The Coolidge examiner., 1939-07-06
ASST APPEARS TO
Your Congressman
by John r. Murdock

a heavy week for the House. We
had to rush In order to get through
legislation that needed to renewed
before July 1st. The dollar de-
valuation measure, or monetary
bill, was one such and the relief
bill was another. OF lesser interest.
but of considerable importance,
was my bill to extend a 60-day
period Of grace for commencing
the annual assessment work on
unpatented mining claims. The
neutrality bill occupied much of
the time of the House, but it was
not necessarily contingent upon
the fiscal year for its passage. An
opposition filibuster killed a lot
of them.
At the last moment my bill was
passed giving a 60-day extension
of time for the doing of the annual
assessment work on unpatented
mining claims as d e C are d by
law. When it became evident some
time ago. as | have indicated in
my previous news items, that we
could get no moratorium Dill
through this year, introduced
bill to extend the time for the
work, 80 days. My colleague from
Utah, Congressman Abe Murdoch,
and other western men who are
equally interested in the matter,
got the bill through the House in
quick order. The Senate cut the
time down to 60 days and we
westerners agreed to concur in the
Senate amendment. We got quick
action on the part OF the House,
then hurried the bill down to the
White House and the President
signed it just before midnight June
3Oth. We hope that there will be
the same amount of employment
in the doing of assessment work
as IL there had been no extension
of time. We have asked for this
short extension for the protection
of the interest of many bona fide
claim holders who might be as
hard pressed for time as they are
for money.
Last week saw a great battle
,over money legislation but es-
pecially involving silver. Silver
Senators worked hard to write a
provision in the law for TIC
silver price. This mixed up with
several other items and it seemed
| foolish to expect that we could get
any such legislation enacted How
ever, the House conferees proved
very friendly to silver and agreed
to a 70c price. l personally had a
talk with 4 of the 5 House con-
ferees and felt confident before
they went into conference with the
5 Senators that silver would re-
ceive friendly consideration. Ma
turally | was very much pleased
with the conference report, for
it was better, everything con.
sided, than we had any right to ex-
pect. The House agreed to the
conference report late on June 30th,
but unfortunately Senate filt-
buster prevented Senate action on
the measure until after midnight
of that date. This leaves US in
doubt as to the legal situation and
the fate of silver.
Final action was taken one day
last week on the Agriculture Ap-
preparation Bill, and parity pay
ment and disposal of surplus com
modities was handled as I had
previously indicated in these news
items as likely. About $250.OOO
was added to the amount ap-
propriated for agricultural ex.
tension work, which will mean that
that work will not be impaired in
the 81 states which stood to lose
by the smaller appropriation in
cluded in the original bill.
For several days prior to July
1st, the attention of the House was
given over to a neutrality measure.
The Bloom Bill, very much modl-
fled, was passed late Friday night.
do not doubt the sincerity ard
the desire of all members to do
that which will keep this nation
out Of war, but there were almost
as many opinions as there were
members as to what would keep
us out of war. Personally, / felt
that we should retain some kind
of arms embargo, at least until
We have made some arrangements
to take the profits out of war. If