shipyard, a naval weapons station, a submarine base, an Air Force base, a Marine Corps recruit depot, a Marine Corps air base, an Army supply station, and two naval hospitals. Charleston is an ideal seaport, points out one political scientist. ''But if you put another defense installation in there, the district would sink, '' he admits.

* Mike Kirwin - Mr. Kirwin, an Ohio representative, chaired a key appropriations subcommittee in the late '60s. One of his pet projects - a canal linking Lake Erie and the Ohio River - was pushed through the House on a voice vote after a colleague yelled, ''Let's build this ditch for Mike!'' on the chamber floor.