A122 to sign all kinds of protests and all kinds of proclamations. Be careful. Know what you are doing and if you do not know, ask. There gre Government agencies to enlighten you. Remember that this terrible scourge that we call communism must be stopped wher- ever we are going to meet !t, And in that connection we have a twofold duty, you and I. We have a duty to our country, to Amer- ica—~and we heave a duty to our faith, to Judaism, and to our coreligionists as Jews, and to all faiths, whatever they may be. T returned recently from 3 months abroad. You have heard Americans returning from abroad recite the trite, the very trite words, but nonetheless true words, that America 1s the best, the most fortunate land in the world. And it is. Both materially and spiritually, there is not another land in the world as fortunate as America, The best proof of that is that people everywhere abroad, no matter where one goes, want to come to America. Everyone wants to come here and few peo- ple want to leave America. Your best proof of that is that whenever a Communist agent is ordered to be deported from America to Burope, listen to the fuss that he makes about gotng back to his paradise of a home- land. He doesn't want to leave, he wants to remain here. Now, here in America labor 1s better pro- tected and better treated than anywhere else in the world, even in Socialist England. Labor enjoys more governmental benefits in America than tt enjoys in Socialist England. That irks Russia, because Russia is supposed to be the fatherland of the proletariat. Russla 1g supposed to be the land where the working people have everything, Russta, and not America, Therefore Russia does not like us, For that reason every person who loves America, every person who makes a living here, every person who enjoys the way of life that is America, must protect it in the dan- ger that now faces it, As for the Jews, let us not forget this, my friends: That wherever Communist Rus- si. has come to power, Jewish life has been destroyed. There is not a vestige of Jewish religious, economic, social, or cultural life left in Russia today, not a vestige; and even in Moscow the Yiddish daily, Heint, which was nothing but a Yiddish translation of Pravda, has been eliminated. ‘Yiddish writ- ers have been sent out to Siberia. There is not a vestige of Jewish life tn Russia today, and those few Jews who have been able to steal out from behind the fron curtain in Europe—from Rumania and Hungary and Ozechoslovakia and all the rest of the Balkan countries—they tell us that the last traces of Jewish life are being eliminated behind the fron curtain by the Communists. Now, remember this: Should—God forbid— the horrible thing happen and communism spread its influence over this country, then I say to you that the American Jewish com- munity, which is today the largest, the most influential, the most powerful Jewlsh com- munity tn the world, will go down and will be destroyed even as have been the Jewish communities of Europe. Therefore, for these reasons, we must be on guard. We must pledge ourselves to wipe out communism wherever and whenever we find it, even if !t means cutting deep into ou own family and social circles. My friends, there was in Jewish life, particularly amongst the orthodox Jews in days gone by, & weapon that was used to control the com- munity. It 1s a weapon which, of course, we of the liberal Jewish group do not have and never have had, but lt was a weapon in Jewish life. It was a weapon that was so horrible that even those who watched it being inflicted in the synagogue were terror- atricken, not to speak of the one who was aubjected to that weapon. It was called the charem—ex-communication. So we, today, must take a page out of the book of those old Jews and apply that same weapon, that same punishment today—the punishment of ex-communication, of ostracism, of complete dsolation from the community of any Jew who has become infected with the Commu- nist virus. ~ The fate of humanity is lying in the bal- ance and the slightest hair may tip those scales in one direction or another. It is a fact—a fact that faces you and you and you and me every moment of our existence today, So we pray for life this morning. We pray that God may inscribe us and inscribe our dear ones and inscribe the world in the Book of Life. But there can be no certainty of life, there can be no certainty of a future for any of us if this dread thing continues to goon. It will affect you and you and you and every single member of your family and mine. So we pray to God this morning for life. We pray that this catastrophe may be averted; that untold millions of people may not be condemned to death through the horrors of another war. Grant us then, O God, Thy protection. Grant that this year that we have ushered in may be, for us and for all humanity, @ year of life and not of death, o year of peace and not of war, a year of happiness and not of misery. Amen. Genuine American Sentiments EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. GEORGE B, SCHWABE OF OKLAHOMA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, January 12, 1951 Mr. SCHWABE. Mr. Speaker, in the President's address to the joint assembly to the two Houses of Congress on last Monday, January 8, the President ap- pealed to the Congress and to the public at large for unity. He invited debate, but requested every man among us to weigh his words and deeds. It is my understanding that many of the leading citizens of the country were invited to attend a White House meeting with businessmen and Government offi- cials to be held yesterday, January 11, to discuss problems facing the Nation. Among those invited to the White House conference of yesterday was an illustrious citizen of the State of Texas, Mr, H. R. Cullen, of Houston. Apparent- ly Mr. Cullen was unable to attend the conference. Instead, he addressed a Jetter to the Honorable John M. Steel- man, Assistant to the President, under date of January 3, 1951, and it is my un- derstanding that Mr. Cullen furnished each Member of Congress and many of the leading newspapers of this country a copy of his letter. Ihave heard many of my colleagues say that the letter of Mr. Cullen expresses their sentiments. It is a letter which demonstrates in no un- certain terms what the Members of Congress are hearing from the people in every mail, It is an expression of genu- ine American sentiments. The letter is timely and should be read by everyone interested in the future of this country and our Government, The Cullen letter follows: APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Hon. Joum M. STKELMAN, Assistant to the President, The White House, Washington, D.C. Dear Ms. Stxxztxan: I regret that doctor's orders prevent my accepting the invitation with which you have honored me, to attend the White House meeting with businessmen and Government officials on January 11, to discuss problems facing the Nation. The administration does well to call upon men of affairs of the Nation for counsel in the present crisis, for 1t desperately needs sound advice. If fact, if there is not a dis- tinct change of course soon, I fear it may lead to catastrophe. Candor impels me to say, however, that I think our best hope in that direction Hes with the new Congress, in as- serting its constitutional authority and leadership in reference to making war, and wisely restraining the Government from ex- cessive preemption of power. One of the most urgent needs for the secu- rity of the United States is that you restrain the Communist fifth columnists who are working to destroy us and may do so any day in event of a Russian Pearl Harbor. Those who have been convicted of com- munistic treason are now running loose on technicalities obligingly agreed to by the courts, and are, no doubt, plotting more treason with others in or out of the Govern- iment, At great expense to the American tax- payers, we provided the foreign Reds with a base of spying operations and a sounding- board, in the United Nations, There they have reviled us so violently and go repeatedly, without resistance or restraint on our part, getting world-wide publicity which they could not have gained otherwise, that many people over the earth have come to believe them. It is time this Government stopped oper- ating in favor of Communists at home, while getting our boys slaughtered by Communists abroad in a senseless fight which the United States entered in violation of the constitu- tional provision that only Congress may declare war. Instead of knocking ourselves out fighting Reds wherever old Joe Stalin may decide to set them upon us, why don’t we reverse the charges and try playing his game? Why not spend some of our money and effort arming and equipping the anti-Communists who are in the great majority in the countries now under the Soviet hee] and thumb? With weapons end supplies which we should be able to get to them, I think we could induce some of the so-called satellite peoples to turn on their enslavers, and thereby promote an upheaval that would put Russia on the defensive, as we are now. Then Russia would have her hands full and would no longer be a menace to us. ‘We might have more effect against the Chinese Communists, at less cost of Ameri- can lives, by supporting Chiang Kai-shek’s trained Formosa army and his huge guerrilla following on the mainland; and by arming Japan. ‘These are some of the suggestions I would have respectfully offered at your White House meeting, if given the opportunity, for extricating the Nation from the perilous plight into which the administration's dis- astrous course has plunged us. If in order, I should be glad for you to read them to the group for consideration, in lieu of my personal appearance. Because every Member of Congress and every American citizen is vitally interested in the statements that I have just made in this letter, I am sending a copy to all Mem- bers of Congress and to our leading yewspapers. Thanking you for the invitation, I am, Sincerely yours, H.R. Couten,
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Bruce Barton Says: “Universal Military Training; We Should Stop, Look, and Listen” EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. HOWARD H. BUFFETT OF NEBRASKA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, January 12, 1951 Mr. BUFFETT. Mr. Speaker, under permission to extend my remarks in the Recorp, I include the following article from the January 7, 1951, Omaha World- Herald, entitled “Universal Military Training; We Should Stop, Look, and Listen.” Bruce Barton Says: “UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING; Wer SHoutp Srop, Loox, AND LisTEN”’ During World War II all of the trustees of New York's privately supported hospitals were summoned to an evening meeting where the Surgeon General of the United States Army told us why the Army must draft our nurses. We had been warned in advance and, while each of us knew how desperate was the nursing need in our own institutions, we felt there was nothing we could do but go along. But just before the end of the meeting we were given a big surprise. The commis- sioner of New York City’s hospitals stood up and, addressing himself directly to the Surgeon General, said: “I have no patience with your position. You and your folks are responsible for your own troubles. You won't relax an iota your ridiculous age and educational requirements. Your manage- ment is wasteful and devoid of ingenuity or imagination. If you would take a trip through our city institutions and see how we have had to compromise and improvise and adapt our program to the demands of the times, you would be ashamed of yourselves. Go bick and do half as good @ job as we are doing, and you won’t need this draft.” The Surgeon General had no answer. never heard from him again. Our military services are inefficient users of manpower. When Russia drafts five men, four of them show up in the fighting lines. When the United States drafts five, one or two of them fight; the others stay behind to wind and unwind red tape, fill out question- naires, write memorandums, run mimeograph machines, etc. The services, too, are lavishly extravagant with money and materials. The American people were shocked when Korea revealed that all the billions appropriated for national defense since the war’s end had bought prac- tically nothing in terms of planes, tanks, guns, or other fighting equipment. If the generals and admirals bad been presidents of corporations the stockholders would have risen in their wrath and thrown them all out, But taxpayers are more tolerant than stocK- holders, and more lazy-minded. All of the above is written, not in criticism or hope of effecting any change. War's busi- ness is to kill and destroy; and warriors throughout all history have been, and often have to be, careless of money and life. I am writing simply to ask the American people to stop, look, and listen before they are stampeded into universal military trains ing. Many wise and patriotic men and women believe UMT js not only a powerful constitu- ent of national defense, but a valuable con tribution to the moral fiber of our people. To my mind it means putting the education We of our boys, for a year or more, into the hands of men whose professional back~ ground is: Don’t question. Don't argue. Don't talk. Don’t think. Never mind the coat. Do what you're told. All T ask is full and free debate—not de- cision by fear or default, or by manifesto from Washington. If UMT ts all to the good, why did so many of our forebears flee from Europe to escape it? The Spiritual Significance of the World Crisis EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. CECIL M. HARDEN OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, January 12, 1951 Mrs. HARDEN. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks, I include the following sermon entitled “The Spiritual Significance of the World Cri- sis,” by the Reverend Edward L. R. Elson, D. D., minister, the National Pres- byterian Church, Washington, D. C., Sunday, January 7, 1951: ‘For he that is called in the Lord, being @ servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant"—I Corinthians 7: 22. T When I go to church I want to find God. I do not want a reflection of the latest edi- tion of the newspaper or the ideas of the most persuasive commentator. And when I hear a sermon I don't want a “pulpitorial”; I want to hear the word of God. It is to proclaim the word of God that the pulpit is installed. But the word of God is to be interpreted and proclaimed, remembering the injunction of the writer, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” The word of God as more than the mere words contained in the Bible are to be proclaimed. To that end this pulpit is established and to that pur- pose we shall ever be faithful. We do want to find God in church and we sometimes say, we want peace of mind. There is a peace of mind or more accur- ately a peace of soul which rightly belongs to the Christian. It is the peace which comes from reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the peace which comes because the guilt and condemnation of sin are gone through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. But there is another sense in which peace of mind would be immoral for the Christian. Should we mean by this phrase, release from striving or emancipation from wrestling with the great problems of our times, we would be denying our faith. Peace of mind in the sense of freedom from con- cern for the world does not belong to the Christian. Peace of mind as an escape from reality cannot be the possession of the Chris- tian in the tradition of classical Christiane ity. It may be that early Ohristians who were @ subjugated people living in an occupied province of a vaet empire in whose govern- ment they did not participate could for a while be detached from the concerns of their faith as it related to the world about them, Bince they had no responsibility for govern- ment, they did not bear the obligations of maintaining law and order in any manner A123 Comparable to the modern American Christian. In our Nation, whose roots are in the He- brew-Christian tradition and especially since they are #0 largely the product of the Protes- tant Reformation, we must understand that there are spiritual values at stake in the present world crisis. There are spiritual values which we cherish, which are at the root of our very existence and which are in mortal peril. That we have not always been succéssful salesmen of these realities to the rest of the world, only emphasizes our need for understanding them and proclaiming them in this hour. The Honorable Charles Malik (not the Russian Jacob Malik), but the other Mr. Malik in the United Nations who is the minister of Lebanon, and a prod- uct of Presbyterian missions, has well said in referring to the United States, “If your only export is the stlent example of flourishing political institutions and happy human re- lations, you cannot lead. If your only export is a distant reputation for wealth and pros- perity and order, you cannot lead. Nor can you really lead !f you send forth to others only expert advice and technical assistance. To be able to lead and to save yourself and Others, you must, above everything else, address your mind and soul. Your tradition rooted in the glorious Graeco-Roman-He- brew-Christian-Western-European humane outlook supplies you with all the necessary presuppositions for leadership. All you have to do is to be the deepest you already are.” That is the challenge of the hour. These are not new challenges requiring new hypotheses. The basic need is understanding ourselves and clearly discriminating between our life and the counter forces arrayed against us. I have raised these issues in such sermons as Freedom Under God, Do We Deserve Democracy, The Church and Military Meas- ure for Peace, and Alternatives to Commu- nism, which have, without solicitation, found their way into the ConormssionaL Recorp and in reprints have gone around the world. Too often the church has remained silent when it should have spoken, Pastor Martin Neimuller asserted that the Evan- gelical Church in Germany remained silent too long and was unable to assist the best citizens of that country In dealing dynami- cally with moral realities in the last decade. The time is already here when we Amer- icans, especially we Evangelical Christians must realize our peril. It is because I am a Christian and {t is because Iam an American I want my country in this hour to be a great spiritual bastion, The time is short for the spiritual awakening that is so necessary if we are to take the other physical actions which are imperative. As I understand the. conflict of our age, I want to make it quite clear that I would rather die fighting the materialistic, atheistic forces now set against our freedom than to die under it. am We are driven by the exigencies of this hour to reappraise the spiritual issues in the present crisis. Many have become so accustomed to think- ing of communism as a Christian heresy which might be made orthodox, that they really haven't understood that it ts in fact e@ heresy, Too many have been blind to the irreconcilability of the two philosophies of life now set in juxtaposition. Some have rightly entertained hopes that the leaders of communism in the world could be con- verted, radically modified, and thereby re- strained in their world program. It is Christian to work for and believe in the conversion of all men everywhere to God in Jesus Christ. To this evangelical mission we must ever be faithful, We must never forsake the divine commission which has been given us. Indeed, conversion of lead- ers who threaten the peace and well-being
Al24 of the world is perhaps our best and almost our only hope of averting disaster. But here we must recognize a practical fact: namely, the inaccessibtlity of the leaders and many of the followers of communism today on the one hand, and the evangelical zeal of their own ftdeology with which they confront us on the other hand. The fact that not one in a thousand Chinese know what commu- nism is, and refer to it only as the new order makes little difference tn the crisis of the times. The world significance turns on the objectives of the persons in power. Not many hours ago, I spoke with an expert on Chinese affairs tn the State Department who confirmed what I had long suspected, that the core of the new leadership in the new order of China is as ardently committed to the standard doctrines of Stalinism as the dictator himself and are increasingly behaving in like manner. We may be thankful for those who have really appreciated the spiritual significance of the crisis of our age and especially its menace to our kind of freedom. We should be grateful to those discerning men, like John Foster Dulles who as a boy was reared in this church, and Henry L. Stimson, long an officer of this church, for their under- standing of the dynamism of communism aud the tragic predicament of our age. im Let us as evangelical Christians clearly understand the spiritual nature of the crisis. When you read the New Testament and trace the meaning of the Christian life through Ohristian history, you discover that our kind of democracy is created and sus- tained by Christian conviction and faith. In the verse which I have set at the head of this sermon, ‘'For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman: Hkewise also he that 1s called, being free, is Christ’s servant,” it is suggested that the Christian is a freeman only because he has become a servant. He is liberated from the restraints of legalistic religion and legalistic government because he is committed in a higher loyalty to God. He is not free to do as he pleases; he is only free to glorify God. He is free under God's sovereignty. He is a freeman because he is captive to Christ. “Make me a captive Lord And then I shall be free.” The familiar hymn puts it. Men are free on this basis because they are no longer tn rebellion against God. Men outside of God require restraints and inhi- bitions, but men who are redeemed and who live under God can be trusted with their own destiny. They are free because they serve a higher loyalty. They are free only because there is a voluntarily accepted spir- itual discipline. This truth is the crux in the matter. You can only have our way of life where men and women understand that it is derived from God. 1. The Christian begins by faith in God. God as a concrete reality, God as a personal being, God who is the sovereign ruler of the universe, Who holds all creation in His hands, to whom allegiance is given, and to whom the eternal souls of men are accountabie. Communism rejects the reality of God and substitutes an atheistic and materialis- tic absolutism. Ultimate reality, commu- nism asserta, lies in matter and matter alone. It teaches that there is no God above the movement and therefore tt makes absolute a human finite reality, It capitalizes on the religious spirit, but it would be false to say Mt 1 a religion. In rejecting God, therefore, communism has no understanding of the corrupting effect of pride, self~centeredness, and the will to power within it. 2. Christianity proclaims the dignity and worth of individual man. The first thing we say about hunian nature is that man is created in the image of God, and that al- though man is a sinner, he may be restored to the dignity of his created state. The freedom which man has is his, not as a per- sonal achievement, but as something which he has as a gift of God through creation. This conception gives Christians a different attitude toward their fellow beings. The only reason for treating other persons with respect and with any rights at all is that they ure God's creatures with an eternal destiny. You cannot treat a man as a plege of machinery if you believe him to be a living soul—the creation of God. For the Christian the chief purpose of life is to glorify God who fe the creator. Communism rejects this conception of man and thereby devalues man. Man has value only in relation to and in service of the collective society. The chief end of man is not to glorify God but to serve the state, or some other collective entity. That is why they have no disturbed conscience in resort- ing to unbridled police methods, liquida- tions, concentration camps, and the other violations of human dignity which are part of the approved program, At no other point is the difference so great asin the conception of man. Devaluing man there develops an intense class consciousness, vastly greater than anything we have known in the Western World and in Christian his- tory. The proclamation of the dictator- ship of the proletariat is iteelf an assertion of class consciousness. All other classes are denounced, only those approved by the party are tolerated. In Soviet Russia where this experiment has been tried longest you have probably the most class-consclous area of the world today. Communist propaganda talks about the people, but the people of that world does not include a great many people tn this congregation. The people are ultimately limited to those who favor the Communist regime. All opponents, as has been discovered over and over again in the satellite countries soon become known as antidemocratic forces, or as enemies of the people; thus, they do not count. It is this devaluation of man as a person that leads to the tyrannies with which we are so familiar, A great singer, Mr. Paul Robeson, laments our cruel and un-Christian race discrimina- tion in America, and exalts the Soviet para- dise into fantastic heaven which tt cannot be. Let us grant that we must make our race relations and other social and cultural relations more Christian, but let Mr. Robe- son understand that he has lost all sense of perspective and discrimination. We are at least striving to make our way more Christian and to put justice into our treat- ment of minority groups. Let Mr. Robeson and others understand that there is nothing in our life which so emphasizes differences of class or race that is in any way compa- rable to the treatment by Communists of the bourgeois or the capitalists who are hunted Hke animals and where persons who are deemed unorthodox are terrorized and liquidated and where millions are placed in concentration camps and slave-labor units, simply because they do not agree with the government. Under that aystem there is vastly more discrimination between classes than there is under our way of life. We should recog- nize also that although communism pro- fesses a philosophy which says, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his neea” there is a greater differentiation between people in Russia than between peopl. here, During my visit to Russia be- fore the war, I was amazed to observe how great could be the incomes and fortunes of artists and writers in the propaganda agen- cies. And how lucrative were the incomes of plant manayers and farm ~anagers. The Stakhanovite movement ts really an appeal to APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD the profit motive and a apur to individual wealth, which awards individuals for plece- time work, honoring them with extra pay, with cultural and recreational privileges. Members of the party, administrators, social planners, factory and farm supervisors are made increasingly rich in contrast with the average Russian. At the same time in Amer- ica, because of our system of taxation and re- sponse to benevolent enterprises, there has been a general lessening in the amount re- tained by tuose who have large incomes. During the period of the Russian experiment the average American level of living has phe- nomenaily improved. Much more could be said to indicate what happens when you have a low estimate of man. 3. Christianity believing in God and having a high conception of man believes also in a fixed point of moral reference. Some things are eternally right and some things are al- ways wrong. Rejecting God and undervaluing man, communism has no ultimate standard of morality. For them there is no transcen- dent judgment. When the rulers of a nation thus disown God, they become responsible to no one but themselves and recognize no morality or conduct except that which achieves the party's ends. The absolute au- thority reposes in the leaders of the party. Anything is moral which furthers the party's objectives—even lies, deceit, and barbarism. In countries where this force has become dominant, lying and stealing and killing does not have the same moral meaning ag it has to us. This fact is directly derived from differing views of reality and man. And this fact makes it difficult to come to any trust- worthy agreement with them, This is being sharpened with the passing of the days in Ohina. The Communists have now provided themselves with authority to take over all private property, all business firms, foreign property, including that of churches, with police power exercised to the limit. The attitude toward human life, al- ready well known, is only emphasized the more, We have learned that within the last 3 or 4 days, in order to depart from China, it is now necessary for an American, includ- ing a missionary to have a Chinese sponsor or guarantor. If, thereafter, the foreigner who has departed says anything uncompli- mentary about the new order, or even if he doesn't, but is accused of doing so, the native sponsor or guarantor pays the price. Every- where you note this absence of moral certi- tude in Oommunist practice. That is what makes peaceful and dependable negotiations dificult. Iv We are called back in this hour to under- stand more clearly why it is we have these differences and to dedicate ourselves more resolutely to the faith which is ours. The time is short for a rebirth of spirit, which will undergird us for the struggle. But the Spirit working in us may make of us a greater force than we have ever dreamed we could be. Time and time again in human history, dedicated minorities have won the day. The apirit makes the difference. The Communists may outnumber tts many times over. But if we have the faith we claim to have: if we really believe what we profess to believe, we shall be indestructible. The most important thing for us to do today is to set over against communism a more vital, a stronger and more Christian society. A tepid church and a half- hearted nation cannot possibly dea) with the dynamism set against it, Vital and radically applied Christianity is called for. The Christian call is clear. It is to live by this faith in God, in man’s dignity, and in moral certitude and to be willing and ready to pay whatever price is necessary to make !t what it really is. The way of God for the song of God.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Results of Questionnaire EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. CHARLES E, BENNETT OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, January 12, 1951 Mr. BENNETT of Florida. Mr. Speak- er, in response to a questionnaire print- ed in newspapers of the district which I have the honor to represent, many answers were received. The bulk of the answers were received in the first week of 1951. The questions and results in per- centages are as follows: Percent Should the United States: Yes No 1. Abandon Korea, evacuating American troops and supplies 4s quickly as possible?_...__ 42 58 2. Increase our military forces in Korea, fight to the Anish there, only abandoning it when and if driven out?.... 58 43 3 If we abandon Korea, should we agiee to recognize Red China and abandon Formosa in re- turn for ccase-fire in Korea?. 6 04 4. Send substantial military man- power to Europe?_..---2 62 38 5. Rearm Germany?_.__...--..--- 78 22 6, Initiate use of germ and gas weapons? ...--------- ete 16 «84 7, Atom bomb Russia now?..._... 3961 8. Cease Marshall-plan aid now... 52 48 9. Cease North Atlantic military aid now?....-.-----.---- 8. 21 #79 10. Increase mobilization, taxes, controls (including rent, wage and price controls) ?_...-.-. 90 10 11. Eliminate for this emergency when not connected with de- fense: road building, flood control, harbor development, soil conservation payments, ete? eee 82 «18 12 Eliminate farm prices support program? ...0.-.--------~--+- 80 20 13. Increase old-age assistance?.... 53 47 14 Increase working hours without overtime rates, establish 6- day week in industry and Gov- ernment? ._..---.-.--------- TW 29 15. Allow railroad unions to contract that all employees must join unions?_--_-.-.2 eee 12 «88 Boxcar Shortages EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. CARL T. CURTIS OF NEBRASKA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, January 12, 1951 Mr. CURTIS of Nebraska, Mr. Speaker, the shortages of boxcars in Nebraska and surrounding States is very acute several times a year. I wish to extend my remarks by including a letter from the Central Western Ship- pers Advisory Board together with a resolution adopted by that board. The letter and resolution are as follows: CENTRAL WESTERN SHIPPERS ADvISsORY Boarp, Beatrice, Nebr., January §, 1951. Hon. Cary T. Curtis, House of Representatives, Washington, D, C. Dear Sm: While in regular session at Lin- eoln, Nebr., on December 11-12, 1950, the Central Western Shippers Advisory Board gave serious consideration to the railroad freight car supply and to ways and means of preventing troublesome shortages. It was the consensus of all that the estab- lished practice of maturing Government grain loans uniformly in all States on April 80 has contributed materially to serious car shortages through causing heavy movement of old grains at the time new crops are har- vested and offered for shipment. In the interest of lessening the impact of penk sea- sonal movements of grain, thereby relieving the strain on the freight car supply, the board went on record as recommending the staggering of maturity dates on grain loans predicated upon harvest dates of crops in the various areas. Copy of resolution No. 8, setting forth the recommendation of the board in this matter Js enclosed, Your favorable action in support of the views expressed therein is respectfully requested and will be greatly appreciated. Very truly yours, R. W. Bacsy, General Secretary, Dempster Mill Manufacturing Co. RESOLUTION RECOMMENDING THE STAGGERING OF MATURITY DaTEsS OF GRAIN LOANS IN LIEU OF THE PRESENT PRaCTICE OF MATURING THuse LoANS UNIFORMLY ON APRIL 30 IN ALL STATES Whereas the railroad freight car shortage is acknowledged to be as acute at the present time as it has been for several years in the past, and that apparently no definite relief ig in sight; and Whereas the existing plan for the matu- rity date of loans on all grain products has been established with an April 30 deadline, thus causing a unified shortage of cars for loading in all areas: Therefore be it Resolved, That the Central Western Ship- pers Advisory Board gocs on record as rece ommeuding an adjustment of the maturity dates on grain loans to be predicated upon the harvest date of the crop In the particular area being considered so that, by staggering maturity dates, the car shortage in any given area might be more effectively controlled. Elimination of Waste and Inefficiency in Government EXTENSION OF REMARKS HON. FRANK E. SMITH OF MISSISSIPPI IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, January 12,1951 Mr. SMITH of Mississippi. Mr, Speaker, under leave to extend my re- marks, I include an editorial from the Washington Evening Star concerning the activities of the House Subcommit- tee on Overstaffing in Executive De- partments. The report of this subcom- mittee is a major contribution in the unending struggle to eliminate waste and inefficiency from our Government. My distinguished colleague from Missis- sippi, Hon. JoHN BELL WILLraMs, is en- A125 titled tu full credit for the splendid manner in which his subcommittee has performed its functions, The editorial follows: Opp Cask or THE ESQUIRE PICTURE The House Subcommittee on Overstaffing {n the Executive Departments was undor- standably curious about the odd case of the requisitioned Esqtire magazine, Its study of procurement records of the Interior De- partment had disclosed that the National Park Service had invested $13.39 of taxpay- ers’ money for one 50-cent copy of the Au- gust issue of the well-known magazine. The committee was not so much interested in the use to be made of the publication as the reason ‘or the high cost. In the course of the investigation, it was discovered that a park official wanted to cut out a pin-up picture of—belleve it or not—Custer’s Last Stand. So the ponder- ous procurement machinery was put in mo- tion. Forms were filled out and signed, letters written, copies made, distributed and filed and all the other operations incidental to purchase of an item—large or small— were faithfully carried out. In due time (how long the subcommittee did not reveal) the National Park Service was the official owner of a magazine that could have been acquired in 6 minutes for half a dollar at a nearby magazine stand. The Esquire transaction was only one of several that Chairman Joun Benn Writs and his group delved into at Interior. There was the Bureau of Reclamation’s order for $2.45 worth of paper drinking cups (for the Department's transport plane for executives) that cost the Government 617.35 in admin- istrative expenses, a Fish and Wildlife Serv- ice item listed as costing 32 cents but actue ally costing the Department $13.78, and so on. The subcommittee found the procure- Ment costs per item varying from $4.78 (for the Secretary's office) to $17.35 in the Recla- mation Bureau. Obviously something {is wrong with such a system, or variety of systems. The sub- committee bluntly declared that procure- ment activities at department headquar- ters are wasteful and extravagant. This charge was made despite an apparent effort within the Department to reduce adminis- trative costs in the procurement fleld. The Esquire purchase, incidentally, was made subsequent to an order to consolidate small items and to reduce the number of purchases of articles of small cost. These wasteful buying incidents are trivial of course, stand« ing alone, but they are symbolic of the profiigate attitude that prevails in too many governmental sectors. That such an attl- tude should continue to exist in some Fed- eral agencies in time of national emergency is beyond understanding. Unfinished Business EXTENSION OF REMARKS oF HON. EDITH NOURSE ROGERS OF MASSACHUSETTS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Friday, January 12, 1951 Mrs. ROGERS of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my re- marks in the Recorp, I wish to bring to the attention of my colleagues an edito- rial that appeared in the Nutional Trib- une of Jast weck entitled “Unfinished Business.”