Imperial Valley press., 1942-03-19
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison

WASHINGTON March 10 - Oae
8. - to>t miracle aeiS ey,r passed
UN fhe~t tuagrcNSmen YOU people
out IL ne country do manage to
,ud. elect and ,enG 70 Washington
aas bean this bill granting congress-
mea a pension Mo- however, for
lie reason YOU think
The pension bill itself has been
repealed now, so there's no real
DANGER from that extravaganza But
The NEE passage of the original
OIL granting the pensions was a
lne thing for the reaSCn that it
made everybody 50 mad. II made
t..e voters so mad they started
1r!une letters of protest and throw
I4 verbal bad eggs with such ac
lV"aey TIE congressman woke up to
The tact that taxpayers vii stand
lol last so much and no more
and II stiffened the gelatinouS
.plneS of some Of the statesmen
who deep down IN their hearts have
Known Il was wrong to keep on
spending and spending, but none
''c less kept on voting unqueSiOn-
mgly for each succeeding appropri-
a'lOu bill Just because il seemed
the smart thing to do,
For manifestation OF the
wholesome effect this "beat-SOme-
sense -lnto-yOur- congressman" ca'.-
pelgn had. YOU need look no fur
,her than the record of the House
Il Rep. esentativeS in considering
tle Department of Agriculture Ap-
preparation bill For the past nine
YEARS. these pills have sWished thru
the House in two or three days,
tAouen they called for appropria-
tons rising from S247 million in
1882 to So bi ms in l94l. Few
congressman Understood what they
were voting foy, but 1t was all for
,he farmers so they passed it with
. loud ave- and then went home
I'D ,old the voters, Look what I
did
But not this year. The Agri-
culture Appropriation Act for
I943 was before the House a full
two weeks and was debated ten
DAYS. including a Saturday SeS-
Sion. Led by brave little band
that is fed up with silly spend
ing and really means economy,
every item was questioned and
fought over bitterly. 1t was
really refreshing. All this, too,
came after five weeks of pre-
Iiminary study by the House
appropriations sub committee
on Agriculture.
SlaShlng of Department of Agri-
4 cultures miscellaneous millions has
been only one manifestation OF what
! Is hopefully a growing economy
( Consciousness.
The House Ways and Means
Committee first turned thumbs
down on a proposal to spend
5000 million in unemployment
benefits of S24 a week for work
ers displaced in conversion OF
industry to war production.
Then the Appropriations CON-
mittee turned down a proposal
for 500 million to let WPA do
the war displacement relief job.
L .s perhaps too early to crow
over these first spring crOcuseS Of
economy r-mndedness. sprOuting on
lie congressional desert wastes But
hen LEGISLATORS utter even the
t-IYtest TO" TO anything the farm
nd labor blocs and lobbyists ask
or boy. that's news.
Whether O" lot the Senate viii
..ack % any slaShes the House may
make is of course a gamble. The
senator's aren't so very labo:-mind-
q as q group. but they are farm
minded and { I the cuts the House
D@t in the Agriculture Appropriation
act may be restored in the upper
chamber.
There are signs that the lesson Of
the congressional pension bill mis-
Ike may have been taken to heart
D. tho senators, too.
The Joint Committee Of Non
asSentials Federal Expense, headed
BY Senator Byrd and Representa-
I've Doughton, has been sticking its
noses Into many questionable Items
Tie Office of Civilian Defense
came in for a grilling. SO did the
proposal to build a s6O0OO) infor-
nation center for the Csfice of
Government Reports in downtown
Washington And the poll tax y
Ea proclvitics Of the Farm SecLr-
- Administration were given a
preliminary going over Al these
things indicate an increasing Sena-
torial temper to do sometime about
expense