APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD motive power, except by special permit. The order also prohibits the movement of carni- val and circus trains. Respectfully submitted. E. F, Lacey, Executive Secretary. RESOLUTION ADOPTED AT THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL TRAF- FIC LEAGUE, NEW YORK CITY, NOVEMBER 21, 1946, REGARDING THE COAL STRIKE Whereas the Nation's transportation fa- cilities already are alarmingly curtailed and face complete paralysis in the near future, due to the unprecedented national coal strike; and Whereas it is our duty and obligation, through the National Industrial Traffic League and other channels of constructive effort, to see that adequate, economical, safe, and efficient transportation by common car- rier be made continuously available to the shippers of the Nation; and Whereas the issues involved in this strike in defiance of our Federal Government would place a single individual and one segment of an organized minority, over and above constitutional and constituted government; would threaten national economic strangula- tion and the extension of a precedent already set, of usurpation by selfish minorities of the power to tax which is the power to destroy; and Whereas the impact of this strike has directly or indirectly affected the constitu- tional rights and privileges of all the people of these United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the National Industrial Traffic League in gencral membership meeting here assembled, That as protectors of shippers’ interests in adequate, economical, safe, and efficient transportation services by the Nation's common carriers, and, as American citizens who individually are injuriously affected by such strikes of national scope and effect, we do officially and in our individual rights call upon the Congress of the United States at once so to curb the power of any organized selfish minority, that they shall not commit acts which would tend to para- lyze the Nation’s arteries of commerce, to strangle its national economy, to substitute its prerogatives for those of constitutional and constituted government authorities, to usurp the power to tax which the people have delegated solely to local, State, and Federal Governments, or to vitiate the constitutional rights of the citizenry at large; and be it further Resolved, That copies of this resolution be forwarded at once to members of both Houses of Congress; to the President of the United States, and to members of the league with suggestion for similar action by their local and regional organizations; and to the press. Address of Hon. James A. Farley EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. JOHN J. DELANEY OF NEW YORK IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. DELANEY. Mr. Speaker, under Jeave to extend my remarks in the Rrc- orp, I include the following address of Hon. James A. Farley, chairman of the board, the Coca-Cola Export Corp. at the da'vn-patrol breakfast sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America, over radio station WJZ, Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, New York, Wednesday morning, Janu- ary 8, 1947: INTRODUCTION BY HON. HARRY J. DELANEY, CHAIRMAN, BUSINESSMEN’S COMMITTEE Mr, De.aNney. Honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, we all know Jim Farley—if I may be permitted to address him publicly in the way that we all affectionately refer to him in our private conversations—as one of the Nation's stalwarts who has valiantly fought to keep America in the path that has made her great. Likewise, we know that he never loses an opportunity to speak up for those causes which join with the church, the school and the home to work for the protection and betterment of youth. It is for these reasons that we thought he was the very best person whom we could ask to help us launch this million-dollar drive for the expansion of the Boy Scouts of America in Greater New York. It is with the greatest of persona! pleasure, and with keen appreciaticn of his coming here this morning to address our dawn pa- trol breakfast, that I present to you the former Postmaster General of the United States—and a friend of youth—the Hon- orable "ames A. Farley. ADDRESS OF HON JAMES A. FARLEY I needed a Boy Scout bugier to rouse me out of bed so that I’d be here on time for this dawn patrol breakfast. It is a great tribute to Scouting, and to your interest, that so many of you have come here this morning at this early hour. There is nothing more worthy of your losing sleep over than a concern for youth, especially for those thousands of New York City boys who should be, but are not, get- ting the worth-while training and enjoying wholesome activities provided by the Boy Scouts of America. Raising a million dollars for the further- ance and expansion of Scouting in Greater New York should be relatively easy if you will just pass on to other civic-minded New Yorkers word of the splendid work the Boy Scout movement is doing for the boys of this city, and let them know how imperative it is that adequate funds be provided to en- uble you to carry on and to reach more boys. Last Saturday morning, I read in my news- paper where three 16-year-old youths had been surprised while committing a hold- up. One of the youthful bandits was killed in the desperate gun battle which ensued, and a detective was wounded. The fre- quency with which such acts of criminal violence are happening is merely one more evidence of the increasing prevalence of juvenile delinquency which is attributable, in part, to the era of bloodshed from which the world is only now beginning to emerge. Following every major war, the civilized world has seen such periods, when moral values fall, affecting all, especially children— those innocent victims of the curse of con- flict. In these troubled postwar days, when na- tions are merely beginning to learn that there is a way and a will to work together for world order and international coopera- tion, we must intelligently and aggressively combat the effects of the war upon today’s youngsters. To do so will cost only a fraction of the billions which we so willingly poured out of our collective pockets to prosecute the war. But we will not truly win the war and achieve those purposes for which it was fought, unless we treat with and heal those moral and social festerings which had their origins in the conflict, What a small matter it is then, to ask the good people of this city to reach down into A155 their pockets and give generously so that you who are charged with the moral and character training of thousands and thou- sands of New York City youngsters outside of their school hours, may do so adequately and successfully. The Boy Scouts of America is doing a sig- nificant job for the youth of our land. Theirs 1s @ great responsibility in these postwar days. The citizens of New York, I am con- vinced, will rise to the challenge if they are made aware of the need and are given an opportunity to contribute to the correction of the problems. Recently, I returned from a 3 months trip around this shrinking globe. which I embarked rose into the skies, and without any effort on my part, I was trans- ported on my modern magic carpet to Portu- gal, Spain, France, Germany, and [taly. From there I was whisked off to Cairs and the Holy Land, to fabulous but troubled India, and then in turn to Singapore and Shanghai, each with its poverty stricken millions. IT saw devastated Tokyo, lcarning its A B C’s of democracy at the feet of its revered schoolmaster, General MacArthur; shook hands with our Australian friends in Sydney;. rejoiced with the men of Manila over their recent liberation; and then home at last after a brief but pleasant stay in Honolulu. Throughout this globe-encircling flight, I sat physically and mentally at ease, con- fident that the young men who piloted and navigated these planes were endowed with the knowledge and skill to take me where I wanted to go—swiftly and in safety. As I observed them, I was convinced that beyond their technical preparation, they were equipped with another more significant training to prepare them to assume the grave responsibility for the lives entrusted to their care, which often required split-second de- cisions in moments of crisis. Iam certain that most of these top-flight young Americans who navigate the airlanes of the world, in their youth had the bene- fits of good home guidance; had the spiritual and moral influences of their churches; and had the inspiration of the character-build- ing and citizenship-training program of the Boy Scouts of America. I wish that every boy had the qualifica- tions that these young men have. And I know one element of their training which is available to every boy where a Scout troop exists. That is the opportunity to be a member of the Boy Scouts of America, and to receive the training given in Scouting. Unfortunately, not every boy has the op- portunity to be a Boy Scout, a Cub Scout, or a Senior Scout. Recent Gallup surveys showed that three out of four New York City boys want to be Scouts, but that only one out of every four is actually getting that cov- eted opportunity. The reason for this inability of Scouting to serve nll the boys who desire to be Scouts may be very simply stated. It is our failure, yours and mine, as interested citizens to furnish sufficient funds to create and main- tain a Scout orranization hero in New York City which is adequate in personnel and able to provide camps usable the year round, and other facilities in order to serve the hundreds of thousands of boys crowded to- gether in these comparatively few metropoll- tan miles, Let us consider for 2 moment these dis- turbing facts. Nearly half of the 100,000 per- sons arrested for serious criminal offenses in New York City this past year were young- sters under 20 years of age, and 75 percent of these youngsters were mere boys. Visualize, if you will, what those startling statistics mean in misspent young human lives and personalities, and then link to them this significant situation—52 percent of New The plane on °
A156 York City’s teen-agers have no continuing relationship to any leisure-time program. Scouting, with its activities so appealing to youth, may mean the difference between a boy ending his brief career in a bandit gun battle, or sitting as the confident master of himself and of the destintes of others, at the controls of one of man's most complicated in- ventions—ae globe-circling plane. Our failure to provide this boy with the training of Scouting may mean for him a life of delinquency and crime, instead of a career tinat will bring success to him, satisfaction to his family, and progress to the community ot large. * Let me call your attention to an even larger gepect of the work in which we are engaged in Scouting. I was handed a letter sent to Richard Ford, one of the Scouts here with us this morning at this dawn-patrol break- fast, and which he recently received from a ‘ poy in Germany. I quote from it: “You will wonder that you get suddenly and unknown a tetter from Germany. I got your address by a Scout brother. “Y am a boy of 15 years. My father is a legal adviser and we have lived in a little town in Uecklenbourg. Mow we are home- lews and wo attempt to build u. up a new existence. Therefore I am willing gladly in cummumnication to come With a comrade and friend. “IY am here patrol] jeader and we have just come home from a fine trip with my boys. We was in Vogelebert—an old volcanic moun- tain. We have pass the night in a shaky hut. ft was a icy cold fog. We have not tents. “fxcuse me, my English language bad is and I have not found the right expressions. “Your comrade, That letter, written by a 15-year-old Ger- man youngster, expresses the hunger of boys in that misguided land for the free expres- sion of their youthful desires to prictice the skills of Scouting as well as to participate in Scouting's world brotherhood of boys. Let me read you another letter, addressed to members of Boy Scout Troop 21B, of New York City, which recently had sent camping equipment to a Scout troop in Arnheim, Hol- land, where, you will remember, our Allied air-borne troops battled so magnificently after they had been cut off inside the German lines. This letter acknowledges the gift of the American troop’s equipment, and was addressed to their meeting place in the Synagogue Community Center, in Manhat- tan, which sponsors the troop. I quote: “AS we got the case last week, we were giadly surprised to find all those beautiful equipments we need so bitterly. “You know how the situation was as we returned to our city. Not only all houses were looted, but we found our Scout homes heavily damuged. Now we are building a @ew headquarters—an old garage or stable— Dadly damaged, tov. Has now got a new roof and glass windows ° * * the only thing ‘we can say now is that it is rainprocf. With your nice new axes we can build furniture, @F sCONn as we get some trees. “But we should not speak about our aif- ficulties; we should say how happy we are with the presents you make us. We are proud of our American tents. As soon as the case was opened we admired the contents and immediately built up the tent. “I am erorry that I cannot say in Sngtish, as I should tke to do, how the buys are fooking forward with glittering eyes at the new tent standing behind our house. “We shall never forget the New Yorker Brother Scouts.” What more can I my, or need I say, as to the tmportance of scouting's international brotherhood of boys—to heip bring about friendship and understanding among tke youth of the world. With such friendship and understanding, beginning in childhood and continuing into adult relationships, we can hope for a better world. My recent giobe-girdling trip has brought home forcibly to me that the world has grown Gloser together geographically, so that one segment of it could reach out with ease and Gestroy ancther with the aid of that new- found instrument of destruction. the atom bomb. One sure way %0 prevent such a catastrophe is to teach brotherhood to our children As we launch this drive here this morning to raise a million doliars for Scouting's needs of 1947 in Greater New York, I see the task ahead as of such vital importance to our national] and internationa) well-being, that I believe every thoughtful citizen of this community will want to give financial sup- port or persona] jeadership, or both, to the Boy Scouts of America. Committee Assignments EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. EMANUEL CELLER OF NEW YORE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thuraday, January 16, 1947 TO THE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS Mr. CELLER. Mr. Speaker, commit- tee assignments of all parties other than the controlling party are charged to the minority—see volume 8, Cannon’s Prece- dents, section 2184, page 9: On April 11, 1911, Mr. Oscar W. Under- wood, of Alabama, offered a motion naming the members of the standing committees, when Mr. N. &. Sendall, of Iowa, rising to a pariiamentary inquiry, asked if the com- mittee appointment of Mr. Victor L. Berger, of Wisconsin, elected as a member of the Socialist Party, had been charged to the minority. and if his assignment was to be deducted from the minority quota. Wr. Underwood replied: “He is charged to the minority. always been that way. “Mr. Berger is not a member of the major- ity party. He belongs to a party that ts not in control in this House, and all parties that are not in control in this House belong to the minority.” It has Tax EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. HARGLD KNUTSON OF MINNESOTA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Tuesday, January 14, 1947 Mr. KNUTSON. Mr. Speaker, when our former colleague, Hon. F. H. La- Quardia, of New York, invited me to dis- cuss with him the 20-percent tax-reduc- tion proposal over the Mutual network, I immediately accepted the invitation be- cause it would afford a splendid oppor- cunity to present the pian to the Ameri- can people in an intimate and informa- matter of 30 years, having come to Con- APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD gress together back in 1917. While we seldom see eye to eye, that has in no manner interfered with our long-stand- ing friendship. Under leave so kindly granted me by the House, it is desired at this point to insert in the Rrcorp what was said by both Mr. LaGuardia and myself upon the occasion of our discussion: Mr. LaGuaneaa, Good evening! This is the unauthorized of unorganized Americans again on a Conference of the Air. I have been opposing the proposed 20-per- oent across-the-board reduction in Federal personal income tax. I am still strongly op- posed to it. But in keeping with my policy of having all the facts prescnted, so that everyone will get a complete picture and then be able to make an intelligent decision, I will seek to bring to you, as often as I can, the best authority on the opposition. Tonight we have with us the original sponsor of the 20-percent across-the-board reduction in Federal income tax, the Honor- able HarotD Kworson, of Minnesota, chair- man of the important Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, Mr. Kworson and I came to Congress at the same time just 30 years ago. He has served uninterruptediy since that time, and today ts the chairman of the most powerful com- mittee of the House of Representatives. I have asked him to explain to you his pro- posed income-tax reduction and to give you hts reasons for it. Harold, it’s nice to have you with us to- night. May I ask, do you consider the present plan of 20-percent income-tax reduction up to $800,000-a-year income, and 10'4 percent reduction from $300000-a-year-up income, fair? And how do you justify it at this time? Mr. Knutson. I am happy to have an op- portunity to discuss with my friend and for- mer colleague, the bill (H. R. 1), which I introduced in the present Congress, provid- ting for a reduction in individual income taxes. I recall with pleasure the fact that my friend, Mr, LaGuardia, and myself came to ess at the same time, just 30 years ago. My bill provides for « 90-peroent reduction in the tax on incomes up to and slightly in excess Of 8300,000. If the taxpayer's income exceeds that amount, the reduction in tax attributable to the part in exoess of €302,000 ts 10% percent. Another feature of the bill is that it gives an added advantage to taxpayers over 65 years of age, in that it allows to each person “1 that group an additional exemption of @500, making ¢ total exemption cf $1,000. T have been particularly concerned about the plight of many of our citizens over 85 years of age. A great many of them, includ- ing retired teachers, municipal workers, and many others, have as their sole source of livelihood the small pension which they re- ceive on retirement, amd are unable to en- gage further in a gainful occupation. Under my bill, with the increased @500 personal ex- emption, almost 2.000,000 taxpayers in this group will be removed from the tax rolis. The bill, im granting a 30-persent reduction in tax on incomes up to and slightly in ex- cess of 300,000, the need for granting the greatest relief to those who furnish risk or wentune capital for new en- terprises, to the worker, to the earner, and to those who utitipe their income in creating production, the development of mew enter- prises, and the creation of employment. In general, moumes above $300,000 are unearned. Our present individual war income taxes are 80 appressive and burtiensome at this time, that they are stifling and retarding incentive, production, and employment. During the war period there was ample justificatien for these high rates but, mow that the war is over, it is esvertial that these tax obstacies be immediately removed, so that we may
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD have full production and employment in our peacetime economy. My bill does not go as far as I would like in accomplishing these objectives, and fur- ther reductions will have to be made in later years. However, in view of the high govern- mental expenditures and magnitude of the public debt, I believe that the reductions provided for in H. R. 1 are as great as we can justify at this time. My friend must realize that so long as Government revenues continue at the present high level, it will be dificult to reduce governmental expenditures below governmental receipts. One way to re- duce governmental expenditures is to give the people relief from the excessive tax burden, so that there will not be as much revenue left for wasteful and extravagant spending. I recall that when my colleague was in Congress, back in 1924, there was consider- able debate about the Mellon plan, with a top surtax rate around 25 percent. The Congress, in the Revenue Act of 1924, finally adopted a top rate of 40 percent. I believe that my former colleague favored the 40 percent rate in preference to the 25 percent rate. Under my bill, the top surtax rate is 74.8 percent. I do not see how those who supported a 40 percent top surtax rate in 1924, because they believed in high surtaxes, can complain about the top rate of 74.8 pcer- cent under my bill. Mr. LaGuarpiA. That's right, I don't. But, as a matter of fact, HAROLD, a family of four— man, wife, and two children—with an income of $3,000, would get but one-point tax rate reduction, while a like family, with an in- come of $90,000 a year, would get a twelve- point tax rate reduction under your plan. Do you think that’s fair? Mr. Knutson. My good friend states that under my bill, a family with four depend- ents, with an income of 83,000, would gct but one-point tax reduction, while a like family, with an income of $90,000, would get a@ twelve-point tax reduction. He inquires whether I think that is fair? I believe that Mr. LaGuardia is a litle confused about the Federal income tax, which has been drasti- cally revised since he was in Congress. When my former colleague was in the House, we allowed a credit for each dependent of $400. At the present time the credit for depend- ents has been increased to 8500. Therefore, a family with four dependents would have total credits amounting to $2,000—8500 for the husband, $500 for the wife, and $500 for each dependent. It is true that the tax re- duction, which my bill provides, depends upon the amount of the tax paid by the taxpayer. My plan is not a novel or new one. It has been employed many times in the past, both by the Federal Government and the States. In the Revenue Act of 1924, Con- gress reduced individual income taxes for the year 1923 by a flat reduction of 25 percent. In the First Revenue Act of 1940, when the Government was in need of immediate rev- enue for defense purposes, individual in- come taxes were increased by a flat 10 per- cent of the individual tax payable under the existing law. Many of the States have re- duced income taxes by straight across-the- board methods, and I’ve heard no complaints from the taxpayers getting such relief, In fact, the gentleman's own State of New York cut individual income taxes for 1941, ‘42, 43, and ‘44 by a flat 25 percent and for 1945 by a flat 50 percent. Surely, my friend does not wish to deny to the whole country the benefits which his own State has granted to the citizens of New York. If our Federal revenues would permit, I would be only too glad to follow the great State of New York in proposing a reduction as large as 60 per- cent. Mr. LaGuarpta. Now, what would be the objection, Harold, instead of providing a re- duction of taxes across the board, as you state, to lifting the exemptions? The pres- ent exemptions now are $500 for the tax- payer and each dependent. How about mak- ing it $2,000 for a man and wife and $600 for each child? That would bring an equal re- lief to all. You know the cost of living is pretty high now, and it’s very difficult for the lower-income groups to get along. Even Senator Tarr admits that. A $3,000 family now pays $137 income tax under the present law, and would pay $109 a year income tax under your plan. By lifting the exemptions it would not pay any income tax. Mr, Knutson. My friend offers as a substl- tute proposal for my bill a plan to increuse the exemptions so that the new luw would provide a $2,000 exemption for a man and wife and 8600 for each child. I do not be- lieve that he realizes the result of such a proposal. At the present time it is estimated there are approximately 45,000,000 taxpayers on the tax rolls. This is in addition to the 12,000,000 taxpayers who were removed from the tax rolls by the Revenue Act of 1945 Mr. LaGuardia’s proposal would remove an additional 20,000,000 taxpayers from our tax rolls, and would almost double the loss in revenue over that provided for under my bill. The mayor’s plan would result in a revenue loss of approximately 86,000,000,000. It would leave us little, if any, surplus to apply toward a reduction in the national debt or relief from war-exoise-tax burdens. I believe it 1s essential, in order to secure a permanent check on the wasteful and extrav- agant governmental! expenditures, to have the taxpayer realize that he is actually paying for such expenditures out of his own pocket, in the form of the direct tax, like income tax. It seems important, therefore, that we should keep as many taxpayers as possible on the tax roll during their production period, in order that they may realize that they are the people who must pay the Government's bills, Let us not be penny wise and pound foolish. Let us provide for a tax reduction bill which will stimulate the whole country to full pro- duction and employment. Mr. LaGuarpiA, Thank you, HAROLD. I know we are all grateful to Representa- tive HAROLD KNUTSON for being with us, and stating his case so well and frankly. Now, this is in keeping with my policy in giving both sides of every question. I will continue to explain to you my opposition to the 20- percent across-the-board income-tax reduc- tion, And at every opportunity, when I take a decisive stand on any important issue, I will try to get before you the very best au- thority on the opposition. Giving both sides, that’s the American way. Then we can make our decision intelligently and on the merits. Limiting Federal Controls EXTENSION OF REMARKS or HON. HAROLD C. HAGEN OF MINNESOTA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. HAGEN. Mr. Speaker, we often hear that there is some danger of a re- cession within the next few months. On every hand we are told that only in- creased production and sustained buy- ing will prevent this predicated recession. Congress can take action to eliminate some of the credit regulations which pre- vent millions of people in low-income groups from buying the refrigerators, stoves, cars, and other items and goods for which they cannot pay cash on the line. Regulation W, which was issued A157 by and is administered by the Federal Reserve Board, discriminates against the lower-income groups in favor of the more fortunate individuals who can pay cash for everything they buy. I expect to introduce a bill which will provide for the full elimination of regu- lation W. In order to more fully explain my position on this measure, I am in- cluding in my remarks a résumé of a speech which I made in New York City on October 18 before a large group inter- eSted in consumer credit: The subject I am going to talk about, Fed- eral controls, is so important and the situa- tion so critical that I felt it my personal duty to fly to New York to talk to you, in a serious manner, concerning the imminent dangers to our American democracy, brought on by the present and threatened unnecessary Gov- ernment controls, regulations, and regi- mentation, What I will have to say here today needs repeating over und over again until our American Government has reassumed its traditional und constitutional place in our society and complicated economic life. These duys I would feel that I had been negligent in my duty as an American citizen and as a Member of Congress if I did not devote most of my speaking time to the dis- cussion of the threat of bureaucracy and Government controls to our constitutional method of government. VIEWS CHANGED As a young secretary to a new Member of Congress 12 years ago, I had somewhat dif- ferent views. I thought that there was u need for Government control und direction. At that time I thought that the Government should step in to help solve our economic and business problems. There were many in the Government who were thinking the same as I. Furthermore, this line of reasoning con- tinued, and through the years down to the present, increasing numbers of men and women in Government service became more and more saturated with the philosophy that the Government should get more and more into business; should more and more regu- late and control the daily life of men and women in this big and great country cf ours. If I had been asked to speak to you 12 years ago my remarks would have been quite different. But time and experience have done their work, and so I am here to talk to you in support of the view that we must have less Government control. As a Member of Congress for the last 4 years, I receive letters almost every day from businessmen and farmers who complain thet they are being threatened and coerced by petty governmental officials for unintentional violations of foolish, and many times un- necessary, and often detrimental, rules and regulations. My own experience in handling thousands of problems for the 300,000 people of my con- gressional district of northwestern Minne- sota has convinced me that we have had far too much unnecessary meddling, interfer- ence, and regulation on American business, large and small, and on our average citizen as well. GOVERNMENT CONTROL I just want to give you a few examples of the unreasonable, wild, senseless regulation of small business as practiced by the present- day crop of planners, dreamers, and good- doers, whom we know as bureaucrats, However, first let me give you a general ex- ample. You have often wondered why Alaska, a Territory of vast resources and wealth, hasn't developed. Alaska’s resources are almost limitless. It has large coal deposits. It has immense tim- ber and mineral resources, but Government regulations hold back their development,
A158 A more specific example concerns the American motorcar industry. Last Novem- ber the Ford Motor Co. was authorized by OPA to sell for 8728—a car which cost Ford, without profit or “anything to go on,” as Henry Ford II put it, $1,041. The OPA never denied the cost figures, yet they were willing to destroy the Ford Motor Co. by their actions. Public pressure and higher ad- ministration officials finally, and much later, brought out a readjustment in OPA prices. That is an example of a Government con- trol agency ready, able, and willing to destroy a@ great American business corporation. Now I want to give you the details of how a class B bureaucrat is all set to destroy a small business in northwestern Minnesota. Here are the facts: Just last week I received a letter from a businessman in northwestern Minnesota who owns two smal] stores and also a locker plant in the country just a few miles from one of his stores. He was fined by the Office of Price Administration because he did his book work for both establishments at his main office contrary to a regulation set up by the OPA. This rule required that his books be kept at each place of business. An injunction was served on him, a small-business owner, and he was threatened with aditional costs if he did not pay his fine, without protest. And this in America. You may say, why that's just an isolated case. Oh, no, it isn’t, I knovw, from my talks with other Members of Congress, that similar unjustified threats to small business have been made by OPA and other agencies of our Government. But here is another case: A meat market owner ty a small tow: in my district received the following letter from the enforcement officer of the district office of Price Admin- istration of Fargo, N. Dak.: “During the month of May your cattle quota was 5,530 pounds but you slaughtered 5,540 pounds, thereby exceeding your quota in the amount of 10 pounds. This excess slaughter must be deducted from your next month's quota. “Therefore, I must admonish you that you must adhere to strict compliance to this order and nny order or regulation as issued by the Office of Price Administration for failure to do so will subject you to any of several penalties available to this Office and it could be that your slaughter permit would be revoked.” So aroused was this local businessman that he showed the letter to the newspaper editor of his community. The editcr wrote a front page editorial of two columns pointing out that the case was a typical example of the Gestapo tactics of the so-called legal brains of the OPA. American business, large and small, is being strangled, harassed, and smothered by the thousands of inexperienced emergency Gov- ernment workers trying to administer the millions of rules and regulations set forth by the class A group of dreamers, planners, and good-doers; those big shots of each depart- ment, division, commission, or bureau, who work out the fantastic “patterns” to control our dally lives. The threat of the destruction of private enterprise, both large and small, in this country, is increasingly real and cerious. We are happy today to know that leaders of business, agriculture, consumer, and labor groups now recognize it and are beginning to warn you and the American people of the Ganger. WARNING SIGNALS Please allow me to quote to you just a few of these warning signals of recent weeks. Just last Monday. October 14, you perhaps Tead this in your daily newspaper: “Warning that our whole American sys- tem is in danger, the Nationa! Association of Commodity Exchanges and Allied Trades de- clared Sunday that officials seek to subject the Nation's food distribution to a world- wide totalitarian system. “The association released a letter to Chair- man FLANNAGAN (Democrat, Virginia), of the House Agriculture Committee, urging his group to study what it called this grave threat aimed at collectivization of agricul- ture on the Soviet model.” Only yesterday an important voice of edu- cation, Dr. Donald J. Cowling, of the Mayo Foundation of the University of Minnesota, was quoted in the Nation's newspapers as saying, “Too much government, regardless of the theory on which it is based, is mankind's worst foe.” Just last Tuesday, October 15, I read the following news report in a Minnesote dally: “Government ownership of the transpor- tation industry would open the door for the socialization of our entire economy, Donald D. Conn, executive vice president of the Transportation Association of America, said Monday. “Addressing more than 1,900 business lead- ers at the eighteenth annual Boston confer- ence on distribution, Conn said, ‘Present policies and principles of regulation will in- evitably lead to Government ownership of this industry’.” On October 9, Minnesota newspaper read- ers saw this in a Minneapolis newspaper: “Management landed a series of damaging body punches in its fight against bureaucratic controls at the Minnesota industrial con- ference at the Radisson Hotel, Tuesday. “Robert R. Wason, New York, president of the National Assoctation oi Manufacturers, charged that controls, which he said have made industry impotent, are charting the course fo: the country’s next depression. “Left alone,’ he asserted, ‘free enterprise could lift the American standard of living to its highest level in history’.” LABOR'S VIEWS I just quoted a representative of big busi- ness. So I want to report to you now the thoughts of a labor leader, William Green, and his great union organization, the Ameri- can Federrtion of Labor. I will read from my home town daily on October 15: “The American Federation of Labor today called on the administration to remove immediately all wage and price controls except on rents. The convention gave its formal approval to an eariler recommendation from A. F. of L. President William Green.” Only last week at Chicago another labor group, the A. F. of L. Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen's Union, charged that Government controls caused unemployment and black markets. They closed with this stinging statement: “We doubt seriously whether the dictator- . ship that exists in Russia can interfere with the rights of its people to a greater extent than do these would-be dictators who head the OPA.” So we see that labor and management alike and other groups as well, and also millions of Americans, demand a limiting of Government controls, HOUSING Almost everyone is aware of the dismal and tragic failure of the Federal Housing Ad- ministration's attempt to build houses and homes for veterans. Late in August a gloomy picture of the present and future housing situation was painted as a result of the sur- vey made by the National Association of Real Estate Boards among American builders. Almost half of the 700 builders reporting Geclared that Government red tape was a major bottleneck, and many blamed this for material shortages. I want to give you some examples of the comments: “We represent five builders who are ready, willing and able to produce 500 housing units within the next 12 months. However, Gov- APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ernment red tape is responsible for their fail- ure to produce, Home building is at a stand- still in this area.” “Too many forms that mean nothing—no head, no tail. Changing of procedure, in- ability of Government agencies to interpret their own directives.” “Government controls, restrictions and changing policies have completely discour- aged us from building more homes for sale or rent. If Government would stop regula- tions and restrictions on home construction, we feel that marked improvements would result in both quality and quantity.” The Government has in recent years de- veloped controls in the field of labor relations and all phases of industry and business. REGULATION W As you all know here, it even started to tell the merchant that he couldn’t give credit to his old customers, friends, or neighbors. The notorious regulation W was issued by the Federal Reserve Board. You c~e familiar with it. However, I want to point out again now this Federal interference with trade and busi- ness brings great harm and hardship to mil- lions of low-income Americans. Regulation W unfuirly restricts the needs of veterans. On the one hand, the Federal Government expands credit facilities and credit terms for the purchase of houses (as well as businesses and farms); and, on the other, restricts the veteran in acquiring the appliances and furnishings to make the house & nome. Regulation W ts discriminatory in that it favors the cash purchaser over the less wealthy buyer who must pay out of income. The study of incomes recently released by the Federal Reserve Board shows that 70 percent of all Americans have little or no savings. The important lesson to be learned from this comprehensive survey is that all our social experiments have not greatly changed the pattern in which national income is dis- tributed. The alarming part of the picture, shown by the report, is that, with 70 percent of all families having little or no Nquid savings, we are as vulnerable to depression as we were in 1929. A short set-baci: in employment would eat up the small savings of most of these families in a week or less. The infla- tionary dangers of worker incomes has been dissipated the first year since VJ-day. We must now guard against deflation and depres- sion. After World War I, when radios sold for $300 to $400, refrigerators for $500, and au- tomobiles for 82,000, manufacturers said, “The only way we can get the selling price down is mass distribution.” Distributors said, “The only way we can sell in mass volume ts by giving buyers long-term install- ment credit.” They didn’t prove to be wrong, did they? The history of what happened 1s as plain as the A B C's, Today, in 1946, with a far bigger problem of employment and prosperity, we must sell half again as much in unit volume of con- sumers’ durable goods as in the prewar days, or live through another great depression. We are now running into a situation where we are going to have enormous production, with a possible cut in domestic markets as the result of Government controls on con- sumer credit. There is no point in mass production unless these things can be put into the hands of the people and it is simply impossible to have mass purchases when the law or regulation W requires stiff down pay- ments with quick and full payment of the balance. Unless regulation W is permanent- ly abolished we face trouble ahead. If reg- ulation W is terminated we can be headed for @ tremendous period of credit and of gen- eral prosperity, for the two go hand in band.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Incidentally, I might say that if I am reelected, I am going to introduce a bill which will prevent the Federal Reserve Board from continuing regulation W. In that connection I ask your cooperation and your help in your home areas throughout the country. Contact your own Congressmen, your own Senators, for their interest and support for such a measure, WRONG PHILOSOPHY I could go on and offer much more evi- dence against the philosophy of Govern- ment controls. Giving Government bureaus or departments power to unnecessarily reg- ulate the lives of our citizens gives only tem- porary advantages to the people of the coun- try, but this eventually will be more than offset by the damage done to our free and Constitutional system of representative gov- ernment. It is time for all of the business- men, workers, and farmers of this country to reassert themselves and to exhibit again the same spirit of independence which has made the United States the greatest country on earth. I went to Europe last fall for 2 months. I spent some time in beautiful Norway. I receive letters from Norway every week, and the big trouble they write. about is that they are worried abcut government control and government regulations. If anything 1s going to keep Norway back, it will be gov- ernment interference and government con- trols. After going through all of Europe, I find that we have the greatest country in the world and that is the way we want to Keep It. PROPER CONTROL When I speak of freedom from Govern- ment regulation, I do not nean that we should return to the days when big business ‘was running wild and exploiting the natural resources and the common people of this country. Neither does the enlightened busi- nessman of today want this. I believe that Government should assume the responsibil- ity of protecting legitimate business and the people against unfair business practices and unscrupulous individuals. We welcome this type of Government control, Just as we wel- come community police protection. How- ever, there is a difference between a police department and a politically inspired ges- tapo. We rightfully resent Government action based on the assumption that the average businessman and farmer is dishonest and has to be watched. If some of the “brain trusters” in a few of our alphabetical agencies and other de- partments have their way, our Government will soon be completely socialized from within, and the people will have had no chance to vote on it one way or another. DANGER AHEAD Iam not an alarmist; nor do I exaggerate when I warn you of the dangers confrorting our democracy. The piecemeal evidence is before you every day when you read your daily papers or your news magazines. As good Americans, it is your duty to stand ever vigilant and alert to the danger. Federal agencies die slowly. They grow quickly. There is a traditionally stubborn resistance to the business of dismantling them. Emergency departments born of war have a way of perpetuating themselves in peace far beyond the point of need or reason. While few persons believe that we shall ever squeeze our Federal bureaucracy back into its prewar mold, it is obvious that a tremendous job of reorganization and re- trenchment remains to be done. Duplicat- ing functions need to be eliminated, consoli- dations made, emergency agencies trimmed away, and surplus manpower eased firmly off the pay rolls, and unnecessary control agen- cies discontinued. Yes; America is in danger. We have come to the crossroads and we must make our choice. Time is s0 important. Do we prefer to solve our national and international prob- lems under a free society or in a society where a man is merely the creature of the state? So I hear you say, "Yes; we now know about the situation. What can we do about iu?” ACTION NECESSARY Just this, my friends: many millions of Americans are not awake. They are not as yet aware of the danger. That is where you come into the picture. Each and every one of us, no matter what station in life we may hold, must tell our friends and neighbors time and time again that to want true democracy is not enough, We must do something about it before the wave of Federal controls and bureaucracy engulfs us all. Let us gird ourselves with the determina- tion that those basic freedoms and spiritual ideals for which so many have sacrificed so much shall not be destroyed from within. We must all be crusaders in the great cause of liberty so that our children and our coming generation will be able to hold their heads high and breathe the clean air of a true democracy. I thank you and your splendid organiza- tion for the opportunity to come to New York to help you in the crusade and battle to save America, What are you guing to do about it? Problems and Possibilities of Domestic Shipping EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. SCHUYLER OTIS BLAND OF VIRGINIA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. BLAND. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the Ap- pendix of the REecorp on the subject of domestic shipping problems and possi- bilities, I include therein abstracts from a series of articles appearing in the Oc- tober, November, and December, 1946, issues of the Log of America’s Maritime Industries, which are as follows: DoMESTIC SHIPPING PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILI- Ties: AN ANALYSIS OF THE COASTWISE AND INTERCOASTAL SHIPPING INDUSTRY, PRESENTe ING ITs PREWAR PLIGHT, ITs PRESENT PROB- LEMS, AND THE OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE In order to compete in the postwar world, the water carrier must turn its attention toward speed—speed of the vessel and speed of loading and discharging operations. The tremendous increase in labor costs is one of the things which makes this necessary. The narrowing differential between water and rai] rates, and the widening differential between water and rail speed, is another. And thirdly, the vital necessity which is in- tertwined throughout any consideration of water-borne commerce—the interests of na- tional defense which require fast ships fitted with the most efficient mechanical equip- ment. If the domestic ship lines are forced to accept unsuitable war-built tonnage because the cost is made low enough for them to be able to purchase the needed vessels, much harm will be done to the industry and the national interests, What the industry needs most desperately is new ships, designed and A159 constructed speciflcally for the trade in which they are to engage and having the most profitable tonnage capacity, new and efficient cargo-handling equipment, and propulsion machinery which will provide the necessary speed. With vessels of this type the indus- try can successfully compete ugainst the other forms of transportation, provide the Nation with fast vessels of varying types which will be able to perform the manifold functions required of ships in time of war, serve the economy of the Nation by keeping our shipyards alive with the all-important “Know how," and provide an incentive to dis- covery and employment of new designs and methods. CURRENT CARGO=HANDLING EXPENSES The current expenses of cargo handling are staggering and prohibitive to any suc- cessful intercoastul and coastwise ship op- eration until labor becomes productive. At the present time labor is continually slow- ing down operations as well as calling costly strikes, Cargo which normally should move at the rate of 14 tons per hour is often de- liberately slowed to 3 or 4 tons per hour, despite eubstantial wage increases having al- ready been granted. Before any solution to the problem of ship operation can be worked out, labor must recognize its responsibilities and do the work for which it is being paid— and paid well. No one is denying labor the right to strike, but it should be denied the right to slow down deliberately from 14 to 4 tons per hour while it {s supposedly work- ing. The success or failure of our entire national shipping program can easily rise or fall according to the attitude of the labor which is loading our ships. With the cooperation of labor the indus- try can settle down to the business of im- proving cargo-handling methods and load more ships in less time, at less cost and greater revenue, and thus be in a position not only to operate, but to improve the con- ditions of labor. To increase the efficiency Of cargo handling will, in some cases, require new ships em- bodying construction features adapted to the particular trade in which the vessel is to be engaged. There is, however, much room for improvement in the loading of conventional types of ships which are now sailing. Some of these new methods are in actual use and are proving very successful. More effort must be spent by industry and Government to find short cuts in loading which will speed operations. These necessary changes will have to be made largely by the individual companies with an eye to their particular types of trade, distances, etc.—but they must be made. There will be many objections from labor and from Other sources, but if ships are to compete with rails in the postwar era they must facc the facts. One company which experimented with the container sys- tem of moving cargo prior to the war dis- covered that it reduced the cost of loading by more than half. It is just such drastic reductions through improvement of methods which are needed if domestic shipping is to succeed. PRESENT RATE STRUCTURE All domestic transportation by water has to compete with rail transportation, but not all rail transportation has to compete with water transportation. It is this fact which has enabled the railroads to depress rates wherever they meet water competition, with- out the necessity of depleting their total revenues. In many instances, particularly in competition with the coastwise trades, the railroads have established substantially lower rates for long haul in competition with water carriers, while maintaining much higher rates for the shorter haul over a part of the same route where no water competition exists.
A160 During the past year substantial increases have been authorized for rail rates in the proceedings Ez parte No. 162, following hear- ings held in Washington, scarcely a month after the railroads first filed their petitions, and probably additional increases will soon be forthcoming as a result of more extensive hearings held in various parts of the coun- try. Meantime, proceedings to aid the water carriers, requested in Ex parte No. 164 before the railroads filed their request, have en- countered protracted delays and little relief is in prospect for the immediate future while the greatest transportation volume in the Nation’s peacetime history results in critical shortages of railroad equipment and threat- ens to disrupt orderly reconversion programs, RAILROADS FIGHT WATER CARRIERS The railroads make no secret of the fact that they have made rates against the water carriers. In their recent proceeding before the ICC for a 25-percent increase in rates, they have specifically asked for much smaller increases on the particular commodities which form the bulk of the intercoastal trade, west-bound iron and steel and east- pound lumber. Witnesses in that proceed- ing, including high officials of the railroads, have testified that it is their purpose in mak- ing these exceptions to deprive water carriers of the business, The policies of other governmental depart- ments have afforded little prospect for co- operative efforts for the water carriers’ resto- ration. The attitude of the Department of Agriculture has seen:ed unreasonable when it opposes drastically needed rate increases and goes so-far as to state, as it did in the citrus fruit rates from Florida to north Atlantic points, that it objects to any rail increases necessary to permit restoration of coastwise water service. Such an attitude on the part of a major agency of the Federal Government is cer- tainly ill-advised and short-sighted for, if rates should be kept so low as to preclude profitable operation by the water carriers, the consequent loss of water service would surely result in ultimate increases in rail rates and a disadvantage to the public. Further obstacles to recovery are APA pricing methods developed during the war when there was no domestic water transpor- tation industry off-shore. Examples are price ceilings which are based on f. 0. b. plant prices, plus the cost of transportation, which offer the shippers no incentive to employ chesp transportation methods and ceilings which allow sellers to compute percentage of mark-ups on factory cost plus transportation charges to delivery points. Such cetlings actually put a premium upon high-cost means of transportation. VOLUME OF TRAFFIC The indicated volume of traffic in the post- war era is heartening for the industry. However, any determination of the amount of goods which will be transported by ship necessarily depends upon many of the other factors which have already been mentioned. The Port of New York Authority in its survey discovered, through a sample check of shippers known to have used coastwise serv- ices in 1939, that almost all who expressed their views were interested in the early re- sumption of the service. Those able to give quantitative comparisons between actual tonnage shipped in 1989 and estimated ton- nage to be shipped in 1946 anticipated an increase of 30 percent. It seems reasonable that in the next few years there will be a considerable amount of freight moving by water because of the war depletion of goods throughout the coun- try. That is, this freight will move by water if a sensible rate structure is established which will permit the water carriers to com- pete, if labor cooperates, and if the operators succecd in putting new methods of cargo handling into service. There will be goods to move, but upon these factors depends the all important question of who will move them. In the past the volume of ship traffic in the domestic trades has very closely followed the index of industrial production. What im- provement in ships and facilities will largely accomplish is to prevent declines in shipping when such declines occur in the industrial production. When production falls off. in- dustries are naturally seeking to economize, and if ships can offer them good service at low cost much of the freight may be diverted from the railroads. This will permit the water carriers to keep all of their ships in operation rather than lay them up during temporary slumps in industrial production. WHAT MUST BE DONE TO REESTABLISH DOMESTIC SHIPPING The necessity for reestablishing our do- mestic shipping system and improving it has been evidenced. But how can this be accomplished and still keep the operation within the classification of private indus- try? Many solutions to the problem have been offered—some of them good, some of them bad, none of them perfect. Yet some- where there does lie a solution and it should be one of the primary aims of the industry, Government, and the people of the United States to discover the working formula which will produce and maintain a strong domestic merchant marine. There must be some Government program to replace vessels which it commandeered in the interest of national defense—nearly all of which have been sunk or so radically al- tered for military purposes that it is imprac- tical to reconvert them. The Government paid for these vessels, but they were paid for on the basis of their depreciated value, which was approximately 25 to 50 percent of their original cost. As has been pointed out in this article, the original cost of most of these ships was $40.18 per deadweight ton, and to replace them today would cost well over $250 per deadweight ton. The cash settle- ment made by the Government is wholly inadequate. Yet if the shipping companies had those vessels today, regardless of their age, they would have ships to put into serv- ice and they would have ships designed for the trade. It has not been the policy of the United States to burden any one group of people with the cost of the war. In every industry affected by the demands of war there has been ample compensation, Then why should not the Government make just settle- ment with the shipping companies by re- placing ships with ships? It is not considered desirable to have the Government operate our domestic merchant marine. Nor would it be wise to risk Gov- ernment capital without an equal risk of private capital. Private capital is ready to assume the risks, but it must have iair pay- ment for losses in physical assets and such payments should be based upon the cost of Teplacing those assets today. In a fair settlement, payment should be made on the basis of present cost per dead-weight ton minus the depreciation for age. This would result in only fair payment but would be appreciably greater than settlements made on the basis of original cost minus depreci- ation. After all, it is through no fault of the ship operators that the cost of shipbuild- ing has risen from $40.18 per ton to over 6250 per ton. GOVERNMENT KILLED DOMESTIC SHIPPING This one fact stands out—the Government completely annihilated the domestic ship- ping industry in the interests of national defense. What happened to its competitors? The railroads and trucking companies, rather than being destroyed or even curtailed, were swollen with Government business as well ns APPENDIX TO FHE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD the traffic diverted from the absent water carriers. Tierefore, in fair treatment, the shipping industry deserves Government ald in reestablishing itself. Just how this Government aid should be administered is a matter for experts. It should not result in Government participa- tion in the operation of vessels or great risk of Government capital. Adequate payment for vessels requisitioned would be one step toward establishing the service. A con- struction differential based upon the differ- ence between what !t would have cost the companies to replace the vessels at the pre- war costs prevailing at the time they were requisitioned and the present construction costs would be a practical method of aid. Financial help through interest-free loans would be worthy of consideration in light of the fact that each ship is equally important as a national defense unit as it is for com- mercial purposes. There are many ways in which the Govern- ment can help the industry reestablish itself without great risk of public funds. One plan which merited much discussion was the in- come-debenture plan, but this resulted in Government participation and a risk of capl- tal which was not desirable. As an alterna- tive to this plan, it was argued that the Government should lower the prices on its war-bullt ships to such an extent that it would be feasible for an operator to run them on a sound financial basis. This seems a sensible plan—basing the cost of the ship on its earning power rather than its prewar cost—and would make ships available to those who could utilize the types to be had from the surplus fleet. However, in the case of coastwise com- panies which could never operate the avail- able vessels economically and efficiently, the Government should not force them to buy these unsuitable ships because of their low price but should evolve a plan to construct new ships designed for the special needs of the trade. Otherwise the industry will be back in its hopeless plight of prewar days. REVISION OF RATE STRUCTURE Any program to replace ships will be worth- less unless those vessels have some reason- able assurance of earning a profit. Govern- ment regulation of transportation has been here for a long time and is here to stay. The need for this regulation is reacily evi- dent for the protection of the public interest. But a program of Government regulation which favors one system of transportation to the exclusion of another cannot be con- atrued as being in the best interests of the public. . To cite the need for an upward revision in the steamship rate structure, here are some facts and figures presented by John E. Cushing, president, American-Hawaiian Steamship Co., in an address given before the San Francisco Foreign Trade Association. Mr. Cushing said: “In 1939 the ship wage and overtime bill for an intercoastal round trip was about $14,000. Today it is $27,000. Prewar the ship's complement fed for 80 cents per man per day. Now the figure is $1.37, On the cargo side for almost identi- cal commodity make-ups a ton of cargo han- dled in and out in 1939 for an average of $3.12. In 1946 the same operation is costing about 86.03. Thanks to the skill of the Maritime Commission designers, the fuel bill is proportionately less in percentage increase despite the much higher speed. It has risen only 50 percent with oil prices some 70 per- cent higher than prewar, “Over-all, excluding repairs, insurance, and overhead, on which conditions do not now permit a fair comparison, a normal round voyage would run in 1989 at about $85,000. Today it involves the expenditure of $150,000 plus, and sometimes a pretty ig plus. Neither figure carries any allowance for capi-
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD tal charges and both are based on the same totals for cargo tonnage handled.” The Interstate Commerce Commission 1s the body established by the Congress to ex- ercise control over transportation. It was created especially to see that the people of the United States were offered a means of travel and shipment at reasonable rates and were assured of efficient services. As there is no doubt as to the vital necessity to the people of an active and profitable merchant marine, the burden is incumbent upon the Interstate Commerce Commission to see that an adequate rate structure is evolved which will allow maximum development of both rail and water carriers. This can be done and the ICC has the power to do it. If the ICC, keeping in mind that since the Passage of the Transportation Act of 1940 it is bound to give impartial treatment to both water and rail carriers, overhauls the rate structure and eliminates everything that dis- criminates against one in favor of the other— which means almost entirely the railroad rates discriminating against the water car- ricrs—our ships can be run at a reasonable profit which will allow systematic replace- ment of vessels. Such a revision of rate structure will directly benefit the people. The.Nation can maintain » strong merchant marine to serve both its transportation and defense needs without the burden of taxes. The ICC has instituted hearings and studies on this situation and if it acts promptly and fairly the entire Nation will be benefited. If it does not, there will exist a deplorable situation brought about through the actions of a body created expressly to serve the public. RESPONSIBILITIES OF INDUSTRY No action or policy of Government alone 4s going to solve all of the problems of the merchant marine. Industry must take the lead with initiative and foresight. It must make every effort to operate efficiently, dis- cover new methods of reducing costs and time, redouble its efforts to secure cargoes, stand up and fight as a unit for its rights, and invest its own capital in improvements, There is nothing inherent in shipping which prevents making a profit. Profit does depend upon a normal rate of production throughout the country, and like any other industry, it prospers in good times and suffers in poor, But efficient management can make & profit if the Government plays the role to which it is committed. Experimentation will uncover new econo- mies in time and expense. Some companies are already using new methods of handling cargo which are proving successful. Com- pletely new types of carriers such as the trailer-ships are being put into operation. Studies are being made to develop new types of shipboard cranes for loading holds. If these attempts to improve the efficiency of loading operations are not immediately suc- cessful, the industry should be patient and come forth with its own ideas of how the expensive job of loading and discharging cargo at less cost and greater efficiency can be accomplished. Postwar ships are fast and economical to operate. If the industry can put such ships into operation, keep them loaded and on the move, and provide regularly for their replace- ment, it will be making its contribution to the national welfare, defense, and transporta- tion economy. RESPONSIBILITIES OF LABOR There is little that can be said here about labor which has not already been said. How- ever, we can reiterate the obvious fact— which seemingly at present is ignored—that labor has a tremendous stake in industry. Labor alone cannot make the domestic ship- ping industry, but it can break it. Nor can management or Government alone succeed. There must be cooperation among manage- XCITI—App.——-11 ment, Government and labor before we can hope to see our merchant marine prosper. If labor can see the light—realize that unless it produces more profits through eficient employment of its own power and talents it can not expect to gain in the long run—we have the foundation for a prosperity which the shipping industry has not known for a long time. On the other hand, if labor continues its disruptive tactics, insists on de- laying ships over petty squabbles, deliberately slows down the work, and makes impossible demands for wages and working conditions, management will not be able to succeed and consequently there will be no outlet for labor's resources. Labor has a right to share in the profits, but it also has the responsibil- ity of helping to establish those profits. Once this fact has become a part of labor's basic philosophy the industry will proceed on a sound basis. CONCLUSIONS In this article we have outlined the con- dition of the domestic shipping industry prior to the war, sought to establish the causes of its tottering financial position, analyzed the problems now facing the in- dustry, and projected some ideas on how to rectify bad conditions, solve some of the problems, and estublish a prosperous post- war domestic merchant marine. In summa- tion, then, we list some of the basic things which must be done to achieve this end: 1. Government must evolve a program of aid to ship operators to replace requisitioned vessels and reestablish the services disrupted by the war. 2, The Interstate Commerce Commission must overhaul the transportation rate struc- ture to eliminate discrimination and allow water carricrs to participate on an equal basis with other systems of transportation. 3. Industry must take the lead in initiat- ing new methods which will improve effi- clency and must employ private capital to a maximum, 4. Labor must recognize its responsibilities and cooperate with management and Gov- ernment to establish an adequate and effi- cient domestic merchant marine. Nonco- operation will eliminate the demands for its own services. If all of these things are done with sin- cere effort, everyone is not automatically as- sured of a profit, but everyone is assured of the opportunity to compete for profits which are there for the taker. Although attain- ment of these objectives does not assure suc- cess, failure to attain them does assure de- feat. Portal-to-Portal Suits EXTENSION OF REMARKS or HON. JOHN W. GWYNNE OF IOWA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. GWYNNE of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks, I in- clude herewith a statement on portal-to- portal pay made by Mr. John P. Frey, president of the metal trades depart- ment of the A. F. of L. The statement is as follows: SUITS FOR PORTAL-TO-PORTAL PAY VIOLATE A BASIC PRINCIPLE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING (By John P. Frey, president, metal trades department, A. F. of L.) In reaching a decision on the question of suing employers for so-called portal-to- portal back wages, the executive council of the metal trades department, A. F. of L., Al61 has been governed by one basic considera- tion—its faith and loyalty to collective bar- gaining with employers. It is through collective bargaining that our trade unions, in negotiations with employ- ers around the conference table, are able to reach acceptable agreements covering the terms of employment and the conditions of labor. Without such mutual agreements there could be no satisfactory or stabilizing indus- trial relations, chaos would exist. The value of collective industrial agreements to both labor and management is similar to govern- ment by law through the peoples’ duly elect- ed representatives; in fact, and not in the- ory, it 1s self-government by labor and man- agement. When labor and management enter into negotiated agrecments, the integrity of both are involved. Unless such agreements can be depended upon by both parties, collec- tive bargaining eannot be successfully con- tinued. The international unions who comprise the metal trades department, A. F. of L., have practiced collective bargaining with employ- ers from the beginning. It has been their definite policy to strengthen collective bar- gaining in every way possible, to benefit their membership, and to retain the employers’ confidence in this method of regulating industrial relationships. Throughout the Nation, the international unions have negotiated many thousands of these agreements with employers in the metal-working industries, which are now in effect. When these agreements were nego- tiated there was a free, open and above- board presentation of all the conditions which the unions desired to have incor- porated, including the wage rates, overtime rates, classifications, and all other items affecting wages. When these agreements had been negotiated and signed, they specifically expressed what the employers were willing to pay in the field of wages, and what trade unionists were -villing to accept for the period covered br these agreements. In the upplication of all terms and provi- sions of agreements during their life, the question of each party's good faith and in- tegrity is involved. Without this good faith and integrity, collective bargaining would be of little, if any, value to either labor or man- agement. When an agreement is entered into, the employer knows what his labor costs will be, so far as wages are involved, for the period of the agreement. Trade unionists under the agreement pledge themselves not to in- troduce new questions of wages during the life of the agreement, unless the agreement specifically contains a provision for the re- opening of the agreement for this purpose during the period of its existence. To now inject the question of back pay, for portal-to-portal time, would be an ad- mission that when wage agreements were signed by trade-union representatives, they had been insincere during the negotiations, and had held mental reservations which they were unwilling to discuss with employers while seated at the conference table. Our trade-union movement has no assets more valuable than its agreements with em- ployers, and the integrity which is involved There is nothing to prevent the discussion of portal-to-portal pay when existing agree- ments with employers are negotiated, and the inclusion of this form of payment in the new agreements. But as to existing agreements with employers, many of them entered into with the same corporation for a generation or more, the executive council definitely rec- ommends that existing collective-bargaining agreements must not be dishonored by now entering into legal suits to secure a form of wages which were not provided for when the existing agreements were ncgotiated. WASHINGTON, D. C., January 13, 1947.
A162 Portal-to-Portal Cases EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. ROBERT F. RICH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, Junuary 16, 1947 Mr. RICH. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the Recorp, I include the following radio talk by Hon. Samuel B. Pettengill, former Rep- resentative from Indiana: PorTAL-TO-PORTAL—FINANCIAL AVALANCHE LET Loose sy SUPREME CourT May CHILi. Hores FoR EXPANSION OF BUSINESS AND STEADY EMPLOYMENT—A CHALLENGE TO CONGRESS (By Hon. Sumuel B. Pettengill, former Congressman from Indiana) I am going to discuss these portal-to- portal cases now being filed as a result of recent Supreme Court decisions. I am going to suggest what might be done ahout them. The portal-to-portal or travel-time cases mean, in simple words, that the Supreme Court has decreed a new meaning to the word “workweek.” It has decided that pay begins at the gate rather than at the workbench. Acting as & superlegislature, the Court has overridden long-established customs and practices in industry; it has declared collec- tive-bargaining contracts null and void; it has changed the meaning of an act of Con- gress. I was in Congress at the time and I know that portal-to-portal pay was not even thought of when the bill was before Congress. A Senator, who was one of the authors of the bill, agrees that this is so. A FINANCIAL AVALANCHE The consequences of the Court's arbitrary and reckless action are beyond computation. It has already resulted in damage suits totaling over $3,000,000,000. Other suits will probably be filed in hundreds, if not thou- sands, of cases, to an estimated total of five or six billion dollars. Many businesses are now faced with the threat of bankruptcy. The suits, if success- ful, will result in claims against the United States Government for tax credits amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, thus in- creasing the tax burden on you and all other taxpayers in the United States. And, as the arbitrary back payment of more dollars for no more goods will force costs and prices still higher, millions of consumers must pay the bill. The court has let loose a financial ava- lanche. No business, however small, that produces goods for sale in interstate com- merce in which men have worked more than 40 hours is now free from its threat, The claims range from $270,000,000 against Ford, $200,000,000 against Bethlehem Steel, $100,- 000,000 against. International Harvester, down to claims of a few thousands against com- panies employing but a dozen or so men. One of the smaller companies has already paid over 84,000,000 to get its claim settled. TWICE THE VALUE It has been estimated that claims against the automobile industry alone may aggregate twice the value of the factory buildings. Al- lowance must, of course, be made for the exaggeration of damages which all plaintiffs make when they go to court. Undoubtedly, many of these huge claims will be whittled down to much smaller amounts. But, if you had just been sued for $20,000 damages on account of an automobile acci- dent, not covered by insurance, would you feel like going ahead with a plan to build a house unti] you knew what a court or jury would do to you in the damage suit? Or, even if you would take that risk, would a bank lend you money to build your house ‘until the law suit had been settled? The same situation confronts every busi- ness which has been or may be used. Noth- ing could be better designed to chill the hopes of the New Year for a steady expansion of business and jobs, or to make investors cautious in risking new money to buy the tools for business to expand. Even as big a company as General Motors has had to ask for more funds as a result of its strike losses this past year, CLAIMS AFFECT EVERYONE The men rushing to court may sue them- selves out of jobs. It can be seen, therefore, that either as worker, stockholder, consumer, or taxpayer, these portal-to-portal claims affect every one of you. The attorney in one of the cases says it “is the biggest and most important decision the Supreme Court ever made.” This stretches it a bit. The Dred Scott case which helped to bring on the Civil War, and some others, were more im- portant. But it is doubtful if the Supreme Court ever did anything so destructive to the business and jobs of the Nation. Some of the more fortunate companies may be able to pay these claims, or get tax credits from the United States Treasury as a result of paying them, and keep running. But the damage to business and jobs from this judge-made definition of “workweek,” with Nation-wide application, in good times and bad, may be measured by the fact that in the years from i936 to 1939, 60 percent of all companies, doing a quarter of all cor- porate business, operated at a loss. From what fund are these companies to pay huge claims for travel time, running back for years? It is too bad that none of Mr. Roosevelt's appointees to the Supreme Court ever ran a business, and that few, if any, were ever even the legai advisers of business. To the extent that the Supreme Court bankrupts the smaller and weaker compa- nies or checks their growth, it further con- centrates economic power in the hands of the few that may be able to survive. THE THREE CASES Let us review what the court has done. There are three cases in all: One, involving underground iron mining; the second, coal mining; and the third, ordinary factory op- erations. In all three, from two to four judges of the court disagreed with the de- cision. In the iron and coal mining cases the plaintiffs were represented by the former law partner of Justice Black, whose partici- pation and deciding vote in one of the cases ‘was so sharply rebuked by Mr. Justice Jack- son last June. And. as pointed out by Mr. Jackson, Justice Black, in voting for portal- to-portal, reversed the stand he had taken as a Senator and legislator when he was man- aging wage-and-hour legislation through Congress. The wage-and-hour bill provides that work over 40 hours a week must be paid for at the rate of time and one-half. It also pro- vides that if this overtime is not paid, the employer is liable not only for time and a half, but also for a 100-percent penalty as liquidated damages, together with attorney's fees and costs. Thic means that these portal-to-portal law- suits call for 83 for time spent getting ready to work, as against $1 for actually working. That is why these claims run into such stage gering sums. Thousands of companies are now at the hazard of huge claims never con- templated by either Congress, the companies, or by the wage earners themselves, WHAT 18 WORKWEEK? That the labor unions accepted the long- established meaning of workweek, is con- clusively shown by the fact that they never APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD once questioned it until just lately in all the 8 years cince the law was passed, Now, in passing the bill in 1938, Congress did not define what constituted a workweek of 40 hours or more. It was wise not to do s0. It left the meaning of that word as it was then commonly understood by management and men alike according to custom and prac- tices prevailing, often for generations, in the different industries of the country. When the bill was passed a workweek or workday meant from whistle to whistle in the factories, or face to face in the mines. In short, the time a workingman is actually doing productive work for his employer. Not only was it a matter of custom, but in many cases it was a matter of contract. For example, the United Mine Workers agreed in their collective-bargaining con- tract that “7 hours of labor shall constitute @ day’s work and this means 7 hours work at the usual working places for all classes of labor.” Did this contract mean anything to the New Deal majority in the Court? Not a thing. UMW ON RECORD The United Mine workers had in fact pro- tested against portal-to-portal as a basis of computing time. The UMW wrote the Wage and Hour Administrator in 1940—after the law had gone into effect—as follows: “The uniform high rates of pay that have always been included in the wage agreement of the mining industry contemplate the em- ployee’s working day beginning when he ar- rives at his usual working place. Hence, travel time was never considered as a part of the agreement or obligation of the em- ployer to pay for in this industry, nor as hours worked by the employees, and this has been the case since the 8-hour day was established in the industry—in 1898''—49 years ago. Later, in order to skate around wage cell- ings imposed by law in time of war, the miners reversed their porition and asked for portal-to-portal in order to get more pay. The Supreme Court obliged them by a 5 to 4 vote. The Court has now applied the rule to factories as well as mines. The Court holds that a man must be paid from the time he enters the company’s premises until he leaves—gate-to-gate. But is there a word in the law about being on the permises? Not a syllable. It will be exactly as logical for the Court to say at some later time that & man must be paid travel time from the time he leaves his home in the morning until he gets back at night, and thus start a new round of damage sults. PAY WHILE SLEEPING It is certainly just as important to the company that a worker travel from home to gate, as from gate to workbench. As Justice Roberts, of the Supreme Court, said, “It would be no less a judicial fiat” if miners were required to be paid for time spent in their homes. And, with the Supreme Court acting as a wage-raising organization, you may, in fact, no longer be surprised if I tell you that a claim has actually been filed for pay while sleeping. If this keeps on, American industry will be like liver pills; “they work while you sleep.” Mr. Roosevelt complained that the old Su- preme Court was a superlegislature passing upon the wisdom of legislation on the basis of their own personal, political, and econom- ic philosophy. But do you know of any decision by the old Supreme Court that let loose damage suits of $3,000,000,000, and more? As Chief Justice Stone and Justice Roberts said in the first of these cases, “If we are to have a government of laws" we must ascertain what Congress has enacted rather than what we wish it had en- acted, * * *
‘APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD WHAT CAN CONGRESS DO? “There is nothing in the words of the stat- ute or its history to suggest that Congress intended, without mentioning it, to confer on the Administrator or the courts 50 vast a power over the industry of the Nation. * * © The act was not intended by Con- gress to turn into work that which was not work, or not so understood to be, at the time of its passage. * * * It was not in- tended to permit courts to designate as work some activity of an employee, which neither employer nor employee had ever regarded as work. * * * They are to get three times as much per hour for riding and walking to and from the work they were hired to do, as they get from doing the work itself. The injus- tice of it to me is shocking.” There is no social injustice in the custom- ary definition of workweek, because as was said by Justices Burton and Frankfurter, “The obvious, long-established, and simple way to compensate an employee for such activities (as walking time) is to recognize those activities in the rate of pay for the particular job.” Now, can Congress do anything? That is the big question. I do not think Congress is helpless, As all of the lower Federal courts have only such jurisdiction as Con- gress confers upon them, Congress, in my judgment, could withdraw the jurisdiction of the courts to try these cases. There js a clear precedent for its doing s0. SEVERAL PRECEDENTS When the contract to pay Government bonds in gold coin was repudiated in 1933, Congress, at Mr. Roosevelt's insistence, passed an act forbidding the courts to try suits for damages filed by Government bondholders. Next, Congress could levy a special wind- fall tax on the amounts recovered in portal- to-portal suits. This would make it unprof- itable to try the cases. Again, there is a precedent for doing so. When the first triple-A farm bill was held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, Congress taxed, at the rate of 80 percent, the windfall money which remained in the hands of food proc- essors a8 a result of that decision. Again, as proposed by Congressman GwYNNe of Iowa, Congress could probably shorten the back period from which travel time could be collected, thus reducing the amount of dam- ages. Again, as proposed by Congressman Horrman, of Michigan, the provision for 100-percent liquidated damages might be repealed, thus cutting the loss in half. There is court authority that “rights of ac- tion based upon purely statutory grounds may be abolished by the legislature even after they have accrued” (Nattonal Carload- tng Corp. v. Phoeniz-El Paso Express, 176 8. W. 564). A SUPERLEGISLATURE There is a still broader ground for con- gressional action. The Constitution says: “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress.” None is vested in the courts, and as the “intent of the law- maker is the law,” it must follow that when @ court in effect amends a statute by giving it a@ meaning never dreamed of by Congress, Congress can more specifically tell the courts what its intent originally was. It cannot be that acts of Congress can be amended by the Supreme Court as a superlegislature, and thus transfer legislative power from Con- gress to the courts by what is, in effect, an usurpation of power. The Constitution never intended that any- one could cut its heart out in this manner. It is too fantastic for belief even for this present age. This litigation is a good object lesson of the evil flowing from concentrating in the Federal Government power over mil- lions of different businesses operating under widely different conditions. It is too much like Hitler’s Germany. These suits start the New Year under stormy economic weather. Until settled, many ships will keep near shore. The Court presents a challenge to Congress that Con- gress must meet. Crash Landings or GCA? EXTENSION OF REMARKS f°) HON. PAUL W. SHAFER OF MICHIGAN IN THE HOUSE OF REFRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. SHAFER. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the number of airplane crashes in which passengers have lost life or limb is a subject of great concern to everyone, most particularly those of us who want to see aviation flourish in our country as a means of progress and to assure our national defense. In connection with the airplane crashes, there has been carried in the January 13, 1947, issue of Aviation News a very interesting editorial by Robert H. Wood, the editor. This editorial, entitled “Crash Land- ings or GCA?” discusses very intelli- gently the new techniques for landing in fogs and stormy weather developed by the Army and Navy during the late war. Army and Navy planes are using these ground-control approach techniques, made possible principally because of de- velopments in radar, and are finding it relatively easy to land in fogs or stormy weather. Under leave to extend my remarks, I include this editorial in the Recorp, and I commend the words of this editorial to my colleagues, to the CAB, and to the air- line officials who are so greatly concerned with aviation’s future: CRASH LANDINGS OR GCA? Few public-relations problems of the air lines this winter deserve more attention than the necessity for satisfying the persistent query of the layman: Why don’t air liners use operating Army and Navy radar systems to Jand in emergencies? The public fully realizes that adoption of so-called blind-landing equipment by the Nation’s entire air-line system on a 24-hours- a-day basis at all major cities is a complex and expensive project which cannot be achieved overnight. There are apparently valid reasons Why day-to-day use cannot be made immediately of certain outmoded GCA equipment in Army and Navy possession. But why are air liners in distress permitted to wander over the country within range of up-to-date GCA operating units until fuel exhaustion brings a crash? On the same stormy night of January 6 two DC-3’s made crash landings after they were unable to find an open airport before their fuel disappeared. Fortunately, there were only twodeaths. Asastory in this issue of the News points out, both ships were within range of three GCA systems. During their entire distress periods, all three sets were definitely in operation, their crews standing by awaiting any emergency call. “These stations are located at Patuxent, Md.; Andrews Field, Md.; and Floyd Bennet Field, N. Y. Investigation discloses that CAA’s A163 Airways Traffic Control at no time alerted these stations, which did not Know of the planes’ difficulties, nor is there any evidence that pilots were informed of the emergency facilities available to them. Instead, both passenger-laden transports crashed. It 1s quite true that neither CAA nor the air lines permit any regularly scheduled com- mercial air liner to make a landing which depends on the ground-control-approach system. Regardless of the soundness of this policy, it is based on a conscientious effort to safeguard public safety. But any air-line pilot can d.clare an emer- gency and violate any regulations at the risk of punishment later, if he lives. Some pilots prefer to follow fhe rules, even in emergen- cies, Others apparently are not even in- formed of the possibility of using properly functioning GCA units at nearby military and naval bases. All three GCA stations mentioned above are building up enviable safety records for the services. Andrews Field recently landed a C-82 with 24 military passengers under almost impossible night weather conditions, The plane did not have enough gasoline to taxi off the runway after its landing. All other airports in the vicinity were closed. On January 2, under similar conditions, a C-54 landed at Andrews in fog so thick the tower personnel did not see the aircraft until after it was on the ground. One anecdote worth repeuting: Agmiral Nimitz, proceeding from Columbia, 8. C., to Washington in a Lockheed transport, was in- formed by Washington National Airport— operating on instruments—of a 4-hour land- ing delay. He reserved a place in the stack, then landed at Patuxent, using GCA, with a 75-foot ceiling. The admiral and his crew had lunch, later joined his place in the stack over Washington, and had only 30 minutes’ circling before landing. The number of such instances increases daily. Both Army and Navy have main- tained almost perfect operational records in experimental all-weather air transport serv- ices, by using GCA. We hope the Air Transport Association will explain to the public why air liners are not using GCA equipment within range when there appears every likelfhood that a crash landing will be only a matter of time. If there are sound reasons why the industry prefers to risk a crash landing over a GCA landing, they should be aired. If there are no such reasons, why cannot GCA emergency service be authorized? If mechanical prob- lems must first be overcome before military GCA can be received, what are they, and how much longer will commercial transports be denied the safety advantages enjoyed by every Army and Navy aircraft? If the industry itself does not begin to answer these questions soon we may expect the steamships, railroads, and others to take the fullest advantage of an opportunity to arouse public sympathy in their campaign to open up air transportation to the surface carriers. Rospert H. Woop. The Future of Reclamation and Irrigation EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. A. L. MILLER OF NEBRASKA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. MILLER of Nebraska. Mr. Speak- er, under leave to extend my remarks, I
Al64 include in the Appendix of the ConarEs- SIONAL REcorD #& speech prepared for the annual meeting of the Nebraska Recla- mation Association held in Lincoln, Nebr., on January 13, 1947, on the sub- ject entitled “The Future of Reclamation and Irrigation.” Because of pressing legislative work in Washington, I was unable to attend the meeting, and the speech was read by Mr. E. P. Ryan, of Grand Island, Nebr., secre- tary of the Nebraska Midstate Associa- tion. It follows: Mr. President and members of the Nebraska Reclamation Association, it is a pleasure to have the opportunity of speaking before your annual meeting and to discuss with you some of the present problems and future plans of reclamation. The Reclamation Bureau, which is a division of the Interior Depart- ment of the Government, is about 47 years old. Their main purpose is to develop irri- gation and reclamation in the 17 Western States. In doing this they naturally had to build tremendous dams which furnish power to help pay for some of the irrigation developments. In building the dams they conserve soil, control floods, and develop electrical energy. At the height of our war activities we were spending about $7,000,000,000 a month to keep the instruments of war in operation. If this amount of money had been made available for the development of the natural resources of our country, including irriga- tion, conservation of soil, power, and flood control, we would find that 1 month’s money spent for war would be sufficient for a 7-year program, which would bring new lands under irrigation, develop power, and conserve our soil, In addition, it would bring tremendous wealth to the United States. It has always been necessary to work hard and use tactful diplomacy to sell the recla- mation program to the eastern section of the country. It should be remembered that there are 45 Representatives from the State of New York and 83 from Pennsylvania. This means that there are more Representatives in the House of Representatives from these 2 States than we have from the 17 Midwestern States combined. Missionary work is always in order. The 17 Western States concerned with reclamation make up more than half of the geographical area of the United States. These States, with their irrigation and farming activities, supply, in rough figures, 47 percent of the Nation's beef; 78 percent of its wool; 77 percent of its wheat; 30 per- cent of its canning crops; 76 percent of its sugar beets; 31 percent of its cotton; 42 percent of its potatoes; 79 percent of the alfalfa seed; and major quantities of flax, beans, peas, hogs, fruits, and other crops. If this area was a separate nation, I am cer- tain that the eastern section of the United States would go to great limits to establish favorable trade relations with it. It should be stated, in all fairness, that the entire tremendous wealth in these 17 Western States is not directly dependent upon agriculture, but directly and indirectly irri- gation is the most important single factor in the life, progress, and development of all of these States. It has been shown, in the last 40 years, that irrigation is certainly an important factor in the life, progress, and development of this area. It has been the great stabilizer. Irrigation provides that confidence and security which makes pos- sible an expanding economy. Irrigation brings greatly increased incomes to 8 community. It brings enormous gains in purchasing power and increasing living standards not only to the farm families but to the professional and business men living in these irrigation areas. Nor should one overlook the assets to the Federal Govern- ment through the payment of income taxes. I am convinced that if a careful study were made, it would be disclosed that the new wealth and taxes paid thereon would far exceed the original cost of irrigated projects several times during the 40-year period allotted for the payment of these develop- ments. Eastern interests would do well to realize that development of dams and everything pertaining to irrigation means the under- writing of their own prosperity. It does mean a tremendous increase of purchasing power from the West, much of which goes into the industrial sections of the East. The vast production and the accompanying assurance that comes from a confidence that water brings to the land is a continuing heritage of immeasurable value to our Nation. Irrigation brings an assurance to any com- munity. Because much of our land is gradu- ally wearing out, it is necessary to develop a wise policy for the proper extension, main- tenance, and repair of our present lands. In the arid States the spring planting of crops ts always accompanied with a certain apprehension as to how great a crop may be harvested. Water, with all of its accompanying bene- fits, helps to bring on an expanding economy in this country. It helps to make life richer and happier. If this country is to continue to grow and prosper, we must have a con- tinued expanding economy in America, This means a strong government and a free grow- ing society. An expanding economy, reduced to market- basket language, is an economy in which more and more goods and services to make life richer and happier are produced at constantly lowered prices and costs without reducing the wages or incomes which are the laborer’s in- centive to work, the farmer’s and manage- ment’s incentive to produce, and the busi- ness’ incentive to expand. Certainly irriga- tion provides a backlog of safety, security, and stability to a community. The farmer who has the °xperience and the energy, plus the necessary water, with all of ita benefits, cannot help but prosper and have a high degree of security. It is interesting to take a look at the agri- cultural lands in the United States. Indeed, the entire world is short of good agricul- tural land. The new land to be developed is limited. The Nation should use its entire energy in the development of new lands, new natural resources, because this is real wealth, The new wealth created by irrigation through increased production, increased population, and expanded property values does represent & new purchasing power with growing con- sumer markets for industrial products. The story can be told time and again and proven by experience that new lands brought into production means new wealth, new sources of taxes, and better standards of living. American agriculture, with its production of new wealth, has created a nation which grew from a population of 3,000,000 in 1775 to 140,000,000 in 1946. The new wealth from agriculture and from our natural resources created the capital to build the industrial plants of this country which are unequaled in any other nation, Our industrial plants during the war outproduced all the other nations put together. We produced, not from our trade, but from the resources of this country and from its tremendous pro- duction. Agriculture supplied 65 percent of the needed raw materials. Without Amer- ican agriculture, industry and the Nation would have been helpless. It is interesting to note that agriculture and the great industrial age grew together. The records show that between 1850 and 1920 there was about the same ratio of growth APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD between industry and agriculture. Our farms had to create the capital and the ma- terial to make our industries possible. During this period of 70 years agriculture expanded at the rate of about 5,000,000 new acres of improved farm lands each year. At the end of World War I, we had about 355,- 000,000 acres of land under cultivation. The amount of land brought in through irriga- tion has about offset the land retired. Since 1910, we have increased our har- vested areas about 10 percent while our popu- lation has increased from £2,000,000 to 140,- 000,000 or more than 50 percent. If we are to continue to meet the needs of our ex- panding population, it will be necessary to produce more crops, either through develop- ing new irrigation areas or through the use of proper seed, cultivation, and fertilizer. If we look at the expanding population, and the birth rate has gone up from 18 per thousand in 1920 to 29 per thousand at the present time, we will need 10,000,000 new acres of land or we will not be able to meet our expanding needs. Coming nearer heme, it is estimated that Nebraska has nearly one million additional acres of land which can be irrigated. Ne- braska has lagged behind in the development of its irrigation. This has been partly due to the fact that there has been a continued controversy in Nebraska relative to the use of its waters. It ts my opinion that if the Nebraska Legislature is thrown into a bitter controversy relative to the use of water within the Nebraska borders, that the Reclamation Bureau will not be in a position to lend as- sistance to this State. Nebraska has a tre- mendous amount of water in the Niobrara, the Loups, the Plattes, and the Republican Rivers that should be utilized for domestic purposes first, and then the development of power by REA districts to help pay for irri- gation. It naturaily falls that soil conserva- tion, flood contrvl, recreational facilities, and navigation will be benefited by the steps taken to use the water for domestic purposes and for irrigation. Nebraska should put its house in order if they desire to be in a posi- tion to expect or accept assistance from the Bureau of Reclamation in developing irriga- tion within the State. Under resolutions which I introduced in the Seventy-ninth Congress, the Reclamation -Bureau and the Army engineers have nearly completed preliminary surveys for the use of water on the Niobrara River, the Loup Rivers, and on the North Platte River. Addi- tional surveys will be made and additional plans will be formulated, but final work will be held in abeyance until all controversy within the State relative to the use of water has been settled. There is no question but what the helpful development of ugriculture, and this includes irrigation, is necessary for a prosperous United States. When one analyzes the agriculture prod- ucts, both imported and exported, since 1922, we find, with the exception of 1 year, we have had to import more farm products than we actually exported From 1934-41 we im- ported annually on the average of 50,000,000 acres in excess of our exports. There were some interesting charts released by Congress- man Morray, of Wisconsin, that were taken from the records of the Agriculture Depart- ment, and tell a revealing story about our production, our exports, and our imports. It is interesting to note that during the years of 1925-29, the imports forced down the price of our farm products and brought on a depression. During this time we pre- sented to the world the spectacle of a nation trying to go in two different directions at one and the same time. This Nation was promising the farmer a price for his pro- ducts on one hand and on the other hand we were importing farm products at less than
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD our American parity level to keep the farmer from obtaining that price. Yes, we even plowed under our crops and killed the pigs and paid the farmers not to produce and turned over the market for 50,000,000 acres to foreign production. There never was an overproduction. It was an underconsump- tion and inability of the laboring men and the public to buy. This Nation has about 550,000,000 acres classed as agricultural lands. We have been actually, farming about 355,000,000 acres. Much of this agricultural land is sub- marginal and should not be farmed. The only opportunity for increasing production in this country is better scientific farming and bringing in an additional 20,000,000 acres of land which can be irrigated. It is true that we can buy Argentine meat and other agricultural products from foreign countries cheaper than we can produce them here in the United States. This theory to me is a malicious mirage. I have always main- tained that cheap raw materials are costly and cheap labor means a cheaper product, a cheaper nation, and lower living standards. If we adopt the theory that we can get bet- ter and cheaper products by imports from countries where the products are produced by cheap-labor standards, we then shut off the source of our own income at home. In developing irrigated areas there must be proper engineering, with canals, laterals, and ditches for the turning of water onto the land. When irrigation projects are consid- ered we must be sure that there are enough acres of the right kind of land to grow the right crops and when this is coupled with a sound diversification scheme and the build- ing up of the fertility of the soll, then the project can be justified. In the early days of irrigation development in Nebraska, some lands were brought under irrigation which never should have been bonded for that pur- pose. The farmer who accepts irrigation must be certain of a sure and certain water supply and at a cost which he can afford to pay. He must have enough water when he needs it. He must have the right amount of water at the right time if he is to produce the right kind of crops. He must know the business of irrigation. He must have the knowledge and skill and experience, as well as energy to carry out these farming opera- tions. Irrigation projects must be properly laid out, surveyed, and analyzed in order that they can justify their existence. According to the 1940 census, more than 85 percent of the irrigated land in these 17 Western States is irrigated primarily from individual, partnership, or cooperative irri- gation organizations. About 16 percent of our irrigated land ts classified by the census as included in the Bureau of Reclamation projects. It must be remembered that the early irrigation was done by the easy method. Future developments will require extensive constructions, going to land not so easily reached by ordinary methods. This land cannot be developed by private initiative entirely. It is estimated that there are some 20,000,000 acres of land that can yet be irri- gated or benefited by water. Most of this construction will be costly and it follows that a careful planning and help from the Federal Government will be needed to get the work started. In my humble opinion, the over-all pic- ture of reclamation and irrigation ts bright. No one will or can stop the hands of prog- reas. Developing our natural resources is progreas. I hope Nebraska will be prepared to take its rightful place in this parade of progress. The prime objective of the Ne- braska Reclamation is to bring to use all the water within the State for the benefit of the citizens. When this is done some 1,000,- O00 new acres of land will be irrigated. Power sufficient to supply every farm and home in Nebraska will be produced. Let's move forward with that objective in mind. Nineteen Hundred and Forty-seve Conservation for EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. OVERTON BROOKS OF LOUISIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. BROOKS. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the Rec- orD, I include the following editorial entitled “Nineteen Hundred and Forty- seven for Conservation” from the Novem- ber issue of the Country Gentleman magazine: We respectfully renew a suggestion that President Harry S. Truman proclaim 1947 soll-conservation year. Country Genticman originally proposed this action several months ago, before the need to maintain maximum food production for famine relief took precedence over everything else. That need is now lessening while the rea- sons which prompted the suggestion are still more urgent. The deterioration of our soil resources has increased and a return of crop surpluses appears nearer. Our soil has been an “expendable” during the war and the famine period following it. Six years of intensive cropping has speeded up the rate of depletion and resulted in dam- age that needs to be remedied at the earliest opportunity. We have been growing three acres of row crops where our land can stand only two in such sustained production. Re- cent surveys, based on measured soi! losses, indicate that the potential productive capac- ity of about one third of the land in the Corn Belt, our richest farm area, will be permanently lowered in the next decade if present cropping systems are continued. Dr. M. A. McCall, our leading agronomist, says: “Certainly to maintain continued profitable agriculture in the United States more attention must be directed toward an increase in the acreage of grasses and leg- umes as a part of the reguiar farming prac- tice.” This shift would have the further value of promoting the production of live- stock and livestock products, making for a more permanent farming system and a bet- ter national diet. Such a readjustment in our land use, along with other needed conservation prac- tices, cannot sefely be delayed. If action is put off and surpluses develop the damage can be irreparable. Higher farm production was not a passing war phase. A recent excellent Department of Agriculture study, Changes in Farming in War and Peace, states that “Agriculture has experienced a production revolution during the war years. A large part of the charge is irrevocable. It will persist under peace- time conditions.” Increased mechanization, use of higher-yielding varieties, and better farm practices insure ample production. The imminent danger is that we shall have too much production soon of some crops at the expense of the longer future. The Depart- ment of Agriculture is now having to plan how to support crops for which a 90 percent parity price is guaranteed. There is worry fpout how to keep the cost within bearable ts. . The provident way of doing this is by a national soil restoring and conserving pro- gram. It is better to store up productive capacity in the soil than to store surplus commodities in the granaries and warehouses under Government loans. The basic capi- tal stock of the Nation would thereby be safeguarded for future requirements, which @ growing population or new emergencies will impose upon it, A165 Only a proclamation by the President could focus the attention of the country upon what needs to be done. As nothing else, it would give an impetus to an eventually necessary movement toward soil conserva- tion and proper land use, assuring the per- manence of the Nation’s primary source of security and well-being. It is with these considerations in mind that we respectfully suggest that the President proclaim 1947 “soil-conservation year.” Air Accidents EXTENSION OF REMARKS oF HON. CHESTER E. MERROW OF NEW HAMPSHIRE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. MERROW. Mr Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the REc- orD, I include the following editorial from the Washington Post of January 16, 1947, entitled “Air Accidents”: AIR ACCIDENTS Congressional concern over the current rash of air-line accidents may serve a valu- able purpose. Properly directed, an investi- gation such as proposed by several Senators and Representatives could bring to light the root of the trouble. That, in our opinion, is money, or the lack of it. Neither the air lines nor the Government is putting into air safety research—and practical adaptation of already proved devices—more than a frac- tion of what is needed. Since the financial condition of the air lines is not bright. the problem harks back to the support the Gov- ernment is willing to give through the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the agency re- sponsible for operating the airways. So far the CAA's funds for research and develop- ment have been -deplorably low. There is some validity, we think, to the contention of Senator Brewster that pub- lic confidence in air travel has been sapped by recent crashes. That confidence will not be restored by mere publication of figures indicating that the air-line safety record has consistently improved and was better in 1946 than tn 1945. For most people, the passenger fatality rate of 1.6 per 100,000,000 passenger- miles in 1946 as opposed to 2.31 in 1945 is an irrelevant statistic. Air lines suffer tn this respect because most of their accidents are spectacular and because the probability of death in such accidents is great. Nor is public confidence Ikely to be encouraged by the knowledge that several important safcty aids already proved workuble by the Army and Navy have not yet been put into use at civilian airports. The problem of lost planes and blind landings, for instunce, has definite- ly been licked by wartime electronic develop- ments. If money for installation were navail- able, a combination of such fucilities both on the ground and in planes would be a guar- anty against failure of any one sufety device. Possibly there is something to be said for a probe of the Civil Aeronautics Buard’s posi- tion as both the instigator of snfety rules and the agency charged with investigating accidents. The primary value in a congres- sional inquiry, however, would be in cxpos- ing the extremely limited scope with which the safety problem has been approached. The Civil Aeronautics Administration has a budget of only $875,000 for research and de- velopment in the fiscal year 1947, and only 180,000 of this is devoted tu radio and radar. The $1,600,000 asked for 1948 is not much
A166 better. Nor can the $1,000,000 program an- nounced by the air lines be considered ade- quate. The fact is that we are still playing with pennies on a problem that requires a concerted, all-out attack if it is to be solved in time to aid 1947's pressing needs. If a congressional investigation can focus atten- tion on the paucity of our efforts, and gal- vanize a concentrated drive into action, it will help materially in bringing about the sort of air safety facilities to which the pub- lic is entitled. Wisconsin Labor Leader Favors Changes in Wagner Act EXTENSION OF REMARKS or HON. LAWRENCE H. SMITH OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. SMITH of Wisconsin. Mr. Speak- er, George A. Haberman, president of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor, is one of those farsighted labor leaders who can appreciate the equities existing in a given situation. He has had the courage to make a public statement to the effect that certain inequities exist in the Wagner Labor Act. Mr. Speaker, I am including as part of my remarks a news release by the Asso- ciated Press, bearing a Milwaukee date line, wherein this labor leader has cour- ageously stated his views so that the workingmen of Wisconsin and the Na- tion might have the benefit of his views: Wacner AcT CHANGE FAVORED BY HABERMAN Mitwavukes.—George A. Haberman, presi- dent of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor (AFL), said last night the federation believes the Wagner Act should be amended “to make it more equitable.” However, he said any amendment to the act should follow recommendations of a top- level labor-management conference held “without Government interference.” Haberman’s statements were made in com- ment on « declaration at Chicago by Maurice R. Franks, editor of the Journal of the Rail- road Yardmasters of North America (Ind.), that the Wagner Act Was “lopsided” in favor of labor unions. Franks, aleo business agent for the union, which claims 2,500 members, advocated that most of the act be tossed “straight out the window.” FEELS AMENDMENT NEEDED The Wisconsin labor leader said, “We have long felt an amendment is needed. You can't make one-way contracts. But we also feel that the changes should be worked out by a conference, set up as @ legislative steer- ing committee, including spokesmen of the AFL, CIO, railroad brotherhoods, and the in- dependent unions on one hand, and repre- sentatives of the Nationr! Association of Manufacturers and the United States Cham- ber of Commerce on the other, without Gov- ernment interference. “It 1s our conviction that the Congress would attach great weight to suggestions from such a meeting. There is, after all, no bar to an amiable understanding between labor and management. They have the same common objective of production, manage- ment being the financial means and labor the menial, “There is no reason why a labor-manage- ment meeting cannot eliminate costly in- dustrial strife without the drastic legisla- tion which is certain to come unless reason and common sense are brought to bear on the problem by both parties.” Vatican Contact Force for Peace EXTENSION OF REMARKS or HON. AIME J. FORAND OF RHODE ISLAND IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. FORAND. Mr. Speaker, under permission already obtained by me in the House, I offer for printing in the Recorp the following article by Sumner Welles, which appeared in the Washington Post of January 15, 1947: TAYLOR MISSION (By Sumner Welles) VATICAN CONTACT FORCE FOR PEACE It is unfortunate that the controversy over Myron Taylor’s mission as the President's per- sonal representative at the Vatican should have recently flared up again, and this time in what appears to be an acute and even virulent form. The world is already so torn by intolerance, by prejudice, and by antago- nisms of one kind or another that it is deplor- able that the existing bitterness should now be accentuated here in the United States. The decision of the President to continue Mr. Taylor's mission, at least, until peace has been restored, has been violently assailed and as vigorously defended. There is no need to question the motives nor the good faith of either side in the present dispute. But the form which the controversy has taken tends to obscure a number of simple facts. Demands for the termination of Mr. Tay- lor’s mission have been based upon the fol- lowing charges: It is alleged that President Roosevelt's de- cision to send a personal representative to the Vatican violated the principle of the separa- tion of church and state. It is further as- serted that the step taken circumvents con- stitutional requirements. Finally, in the words of a recent protest, the Taylor mission is said to represent one of the most dangerous chapters in modern secret diplomacy. It is hard to understand the reasoning behind the charge that the policy inaugu- rated by President Roosevelt, and continued by President Truman, runs counter to the princtple of the separation of church and state. The appointment of a Presidential representative at the Vatican cannot affect the provisions of our Constitution, nor shape our own internal policies, From the purely juridicial standpoint the territory known as the Vatican City consti- tutes a sovereign state. It is so recognized by the majority of nations, At the outbreak of the war, almost every country except the Soviet Union and the United States, whether constitutionally Protestant, as in the case of Great Britain, whether officially non-Christian as in the case of Japan, or whether anti-Ohristian as in the case of Nazi Germany, had accredited diplo- matic representatives to the Holy See. Those diplomatic missions had obviously not been APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD appointed in order to further any extension of the influence of the church over state. They were appointed because the powerful influence exercised by the Vatican through- out a great part of the world was recognized, and because the governments so represented knew that the Vatican had available to it sources of information possessed by very few, if any, other governments. The President 1s entrusted by the Consti- tution with the conduct of the foreign rela- tions of the United States. If he is to carry out these responsibilities successfully he must be free to utilize the services of such agents as he may consider necessary in order to obtain the information he may require when- ever that is not available through normal channels. The history of the foreign rela- tions of the United States contains in- numerable instances of the exercise of this right by American Presidents. Personal representatives of the President have often been appointed where official diplomatic relations have not existed One of the reasons why President Ruose- velt sent his personal representative to the Vatican was his realization that the United States Government must have available to it every possible shred of intelligence which might assist it in prosecuting the war or in laying the foundations for a just and lasting peace, But I believe that an even more compelling motive was the President's conviction that the Vatican represented a great moral force, and that it was to the advantage of the American people that their Government should be in a position where it could co- operate effectively with every world agency which was striving for the creation of a peace based upon principles of better inter- national order and for justice and of morality. No unprejudiced American citizen, what- ever his creed may be, can deny that the Vatican constitutes one of the most power- ful moral forces in the world of today, and that Pope Pius XII has been an outstanding leader in the battle for the abandonment of policies of cruelty and of aggression, and for the adoption of such standards in the relations between nations as can make for enduring peace. It is impossible to deal seriously with the charge that Mr. Taylor’s mission constitutes @ dangerous ‘chapter in modern secret di- plomacy.” The foreign relations of the United States could not be carried on if every report rendered to the President by one of his agents abroad had immediately to be made public. Under any such require- ment as that, the sources of American in- formation would dry up within 5 minutes, No American diplomatic agent in recent years has carried out his duties with greater Qiscretion, with greater success, and with a greater regard for his country's interests than Myron Taylor. When the full story of his migsion is finally recorded, it will be recog- nized that it has been of great service to the United States. It will also be seen, as the Reverend Dr. Everett Clinchy said a few months ago, that there has been nothing in this mission which “need alarm” any sincere Protestant, At least until peace has been restored to the world, the means of cooperation between the Vatican and the President of the United States afforded by Mr. Taylor’s mission should continue. The termination of his mission as a result of the present agitation would not only renew religious rivalries which most Americans had hoped were permanently stilled, but it would also hinder this Gov- ernment in its efforts to bring about the establishment of a just and lasting peace.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Rent Control EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. ERRETT P. SCRIVNER OF KANSAS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. SCRIVNER. Mr. Speaker, throughout the Nation the Kansas City Star is known for the quality of its edi- torials, many of which cause a great deal of discussion. One of the editorials the folks at home have urged me to read appeared in the Kansas City Times—the morning edi- tion of the Star—on Friday, January 10, 1947, and reads as follows: MEET THE BIG BAD LANDLORD Still there is nothing: for the hundreds of thousands of owners of small apartments and rental houses who have been systemati- cally ruined by this inflation to the great pride of the OPA, Rent Control! Division, and, we must assume, to the pride of the na- tional administration. Still there is nothing for millions of othcr amall property owners who have barely man- aged to survive while a large share of the population has had money to spend as never before on trinkets, bad whisky, and enter- tainment. All controls have gone off hotel rooms. Big hotels, which are big business, managed to fare better under the OPA than the small property owners, as any traveler can report from his own experience with room prices. At least increasing costs entitled them to the right to increase their rates, and complete de- control may turn out to be the beat. answer. Now turn to owners of rental property who haven't received even « smile from the OPA rent division to this day. There are 4,000,000 of them, the great majority obviously made up of small owners. You have heard the big, wicked grasping landlord described by OPA officials. Here is one example in Kansus City: She ts an elderly widow living on relief in a@ dilapidated three-room shack. She owns (with mortgage) an old but substantial brick apartment building on the east side of Kan- sas City-—-16 units each with 3 rooms and bath. The occupants are employed, most of them at good wages, and the rents are $12 50 a@ month. The widow is responsible only for poor management that had failed to set adequate rents before the war. When the OPA came along she was hooked and hasn't been able to get a rent increase to this day. As costs increased it was necessary to turn over all the income to carry the mortgage. For years the widow hasn't received a dime for her equity of more than half the prewar value of the building. Given a fair rent of $20 a month, she could have lived and whit- tled down the mortgage. A more common type of case is another woman who owns outright a good 20-unit apartment building on Admiral Boulevard. She received the building at a prewar bar- gain price of 25,000. The kitchenette apart- ments (even linens furnished) are held to $22.50 a month, a rent that was low in 1941. With inflated costs her income on the build- ing is less than $1,000 a year, less than 4 t to cover interest and depreciation on her investment. Not even a 15-percent rent increase would be enough for the real hardship cases. In the last rent control law Congress provided for increasing rents in hardship cases. The OPA has generally ignored this authority. Real estate men believe thut in Kansas City the OPA administration of James M. Rob- ertson has been more vindictive toward the small property owners than most offices. It has been comparatively generous to a few large operators. It is this kind of OPA administration that is making a case for a complete blow-up in Congress, just as other OPA policies precipi- tated the end of other price controls. We realize that four million is only a voting minority. But defense of minorities is an American tradition. One of the many letters I received, in part, is as follows: IT am sending you a clipping that was in the Kansas City Times this morning thut fits my case to a T. My husband was stricken with a stroke over 8 years ago and hus not been able to walk, let alone work. I petitioned the OPA, this same James M. Robertson, for an increase in my rent, and he said he didn't think I was entitled to an increase. I have a lovely apartment, three rooms, furnished, with sleeping porch, private bath, running hot water, and garage, for which I am getting $30. I asked for $640, and he turned me down flat. Fiease try to kill this OPA. Mr. Speaker, although Congress di- rected OPA—now OTC—to give relief in distress cases, it is quite evident that many of its offices, the Kansas City office in particular, has not done so and that its staff continues to act in the arbi- trary, dictatorial, unreasoning, and un- sympathetic manner which has brought this agency of the Government into such general disrepute. A request has bern made for a sweep- ing investigation of the Kansas City of- fice and the removal of Mr. Robertson. Poland Abuses UNRRA EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. DANIEL A. REED OF NEW YORK IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. REED of New York. Mr. Speaker, on November 20, 1945, before casting my vote against UNRRA I outlined my rea- sons for doing so. I closed that speech with this prophecy: Let us not by this unwise, un-American legislation arm the international political manipulators with an instrumentality of power with which they can excrcise control of life and death over the starving victims of war. The proof of the accuracy of my state- ment has from time to time been re- vealed by those who have seen the ghastly results of the fraudulent handling of the funds and meterials furnished by our more than generous taxpayers. Under leave to extend, I am inserting in the Racorp a recent disclosure of the maladministration published in Life magazine in the issue of December 16, A167 PoLannd ABUSES UNRRA-—OFFICIALS AND Most- Favorep Cirizens Art Grrrinc THE LION'S SuHarE oF Foop SHIPPED FROM THE UNITED States (For many months the Polish Government has distributed UNRRA supplies on a politi- cal rather than on a humanitariun basis. This practice has received little publicity in the United States, despite the fact that it is in direct violation of the no-politics princit le underlying all UNRRA relief agreements. The facts on which the following report is based have been gathered by Life from a number of sources within Poland itsclf.) At Warsaw's Hotel Polonia, if you are will- ing to pay the price, you can drink vodka cocktails made with UNRRA grapefruit juice intended for Poland’s undernourished chil- dren, On the main strect—th’ Marszalkow- sku—peddlers clamor to sell you UNRRA cigarettes, chocolate bars, surdines, and even soap, Which is one of disease-ridden Poland’s Rreutest needs. By shopping around a Httle you can buy UNRRA coffee, UNRRA flour, UNRRA children's shocs—indeed, almost any ot the long Ust of food and clothing items shipped into Poland by the international relief ugency with the highest of charitable motives. UNRRJA, operating on the theory that sup- ples can best be channeled through the nor- mal pipe lines of rationing and trade, simply turns its goods over to the Polish Govern- ment. The Government, busy nationalizing Poland along Russian lines, has used the sup- plies to subsidize itself and reward tts friends, The result ts a grim travesty of the charitable ampulse. In the midst of Poland’s dire pov- erty thrive restaurants which serve the finest steaks and pastries in Europe. Tiue, they observe three meatless davs a weck But on these days their customers ure sublect only to the hardship of sciecting umong guuse, turkey, duck, chicken, partiidge, guinea hen, hare, fresh salmon. or whitefish. The clientele, of course, is strictly Hmutcd. For even u simple restaurant meal, in dingy surroundings, a Warsaw typist would have to spend half a week’s salary. Im fact, lunch hour In Warsaw finds Many workers Just Kill- ing time because they have nothing to eat at all. In return for its shipments, OUNRRA has exacted u promise from the Polish Govern- ment to distribute supplies without dis- crimination us to race, creed, or political be- lief. Ironically, this very promise is used by the Government as justification for favoring its own employees. The promise, say officials, means that the Government must help the most deserving. Obviously, the most deserv- ing are those who work productively for their country, 1 e., civil servants and workers in nationalized industries Thus class I ration cards, calling for highest allowances, go to officials of the Communist-Socialistic bloc parties, bureaucrats, Government employees, the militia, and the security police. Others who get class 1 cards are journalists, artists, clergymen. and employees of private indus- tries which sell at lenst 75 percent of their output to the Government at the Govern- ment’s artificially low-price level. Class Il cards go to housekeepers, public pensioners, and employees of private industries which sell 50 percent of their product to the Gov- ernment. Class III cards go to people over 60. unemployables and workers in private industries which sell 25 percent of their goods to the state. Some $8,000,000 Poles who run their own businesses or work in private in- dustries which do not sell to the Government have to get along as best they can without any kind of ration card. So do 12,000,000 Poles who live on farms and therefore are considered self-sufficient. Possession of a class I card is a great privi- lege. In October for example, a cardholder was entitled to buy, among other things, 42
A168 pounds of UNRRA flour for less than 1 cent a pound (in United States money) and 2 pounds of UNRRA canned meat at 6 cents & pound, If he so desired, he could then sell these goods on the free market or legalized black market, for 30 cents a pound for the flour and anywhere from 90 cents to $1.15 a pound for the meat. Besides food, clothing is also distributed by ration card and much of it eventually finds its way into the free market. In early fall one government official bought one pair of men’s shoes and two pairs of children’s shoes at a total of 2,000 Polish zlotys, which are worth about 1 cent each in United States money at the official exchange rate and actu- ally worth about one-tenth of a cent each. He sold the children’s shoes for 7,000 zlotys, which meant that he got his own shoes free and made a profit of 5,000 zlotys in addition. After fur-lined lumber jackets from Canada were recently sold to lucky cardholders at 600 zlotys, many of them soon showed up on the free market at prices ranging from 5,000 to 6,000 zlotys. Much of UNRRA’s cloth for suits, which is distributed to class I cardhold- ers at the rate of 34% yards each 6 months, also is resold on the free market at about 10 times the ration price. Over and above their extra rations, the bureaucrats also get frequent allotments of food free out of UNRRA supplies. In the Ministry of Reconstruction, workers with a family of three, recently received as 1 month’s free allotment—13 pounds of sugar, 13 pounds of flour, 44% pounds of jam and 644 pounds of fats, plus some tea, salt, macaroni, canned foods, and evaporated milk. Government employees have been able to buy all the American cigarettes they want at 116 glotys a package. They can sell them at 200 zlotys, the standard free-market price, buy a package of Polish cigarettes for 80 glotys and thus make a profit of 4 zlotys while smoking a package of Polish cigarettes free. The effect of such dealings is to in- crease greatly the incomes of Government workers or, in another sense, to make UNRRA Pay a good part of their salaries. In cash pay they recelve from the government only 3,000 to 10,000 zlotys a month. Their special UNRRA rations and allotments make up the difference between their low pay and relative prosperity, either in the form of higher living standards or in cash made in the free market. The government is already planning widespread pay raises to make up the difference after UNRRA expires the first of the year. Although some members of the UNRRA mission here are outraged at this sort of favoritism, most of them seem to view it with a resigned acceptance. During the summer-school vacation, UNRRA discovered that Polish children were getting only four or five quarts of milk a month and pres- sured the government into raising this quota to 20 quarts by cutting off supplies from adult cardholders. UNRRA has also per- suaded the government to set aside 10 per- cent of its cloth for children and institutions for the sick and aged. But the biggest share of UNRRA supplies still goes to those at the head of the line, and nobody does anything about it. Why RFC Any Longer? EXTENSION OF REMARKS oF HON. WAT ARNOLD OF MISSOURI IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. ARNOLD. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the REc- orp, I wish to include an editorial from the Wall Street Journal, December 30, 1946, entitled “Why RFC Any Longer?” While the banks are full of money I do not understand why the Government should be in the lending business, espe- cially when we have banks with footings of better than $4,000,000,000, and are making loans to foreign nations. WHY RFC ANY LONGER? Directors of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation have recommended to President Truman that the lending powers of that agency Le indefinitely extended beyond June 80 next, the date now fixed by law for their expiration. They also urge extensive re- vision of the law under which the RFC exists and codification of the several acts per- taining to its activities. But why revise a law which fairly cries out for repeal? The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was born of the depression of the 1930's and was elaborated to meet some of the emergencies of the war effort, when the Government had pretty nearly taken over the capital and credit markets. In both capacities it was designed to deal with con- ditions which no longer exist. It should pass out along with the reasons for its being. To be sure, the RFC has a lot of unfinished business on its hands, loans made hither and yon which will be more or less fully re- paid. It can be liquidated only over a run of years to come. But we see no reason why its liquidation should not be turned over to a bureau of the Treasury. Perhaps Senator Capenakrr, of Indiana, has provided a clue to the RFC Board's reasons for thinking the Corporation's lending life should be extended. He thinks Congress should force some Government agency to lend money freely to small business. He is quoted as saying that small businessmen need help and are as much entitled to bor- row from the RFC as are the big corpora- tions. Quite so. They have as much right to bor- row from the Government as have the big fellows, which is to say no right whatever. We do not know whether the Corporation is now making loans to corporations of any size. If it is still presuming to exercise its emer- gency powers Congress should crack’ down upon it. Many small business enterprises need help. Loans are an appropriate form for their as- sistance only if they ure actually credit worthy in the strict banking sense and where they are they can obtain loans from their banks. For a great many of them, loans would be a dangerous kind of help. Indebt- edness out of proportion to the equity or ownership capital engaged is no real help to @ business of any size. Banking is not a legitimate part of the activities of a government such as ours. Gov- ernment is necessarily political. Banking cannot be political if it is to be banking and not patronage. Why a Training Program?—An Address by Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey EXTENSION OF REMARKS or HON. BERTRAND W. GEARHART OF CALIFORNIA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Tuesday, January 14, 1947 Mr. GEARHART. Mr. Speaker, it was my privilege to have attended and taken part in a national defense pro- gram under the sponsorship of the na- APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD tional defense committee of the Amer- ican Legion Auxiliary, Department of the District of Columbia, on January 10, 1947, a meeting which convened under the very competent chairmanship of Mrs. Della E. Luther. At this meeting, Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, Director of Selective Service, delivered an unusually important address on the very timely subject Why a Training Program? Because of the significance of his pro- nouncements and the timeliness of the subject he discussed, General Hershey deserved and should have had a very much wider audience than the one which crowded into the Department of Com- merce Auditorium on that epic occasion. In order that the widest possible circu- lation may be given to the facts and figures which he has collected and that his comments and suggestions may be the better understood, it is essential that the text of his address be spread upon the pages of the CONGRESSIONAL REcorRD. And I ask that that be done. Mr. Speaker, General Hershey’s ad- dress, to which I have just referred, is the following: Mr, Chairman, members of the American Legion Auxiliary, fellow Legionnaires, it is always an honor and a privilege for me to appear before an American Legion audience. The consideration, the cooperation, and the support I have received through the years from this great veterans’ organization has been one of the most pleasant and reassur- ing experiences that I have ever had. The American Legion in the District of Columbia especially has always been available through the years to perform a great variety of tasks for the Selective Service System. Your kindness and your hospitality to me on num- berless occasions will always remain among my most treasured memories. It is my privilege to discuss with you to- night the subject of training. I want to be very certain that there is no misunderstand- ing as to the authorship of the views I may express. I do not reflect the views of either of the armed services. I have no official re- sponsibility for the training of our citizenry. Hence, I shall offer no opinion as to the length of training or the kind of training that should be given. The facts and figures that I shall use are matters of common knowledge. I have no inside information of any description. In fact, I am quite certain that a better subject for my discussion would be the training that is not being done. I have been interested in universal mili- tary training since the first decade of this century. I have believed it to be the only effective method for a nation to prepare for war and the only fair method of distributing the responaibilities for national security in a democracy. It has seemed the only way to train a fighting man so that he may have a reasonable chance to survive if and when war comes. In addition, it has seemed to be a@ method by which a nation could be strong and by its strength discourage aggression. In common with all World War I soldiers, I saw the war come to find us unprepared. The cost in lives and money was increased materially because we were not ready. We won after we had time to prepare. We learned nothing from our experience. We demobilized in haste and confusion, yield- ing the ..dvantages thousands had died to gain. Soon we were doing our best to become richer and boasting that we were helpless so far as military strength was concerned. Then came the late thirties and warnings of impending war were not lacking. It broke out in Europe, but to us the danger seemed distant. In 1940 the phoney war turned real and almost daily a nation disappeared. There was enough anxiety here—in fact
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD barely enough—to pass a Selective Training and Service Act. The word “service” was tempered by the word “training.” I saw the making of this act in some de- tail and 1 shall never cease to wonder how it was possible to pass the act at that time. The influence of this act on the war that was to come has never been evaluated. To have a@ million men in the armed forces when war came was an experience that had never hap- pened before in American history. The presence of the machinery to induct any re- quired number and a machinery which had already been accepted by our people as a fair and equitable system for procuring men was an asset that has been taken for granted rather than fully appreciated. The war was won. Our prior sins in de- mobilization were repeated. There was & general desire on the part of many of our people to be relieved of individual responsl- bility for the future security of America. There were many reasons for this, some good. The war had lasted a long time. Many of our young men had served years in the armed forces, much of it in distant places and under unpleasant as well as dangerous conditions. They were entitled to come home as scon a6 they could be reasonably spared. There were many in the armed forces who had served neither long nor dangerously. Probably their clamor to come home was the loudest. It is always easy to know in retrospect, but perhaps some of you may remember that the dangers of rapid demobilization were the topics of some conversations in 1944. Ex- pediency governed reason. We forgot our mission, the objective for which the war was fought was crowded into the background. National security is a continuous process. It is always a dangerous time for a command when one unit relieves another in the line. It is always a dangerous time for a nation when the war is won and the winners drop thetr weapons and start home. It is more dangerous that no definite or permanent plans are made for the peacetime establish- ment whose responsibility it will be to keep the peace the war won. America has been celebrating the victory for nearly a year and a half. It has not yet settled itself down to the business of de- termining how we shall maintain the peace almost 300,000 died to gain. To complicate the matter even further, the war left us with material enough to equip an Army of eight millions and a Navy of about four. Too much equipment is almost as much bur- den as too little. With too little fighting ability ig reduced materially, but with too much there can be little time for training after caretaking duties are done. In addition, the Army has a large occu- pational job on its hands in two continents. The President stated in his message that one- half of our one million seventy thousand to be under arms on July 1 will be on occupa- tional duty. No inconsiderable number of the rematnder who are in the United States are engaged in the necessary administrative duties to maintain a force of that size abroad. The importance of occupation is in no fashion belittled. The point to be under- stood is that occupational duties are of a particular type of service and are in no sense training for combat under conditions that would apply in a war tomorrow. Another fact we must face is that these occupational troops are not troops available for the security of the United States ex- cept to a very limited degree. We need but recall our forces in the Philippines at the opening of World War II to determine how inflexible troops are whose duties place them well beyond supporting distance of the homeland in the early phases of confilct. America in planning her postwar forces has reasserted her historical objection to large professional forces. To provide ade- quate security she has planned large in- creases in her National Guard and other reserve forces. To provide a method which would insure trained, rather than untrained, men for these reserve forces a universal training plan has been projected. It seems to be fairly clear that a large proportion of our regular forces are guards of excess equip- ment, caretakers on ships, and policemen and regulators in several occupied countries, leaving few to enguge in the profession of preparing to defend America. If the situa- tion in our regular forces gives caufe for concern, then the situation in the reserve forces should bring on nothing less than ex- treme anxiety. Our National Guard has a dual purpose. These purposes are to buttress domestic tranquillity as a State force at the same time being prepared to supplement imme- diately the regular forces in any emergency. The National Guard between World Wars I and II-never reached much above 200,000. The contributions of this component huve been written on battlefields all over the world. The plans upon which our national security depend provide for a National Guard of €81,000—a sizable force, more than three times prewar strength. Here is a component where we should find at Jeast one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand engaged in a weekly training. Even such a figure would not bring it to the allotted strength for 2 or 3 years. I have not seen the strength quoted in the pupers lately, but when last I read it it numbered some 10.000. One more component in which no training is now hbe- ing done. The organized Reserves of the Army are projected in the thousands, both officers and men, but they are, so far as I know, indi- viduals with paper organization at best and certainly no training worthy of the name. The plans call for 200.000 (198,352 for those who prefer exnctness) in the active Naval Reserves. These are in the process of being recruited—some beginning in training has been made. The active Marine Corps is set at 60,000 The inactive reservists of both Navy and Marine are not included in these totals. Their numbers as projected are three or four t'mes those in the active units. Figures are tiresome, but let us make a tabulation of our manpower needs as pro- jected for the Regular forces, the National Guard, and the active Reserves of the Navy and Marine Corps: Army-.--.---------------------- 1, 070, 000 Navy (as of 1947), including Ma- rine Corps_-.--------.----.... 571, 000 National Guard_-------.....-... 681, 000 Naval Reserves (active) ...------- 200, 000 Marine Corps Reserves (active)... 60. 000 Total____-------------.-... 2. 882, 000 Roughly 2,600,000. I repeat this does not include the millions that have been projected in the inactive re- serves. As has been indicated, the training these forces are receiving leaves very much to be desired. The problem, always the first in training a force, Is to have some effective method of getting men. World War I and World War II were different from any other large wars in which this Nation has been engaged in that sufficient and suitable men were provided at the time they were re- quired. The weakness of our numbers posi- tion now is that a very large fraction of this 2,600,000 men are not in the forces. A fur- ther weakness is that about 50 percent of the men in the Army have a year or less to serve on their present contract. This is further complicated by the fact that in the great re- cruiting campaign which has been under way for nearly a year and a half—-even though aided by a pay scale for privates equal to former wage scales of higher non-com- missioned ranks and with the most liberal A169 provisions of the GI bill of rights—yet more than 60 percent of the recruits came from men liable for the draft. It may be well to look at our normal sup- ply of young men. There are about 1,200,000 that reach the age of 18 or 19 each year. Be- tween 800,000 and 900,000 of these are suit- able for military training or service under standards a little less rigid than those pres- ently in force. There are men of all ages in the forces, but for the purposes of compurison Jet us consider all physically fit young men 18 25 inclusive. These number about 6,800,- 000 «In other words, we have allotted to our forces a number which is about 40 percent of all the young men between 18-25, inclusive, and we must remember that practically all the physically fit young men 19! to 25 in- Clusive are or have been in the armed forces. There are hardly enough young men physi- cally fit in the ages 18 and 19 who have had no service to fill the vacancies now existing or due to occur during the next 12 months. The size of the problem can be quickly measured by the fact that it would require all physically fit young men 18, 19, and 20 to build our Reg- ular forces, National Guard, and active Naval and Marine Corps Reserves to allotted strength even if no men of any other ages were included. I have difficuity in understanding how there can be any possible optimism as to the possibility of building this force on a volun- tary basis. To maintain 1,000,000 men, even if every man was enlisted for 3 years and no one was discharged or died before he completed his enlistment, requires 30,000 men every month. But one-half of this million enlisted for 1 year or 18 munths brings the requirement above 50,000 per month. November recruiting totals were Icss than 20,000. And in October, with Selective Serv- ice operating for the first 15 duys and the GI bill of rights privileges wholly available for 7 days, the total was 48.769. However, 39,307 were without prior service and were enlisted during the first 2 wecks. The National Guard must enlist 40,000 men per month if it is to reuch allotted strength in 2 years. At least 75 percent of these must come from men who have had no service. The needs of the Naval and Marine Corps Active Reserves can be added to this total. Here is the situation: How can we build and maintain these forces? The first re- quirement is that the obligation to serve in our armed forces must be left upon all, cspe- cially in the ‘ower military ages, This obli- gation should be waived for those who huve served, unless we have a national emer- gency; then it should exercise selectively upon all as men are needed. Second, all liable men should be permitted to enlist for at leust 8 years in any of the services, Regular. National Guard, or Active Naval and Marine Corps Reserve. Third, the vacancies in the Regular forces should be filled by selection to serve for a period of 18 months as at present prescribed. These men could be used to Man ovr home defenses with the hope that they would be trained for their possible duties in case of war. Fourth, we should train all personnel not in the forces under a universal training plan. Excellent authority to the contrary notwith- standing, a selective draft for service us re- quired can operate concurrently with a uni- versal training plan. To implement this plan requires— 1, An extensior of the liability for service for use when and if required. 2. A universal training plan which, when in full operation, may provide a feeder to our other forces. . In this conncction a word of caution. The experience of thi Nation indicates that when relatively large numbers are needed in the armed forces some form of compulsion must be provided.
Al70 The Right To Strike EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. LAWRENCE H. SMITH OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. SMITH of Wisconsin. Mr. Speak- er, the Christian Science Monitor, of January 14 had a very challenging edi- torial on the subject The Right to Strike. The writer clearly indicates that the right to strike is limited by the public interest. It is not conceivable that the individual has a right to strike with oth- ers where service to the public is in- volved. Under leave to extend my re- marks, I include the editorial in ques- tion: THE RIGHT TO STRIKE The American people are going to Umit the right to strike in essential industries. The Supreme Court may start the process in its decision on the injunction against John L. Lewis. Congress may do it with new laws. Whether it is well or badly done will depend on how Clearly the public understands the situation and on how closely the law follows justice and common sense. The public has been confused by talk about “the right of a man to quit work” and about the thirteenth amendment’s prohibition of “involuntary servitude.” In human society there are no absolute rights. The right to free speech confers no freedom to commit bel. The right to bear arms gives no man @ license to duel. Taxation, eminent do- main, conscription—all limit private rights in the name of public welfare. The right of an individual to quit work ts not a right to conspire with others to paralyze an essential public service. It is not, for in- stance, a right conferred on a union to cut off a city’s light and power supply, as was done at Pittsburgh a few months ago. It is not a right to deprive a city of police protec- tion, as was proved in Boston 28 years ago. It is not a right to halt the railroads, as was demonstrated in the United States last spring. It is not a right to shut off food sup- Plies, as is being shown in England today. Freedom from involuntary servitude is precious. It was won through centuries of struggle. It must be guarded with our lives. But it will not be cherished or protected by using the words to cloak an abuse, an actual destruction of freedom. The individual's freedom from involuntary servitude furnishes no license for a union—or a company—to hold a city or nation for ransom. And if there is justice in recognizing that a worker has some interest in his job so that we toler- ate his efforts to keep a strikebreaker from taking it, there is justice also in requiring men not to strike when their doing so robs thousands of others of the right to work. Modern industrial society has developed new conditions which give small groups— unions or companies—tremendous power. Open warfare in essential public services means anarchy. It exercises a coercion on the community which must be answered by coercion. Actually, common sense is already limiting the right to strike or to lock out. But we have not yet legally provided for the situation. Compulsory arbitration is widely de- nounced, both by unions and industrialists. But in some way .the public is going to pro- tect itself. It can rightly demand that those engaged in essential] services agree to arbi- trate their differences—and accept the re- sult—or get out of those industries. In re- turn, it should provide special safeguards— such as the guaranty of wages and working conditions at least equal to the average in the same community. The alternative is a law permitting the declaration of an emer- gency and the taking over of plants by the Government—with powers to deny bargain- ing and picketing privileges. . Groceries——$1,000,000,000 Worth EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. DANIEL A. REED OF NEW YORK IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. REED of New York. Mr. Speaker, on January 24, 1944, I stated on the floor of the House of Representatives my views on UNRRA. Subsequent events have proved the prediction then made by me. UNRRA has proved to be a cold- blooded inhuman scandal. Now that an- other barrage of emotional propaganda is soon to be let down upon the American taxpayers to induce them to make a con- tribution of 73 percent of a billion-dollar relief fund for the starving men and women and children in the war-torn countries, I want again to urge that the funds for the foreign foodless victims of the war be administered by reliable relief agencies, completely divorced from all politics, and from the grafting, intriguing black-market operators heretofore en- trusted with the distribution of the tax- payers’ relief funds. What I said on January 24, 1944, was this: Is it necessary to set up this UNRRA ma- chinery for beeoming entangled in a new world order of power politics to effectively distribute $1,350,000,000 to starving men, women, and children throughout Europe and Asia? Are there no existing Christian organ- izations with long and honorable records of humanitarian achievement, fully equipped in every way to administer the desired relief? Of course there are such organizations, ready and prepared to act. They are now operating in the field. What is wrong with the Na- tional Red Cross, the Society of Friends, and others? Who objects to utilizing the facili- ties and personnel of these great agencies of mercy? I will tell you who they are: They are the alien-minded power politicians who seek to build a new world order who see in this fund of $1,300,000,000 and other billions to follow the very elements of political domination of starving populations. No tears will be shed over the ghastly victims of starvation by those who will contro] the organization set up by this legislation. The alien-minded manipulators of our declarations of policy do not favor, but instead desperately fear, the adoption of a plan by which distribution of food and clothing will be made by Chris- tian agencies. What has been the excuse given by some of our allies in justification of letting Mttle innocent, starving, pot-bellied, moaning babies starver Why, they say: “What if the Nazis should steal it and thus prolong the war?” But does the evidence show that this danger exists? Dr. Howard E. Kershner, director of relief in Europe from 1939 to 1942 for the American Friends Service Committee, stated that not a mouthful of food sent to the people in other occupied countries ever reached the mouths of the enemy. Does not our State Department bear witness to the fact that the enemy forces or populations have never had access to the APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD 19.000 tons of food going to Greece each month? This piece of legislation, like so many New Deal proposals, has set forth in it a worthy objective but concealed within its provi- sions are commitments to further alien in- trigues in the field of world-power politics. The printed pages of the hearings on this resolution (H. J Res, 192) are as barren of facts pertinent to the real issues involved as the Sahara Desert is destitute of fertile soil and moisture to produce food. Mr. Speaker, I am inserting in the Recorp at this point, under unanimous consent, an editorial which appeared in the Times-Herald, Washington’s inde- pendent newspaper, under date of Wed- nesday, January 15, 1947: GROCERIES—-$1,000,000,000 WORTH The United Nations promises a report to- day on the 1947 food needs of the world. Twelve war-wrecked countries have already presented their estimated grocery bills to a UN special committee. These bills, according to preliminary re- ports, add up to approximately $1,000,000,000. What the United Nations will try to decide, beginning today, is who grows all this food, who gets it, and who pays. The United States, with the assistance of Canada, Australia, and Argentina, will do most of the food exporting. The countries which need food, and have to get it or starve, are Poland, China, Czechoslovakia, Yugo- slavia, Greece, Italy, Finland, Austria, Korea, Ethiopia, and the Philippines. WE SHOULDERED THE UNRRA BILL As we understand it, one of the first things which United Nations intends to discuss to- day is the who-pays-and-how-much problem. Under UNRRA—currently being wound up— Uncle Sap was handed the bill for 73 percent of the world’s relief expencitures, The rest of the world managed to ante up the remaining 27 percent. The United Nations Committee on relief needs has promised, or almost promised, that worid relief, now under new management, will be divvied up a little more evenly. Rumors have it that, in 1947, we may have to pay only haif, or maybe a third, of the tab. Whatever the reduction, we American tax- payers will be grateful, and will thank every- body concerned. We find ourselves hoping, though, that the UN, quickly and at long last, will set up a good tough, top-priority committee to check on just who gets this $1,000,000.000 worth of food. POLITICIANS DID THE DISTRIBUTING Under UNRRA, as nearly as we can find out, nobody at all really knew who was get- ting the groceries, and what was happening to them. Some of our investigators, nosing around Yugoslavia, Poland, and China did discover that a lot, maybe most, of our relief supplies had been grabbed and distributed by the local politicians to their favorite citi- zens, or voters. This situation seemed to be particularly true in Yugoslavia, where our American diplomats were not even allowed to enter the textile mills where UNRRA yarns were being converted into clothes for freez- ing army peasants, or maybe uniforms for Tito’s expanding army. One of our State Department experts, however, did some personal checking into this particular situation. He, Eric L. Pridon- off, former State Department economic an- alyst, is now back in this country, and has told his story in the current American Mercury. Altogether, he devotes 614 pages to what really happened to our UNRRA supplies in this particular part of Europe. We recom- mend his story as good embarrassing read- ing for us open-hearted Americans. And we think that UN's special committee might do
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD worse than give it careful study before it makes a final decision about the need for checking up on just where our relief groceries are to go. LOTS OF FOOD WAS SHIPPED Among other things, Mr. Pridonoff lists the actual help which UNRRA shipped to Yugo- slavia. Altogether, we and other Samaritan nations did an impressive enough job. We shipped in enough, for instance, to give every man, woman, and child in Yugo- slavia sorne 150 pounds of food per year, Grains, meat, sugar, milk, pork fats, and oils were included. By April 15 of last year UNRRA had given Tito enough cotton and wool to supply every little and big Yugoslav with two pair of pants, two shirts, three un- jon suits, six pairs of sox, one sweater, one overcoat, and six handkerchiefs. In addition to this, UNRRA’s ships sent in over 8,518 metric tons of medical supplies, 26,000,000 gallons of gasoline, more than 12,000 trucks, 7,600 tons of coal, and some odds and ends like tractors, plows, sawmills, trains, mining equipment, and locomotives. Altogether, as of December 31, 1946, Yugo- slavia had received some $400,000,000 worth of UNRRA goods, of which we Americans con- tributed 73 percent, about 8300,000,000 worth. There was, of course, no doubt about the need of the unhappy Yugoslavs in this case. But, as far as many Yugoslav peasants know, UNRRA sent them neither food nor cloth- ing. Such supplies as did reach right-think- ing and right-voting Yugoslavs came from Tito and his assistant Santa Clauses, period. So, as we have mentioned, 1947's $1,000,- 000,000 bill is coming up, and a substantial Part of it will probably be ours. Under the circumstances, we hope our UN representa- tives will demand a tough investigating com- mittee, with full authority to see that our groceries actually get to the world’s starving people, without political finagling. “Know-How” at Holtville EXTENSION OF REMARKS or HON. SAM HOBBS OF ALABAMA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. HOBBS. Mr. Speaker, one of the most inspiring examples of the glory of democracy is Holtville, Ala. That com- munity, centering in its high school, has demonstrated how superb local leader- ship develops, challenges, spreads, per- meates, cooperates and builds, taking ad- vantage of every opportunity offered by God, His friendly human creatures, their schools, and their government, local, State, and National. - A story by Blake Clark in the Rotarian, later condensed and carried in the Read- er’s Digest, gives many of the facts. It is my great pleasure to give my fel- low Members most of that excellent ar- ticle. I am sure that you will find it both interesting and helpful. It is rare, in that it deals with the “how” of the achievements noted. “Know-How” aT HOLTVILLE—YOUNGSTERS IN THis ALABAMA VILLAGE HAVE FUN AND LEARN Goon CITIZENSHIP BY OPERATING BUSINESSES, Aputt STYLe (By Blake Clark) “Boys and girls can work miracles under their own power. They may need help in shaping their first plans—but, after that, you'd better watch out or you'll get run over!” This is the credo of Principal James Chrietzberg, whose Holtville High School is one of the busiest places in Alabama. Holt- ville High hums with student-run enter- prises which do almost anything for the local farmer from slaughtering his meat to giving his wife a shampoo and finger wave. By introducing up-to-date agriculture methods, redecorating homes, improving habits of health, and providing a variety of recreation, these boys and girls have breathed @ new spirit of initiative into the whole com- munity. At the same time they are learning to be responsible citizens and not forgetting to pile up plenty of scholastic credits. e . . . e Every Holtville student just naturally took his worries to strong-jawed, soft-spoken Principal Chrietzberg. One spring morning in 1938 six boys and girls showed up at once. Gropingly they expressed their troubled thoughts. “Ten years from now,” asked one boy, ‘are we going to be share croppers wind- ing up the year with nothing to show for our work?” <A girl said, “I want to go places besides the wood pile and the well.” “Do you want to leave Elmore County?” Mr. Chrietzberg pushed back the brush of black hair that was always falling over his forehead. They did not, but they wanted to know why Elmore County couldn't be a bet- ter. more up-to-date place to live in. Chrietzberg understood, for he had been 8 local farm boy himself. With rare insight, he avoided giving those youngsters any spe- cific advice about how they might make their dreams come true; instead, he spoke feelingly about what could be accomplished through individual determination and resourceful- ness. The students went back to their desks with a glowing conviction that it was up to them to decide exactly what would improve their lot—then go for it. A few mornings later Chrietzberg arranged for the school’s vocational agriculture expert, J. R. Formby, to discuss in assembly the 25- to 50-percent spoilage of meat slaugh- tered each fall by local farmers. Money was lost, Formby said, and families failed to get fresh red meat s0 essential in a winter diet. Then he casually mentioned a new means to preserve meat—frozen-food lockers—and ex- piained what a boon they were to any com- munity. Five minutes after assembly, Rudy John- son, Jefe Parker, Carl Russell, and four other boys sought Chrietzberg out in his office. Gangling, 6-foot Jefe was their spokesman. “Why can't we slaughter hogs here—have our own refrigerating plant and food lockers right on the campus?” he asked eagerly. “Do any of you know how to butcher?” “We'd like to learn. Mr. Formby will teach us.” “It would mean a lot of work—even assum- ing that the school could raise the money,” Chrietzberg objected. “If you'll get the cash, we'll do the work.” This was just what Chrietzberg wanted to hear. He took the matter up with 12 local farmers, members of a night class given by Formby. They agreed to underwrite a loan. Then he obtained from the Federal Security Administration $13,500, to be repaid in 5 years at 8 percent interest. In 2 weeks, Jeffie and the other boys were breaking ground for the new slaughterhouse. Engineer Harry Derring came from Auburn College to help install the refrigeration plant. Formby, jack-of-all-farming-trades for 15 years, made such a good instructor that stu- dent butchers were soon expertly salting down hams, shoulders, and sides; making sausage; and rendering lard. One of them, Kenneth Jones, set a county record for portioning a beef. For $1 a month the students rented to farmers lockers kept at 6 degrees below vero, where they stored fine bacon, pork chops, spareribs, beef, chicken, and turkey, as well Al71 as vitamin-rich snap beans and peas, peaches, and strawberries. In 1944 alone they took in 63,880, and by that time the FSA loan had been paid off. Not forgetting his girls, Chrietzberg in- vited Mrs. Margaret Holt to tell an assembly about work being done by school canneries which she had visited in Georgian. She de- scribed the benefits to rural communities and concluded with: “Proper canning can increase a farm family's income by 6300 a year.” Again Chrietzberg was waited upon by a committee. Helen and Betty Shields, Marzell Carroll, and Elizabeth Fuller said that the girls of the home-economics department wanted to know why they couldn't start a cannery. Chrietzberg lost no time telling them about an idle State-owned cannery at Tuskegee, 60 miles away. In return for an- other pledge of hard work, he arranged to borrow the coveted equipment. The girls published a canner's cookbook, urging women to bring their best freshly Picked vegetables to the school cannery. “Two hours from garden to can” was the girls’ slogan. The only charge was the net cost of the containers and a 3-cent canning foe. In one year the home-economics class lined the kitchen shelves of 125 housewives with 8,000 cans of corn, okra, tomatoes, peaches, plums, and pears. At still another meeting, County Agricul- tural Agent J. E. Morris convinced students that all too many people in Elmore County were undernourished. Explaining the ne- cessity of at least four eggs a week for every man, woman, and child in the com- munity, he pointed out that the few scragely chickens in farmers’ back yards were not supplying half that amount. Boys in the vocational agriculture class at- tacked the problem forthwith by starting a hatchery. Ordering a plentiful supply of New Hampshire Reds, they resold them to farmers with an agreement that the school hatchery would buy eggs from these special flocks at 15 cents a dozen above the market price. In 1944 the students hatched 80,000 chicks which they sold locally, clearing $2,295.56. As tow-headed hatcheryman, “D. C.” Mercer, put it, “We buy eggs for 5 cents each and sell them at 12 cents, as chicks.” The pattern once set, fresh projects came tumbling on one another's heels. Young plumbers harnessed the water from seven springs, built an 18,000-gallon reservoir, and Piped water to the school. They helped home owners install pumps, bringing running water and modern bathrooms to scores of houses. School electricians, largely self- trained, wired many local homes, as well as the Church of Christ at Lightwood. They set up a complete system of theatri- cal floodlights for the school stage, including & switchboard and overhead banks of four colors. Sophomores with a flair for decora- tion brightened up the dull interiors of Holt- ville homes by painting furniture, rebottom- ing chairs to make colorful dining-room sets, building cardboard screens to hide gaping fireplaces in summer and ingeniously trans- forming discarded feed sacks into tufted bed- spreads. Student dietitians took charge of their family’s meals for 2 months, introduc- ing salads and substituting a variety of whole-grain breads for the inevitable corn pone. Last year Frances Gibbon won a State-wide contest for planning and prepar- ing in her own home the most nutritious meals served in any Alabama family. The biggest difficulty was in getting trained people to direct the numerous projects. Har- assed teachers found themselves chosen as supervisors of from 8 to 12 activities, to some of which they admitted almost total ignorance. In such cases, either the teach- ers quickly remedied their own lack of in- formation or the students went ahead on their own. When, for instance, the earnest query of would-be electricians drew a com- plete faculty blank in this field, they started
A172 their own electrical education by studying the operations of an electric generator which one of their number, Edwin Dennis, had in his home. Then they accumulated wire and testing devices from shops in Montgomery and, learning from Edwin and each other, in a few months had sufficient mastery of the subject to be doing all the maintenance work of the school. And there was difficulty from outside the school, too, chiefly from critics who looked skeptically at the rash of community activi- ties and made meaningful remarks about the importance of the three R's. Their objec- tions usually subsided, irrationally enough, with their first sale of eggs to the school hatchery or with the rental of a food locker. When Holtville High students undertook the revitalization of a large part of Elmore County, one of the most critical needs was for farm machinery. Farmers wanted to co- operate with the Government's plea for ‘an increased supply of valuable peanut oils, but no one could afford $650 for a peanut picker. With profits from the hatchery, the school bought a picker and rented it out. Nearly every farmer then planted from 4 to 20 acres of the new crop, not only helping Uncle Sam, but helping himself to a profit of $70 an acre. With the profits from the peanut picker, the boys bought other machines to rent. Soon they were doing a booming business— and so were the farmers. Men unable to afford mowing machines gladly paid $2 an acre for » machine and a student operator to cut oats, and immediately sowed more grain than before. Holtville farmers used to grow only enough hay for their own use he- cause they had no way to bale it for sale. When Chrietzberg bought a power press and schoolboys Ernie Richardson and John Sears Waldrop offered to bale for $3 a ton, farmers increased their acreage. After storing all they needed for winter feed, many sold over 8300 worth ‘“—and that ain't hay,” said Ernie. Soon Holtville’s farmers were plow- ing their land with student-manned trac- tors, threshing and binding their wheat with a@ student-run combine, and grinding their feed in a student-operated grist mill. With two of the first tractors in that part of the country, Doug Brown and Melvin Curlee terraced 6,000 acres of land to save it from erosion and helped the country ter- race many thousands more. Gripping this soil are the roots of 65,000 trees donated by the Alabama Power Co. and planted by students. Thanks to Holtville High boys and the school’s power sprayer, Elmore County, 6 years ago & one-crop county, now has orchards that would delight the eye of Johnny Appleseed. Oonvinced by the agri- culture agent that peaches could be more profitable than cotton, agricultural students helped farmers set out more than 650,000 peach trees, which the boys keep cprayed and treated for borers, Last year Farmer Ernest Wilson banked $1,000 in peach money, and Sam McGlancy cleared $3,500 from an 11l-acre orchard. Modern methods and machines make farm life a more pleasing prospect. As freckle- faced, football-playing John Sears, “If I have a tractor, I'll farm, but I'll be darned if I'll follow a mule down a cotton row all my life.” Fewer Elmore County boys are leaving home than formerly. But the Holtville High boys aren’t all headed for farming. School woodwork and machine shops are turning out small busi- nessmen as well. With the help of In- structor D. E. Blackwell and less than 85 spent for two fan belts and a saw, students recently set up an assembly line turning out clothespins from discarded lumber. This home-made unit in onecorner of the shop was the joke of the other studenta until a group of them, in a Montgomery department store one Saturday, saw women pushing into a line to buy Holtville-made clothespins at 10 cents a bag. The venture has already cleared more than $500, and the unit is 400 gross behind in filling orders from stores as far away as Birmingham. Projects big and little roll from the same lathes and drills. Besides making wooden beds, metal scooters, swings, Jungle gyms, and fence posts, the boys turn out a fertilizer distributor that takes a swath as broad as a highway, laying lime slag and phosphorus four times as fast as a farmer can do it by hand. By a 10-second adjustment these ma- chines are converted into speedy sowers of grain. Farmers are buying them at $100 each. Under the trade name New System, which might well be the title of their whole school course, Sherwood McCord, Bill Myrick, and other practical-minded young chemists have made and sold cold cream, tooth powder, hand lotion, nail-polish remover, liquid soap, even a corn cure. Neatly manicured and cleanly shampooed, Mary Jane Jackson, Lorene Gray, and a dozen other girls seriously interested in beauty culture, work hard to improve their own and others’ appearance. In a spotless parlor, well equipped with a professional chair, drier, and a hot-oil steamer bought second-hand for $190, they beautify the com- plexion, hair, and nails of some 60 customers. Students pay 15 cents for a shampoo, out- siders 25 cents. Each week the parlor aver- ages about 810 in fees, which buys new equip- ment. A permanent-wave machine is next on the list. Not so successful were the eight boys who wanted to learn barbering. Obtaining a pro- fessional chair and a porcelain basin from a defunct shop in nearby Wetumpka, they started work on grammar-school kids at 10 cents a head. But they made discouragingly little progress without a trained instructor. Finally, by giving dances and selling candy, they raised $65, with which they sent their most promising craftsman, Hubert Kingsley, for a 6-week course in a barber college in Florida. Hubert returned, but was offered too good a job in a Montgomery shop to turn down. He repaid the loan, but the barber shop failed. Keeping tab on all organizations handling money are pretty Betty Waites and her corps of efficient young bankers—girls and boys taking the commercial course—who, in their cubbyhole bank, keep accounts, accept de- posits, make loans, figure interest, and col- lect payments, Averaging $300 a day in cash transactions, the bankers work in pairs and are personally responsible for exactly bal- ancing their books before turning them over to the next force. Six hundred and twenty- five dollars are out on loan at present. A re- cent transaction was a loan of $18 to the Science Club to buy a stereopticon. The club gave a dance and paid off the note, in- cluding 6-percent interest, in 8 months. The largest loan to an individual was $75 to a lad who had forgot to bring the money he wanted to contribute to a war-bond drive being held that day. Next day he repaid the money, with interest—1 cent. To a community starved for recreation, Holtville High students have brought a variety of entertainment. Every Saturday night in the school auditorium from 200 to 500 persons enjoy a full-length movie, to- gether with short subjects and news reel, for 10 cents. On Wednesday evenings shirt- sleeved farmers and their wives throng the school bowling alley or play ping-pong, ring tennis, or volleyball. Also they are avid borrowers of books, magazines, and home games, such as badminton, checkers, and parchest, of which the school keeps a plenti- supply. APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD In order to shelter all its activities, Holt- ville High has had to expand. Using its own money when county funds were not forth- coming, the school bought deserted shacks and woodshedg, and students built their own cabins, until today they attend class in some 25 different frame buildings spread over a 54-acre campus, The Holtville High system has bred self- reliance. Now when a boy begins the new school year, he tells his teacher what he wants to learn—American history, biology, business arithmetic, and veterinary work— and is assigned courses accordingly. Daily class schedules are flexible. If a student wants to go with his veterinary group to dehorn a farmer's cattle, he hands in his day's assignments to his teachers and takes off. By keeping up in his academic classes, he earns freedom to work on his treasured project. The myriad activities of Holtville High students stimulate rather than interfere with thelr scholastic performances, The number who leave schoo] before graduating has de- creased from 45 to 25 percent since the pres- ent flexible school system was inaugurated 8 years ago. One graduate in four goes to college—the usual percentage from Alabama schools. For some years the State super- - visor has kept a comparative record of Ala- bama high-school graduates in various col- leges. Holtville High boys and girls were first one year, and always rank in the top quarter. Not one of them has ever flunked a single college subject, even for a semester, Today there’s a new spirit in Holtville. Farmers like to ride past the terraced land, the fields of wheat and oats as well as cot- ton, the peach orchards, and the barnyards alive with fat hogs, purebred cattle, and fine chickens. Their wives take pride in clean painted homes set in green landscaped lawns and furnished with radios, magazines, and modern plumbing. Families are healthier because they eat better and more varied meals, and they are happier because they spend their leisure more intelligently. At the same time the boys and girls are solidly sold on Holtville. They know it’s a prosper- ous, upstanding community because they've made it that way themselves, Resolution of General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON AIME J. FORAND OF RHODE ISLAND IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. FORAND. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks, I include the following house resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island on January 9, 1947: Resolution memorializing Congress, the President of the United States of America, and the Italian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary with relation to the arrival of the Honorable Alcide de Gas- peri, Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy, in this country and the need of financial and economic help for Italy from the Government of the United States of America Whereas the Honorable Alcide de Gasperi, Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy, has arrived in this country as a guest of our Gov- ernment to discuss financial and economic help from the Government of the United
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD States of America, necessary for the rebirth of his country and to alleviate the bitter suf- fering of his people; and Whereas the people of Italy are united to us by long-standing ties of friendship and Italy was our cobelligerent in the war and is endeavoring to rehabilitate itself in a new regime of democracy; and Whereas our oountry has fought a victo- rious war to establish a rule of justice and freedom amang the peoples of the world and in order to win the peace we have to assist those countries which are suffering the rav- ages of the war, and which, like Italy, are anxious to join with us tn the maintenance and defense of western civilization: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senators and Repre- sentatives from Rhode Island in the Con- gress of the United States and the President of the United States of America are hereby respectfully requested to use every effort at their command to extend to Italy all possible help; and be it further Resolved, That duly certified copies of this resolution be transmitted by the recording clerk of the house from Rhode Island to the Senators and Representatives from Rhode Is- land in the Congress of the United States, to the President of the United States of America and to the Secretary of State of the United States to be transmitted by him to the Italian Ambassador Extruordinary and Plenipotentiary. Merger Plan Is Called Top Issue in Congress EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. W. STERLING COLE Or NEW YORK IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, January 16, 1947 Mr. COLE of New York. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the Recorp, I include the following article by David Lawrence entitled “Merger Plan Is Called Top Issue in Congress”: MERGER PLAN YS CALLED TOP ISSUE IN CON- GRESS—NAVY “VOULD FAVOR CONSOLIDATION IF DETAILS WERE MADE CLEAR (By David Lawrence) The most difficult problem to come before the new Congress is the “merge: of the armed services. Members of Congress would prefer that the Army, Navy, and Air Forces get together on a plan and save the legislators much perplexity. Some efforts to obtuin an agreement have been made informally between the War and Navy Departments. Progress has been made, but ill feeling has been fostered by the un- willingness of Army anc Army Air Forces offi- cers to obey the request ‘f President Truman that the subject be not aired in public. Navy officers are represented as feeling that they are “gagged” while the spokesmen of the other services are not restricted. Only last week a prominent air officer made a speech criticising by innuendo another branch of the service and arguing in favor of the “merger” pian from the War Depart- ment viewpoint. No “merger” plan adopted by Congress is going to be effective, and the national de- fense of the United States is going to suffer if representatives of one armed service seek _t© take advantage of anather. The spirit will not be one of cooperation, but constant friction, With the public demand for tax reduction and the cutting of Government expenses, it is natural that men in the armed serviccs should be apprehensive about what will be done to the national-defense budget. But it is more than ever necessary that interservice conflicts should not govern the settling of the budget. ALL SERVICES FAVOR MERGER The present situation about the whole problem is that the Navy, Army, and Alr Forces all favor a merger. The Navy has been reluctant to agree to any plan tht did not delineate functions clearly, but the Navy doe.. favor a merger plan and has offered several, While the Navy favors the merger idea in principle, it has wanted to know how the principle would be applied in a concrete way. Last June President Truman made about the best outline of a merger plan that has been suggested, but with two major mistakes in it. One related to the consolidating of all services in a single department. This has been more or less superseded by a trend to- ward three separate departments for Army, Air Forces, and Navy, respectively, tut ‘ith an Office of Secrctary of Defense, which it is hoped would never reach the proportions of a big department. There is a vast difference between an office or bureau and an over-all department. The President didn't go into detail, but if he meant that the Secretary of Defense would be in the Cabinet and would coordinate the three departments the idea would fall on receptive ground generally. Another mistake related to the question of airplanes for use of the Navy in connection with antisubmarine warfare and reconnais- sance generally. The President's letter was not clear. The Army Air Forces have been seeking to get control of all airplanes, but the Navy folks feel that the lessons of the last war taught conclusively that air pilots trained to work with and under the juris- diction of ship commanders in a fleet opera- tion are better than those who work tnde- pendently from land bases under Army auspices. UNITED STATES RELIES ON GEA POWER The point 1s vital to the future defense of a nation like the United States, which has to depend on sea power, and it is surprising that the Army Air Forces have not conceded this. Under most of the merger plans proposed the Army Air Forces would have a coordinate part with the other services and would, of course, be preponderantly concerned with air operations. Ground armies and amphibious operations would have their own tactical air forces, as was so effectively demonstrated in the Pacific war. The Army Air Forces made a wonderful record in strategic bombing and in air oper- ations generally and have earned their right to be considered a coordinate department. But to demolish the Navy’s own trained air force or to try to abolish the Marine Corps by merging it with the Army would weaken the defense of the United States by depriving this country of certain specialized opera- tions that should remain under the Navy be- cause they are primarily connected with ship tactics. It would seem that the controversy over the merger has hurt the prestige of all the armed services somewhat because the truth js the Army, Navy, and Air Forces did a better job of coordinating and unification in the war than would be suspected from the many ex- treme comments to the contrary being made in an effort to get approval for particular plans of consolidation. A173 Editorial Tributes to Secretary of State James F. Byrnes EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. BURNET R. MAYBANK OF SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES Friday, Janucry 17 (legislative day of Wednesday, January 15), 1947 Mr. MAYBANK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Appendix of the Recorn editorials appearing in newspapers from all over the United States concerning the resig- nation as Secretary of State, of a distin- euished South Carolinian, Hon. James F. Byrnes. There being no objection, the edilorials were ordered to be printed in the Recor, as follows: [From the Philadelphia (Pa.) Record of January 9, 1947] GOOD-BY, JIMMY BYRNES; HOWDY, GEORGE MARSHALL Of all the American statesmen who have served their country as Secretary of State, from Washington's day to Truman's, not one has ever been faced with so many pressing problems in foreign relations as has James FP. Byrnes. He has served only a trifle more than a year and a half. Yet William H. Seward, in his eight turbulent years under Lincoln and Johnson, never had so many troubled spots in the world to watch as has Byrnes in less than a fourth of Seward's tenure. History has placed Seward high among our great foreign ministers. He ranks with Jefferson, Jay. Webster, Calhoun, Blaine, Root, and Hughes. We believe that if historians are left to write of the atomic age, the name of Jimmy Byrnes will be in the same category with his illustrious predecessors. It is a source of regret that Jimmy Byrnes had to resign at this critical moment. Some- how, all Americans, from the taxi driver and the factory worker to the President himself, had a calm confidence that with Jimmy Byrnes aitting across the table from Molotov and Bevin that American interests would be meshed into the larger world interests in such a way as to preserve international peace as well as to maintain American honor, Not that Byrnes its a cautious man. He 1s often a bold man. Never an isolationist, he has understoou that cooperation of the United States with all the rest of the nations is the first essential to saving civilization from another world holocaust. But that was just a beginning. He had to try to extract something that would pass, at least, for cooperation from some of the toughest diplomats who ever sat in a confer- ence room. He has done so much better than any other recent diplomat who hus been assigned such a difficult rule that there is no com- parison, He steps out during a lull in the treaty making. The minor treaties have practically been drawn. The major treaties—with Ger- many and Austria—are yet to come. Would that Jimmy Byrnes might feel that his health could permit him to go on to the greater tests ahead. President Truman has made a good choice to fill Secretary Byrnes’ shoes. Gen. Georpe C. Marshall has a far greater experience in foreign relations than Byrnes had when he became the country's first minister,