Imperial Valley press., 1943-02-18
Il Rise
To
Remark
BY CONGRESSMAN JOHN
PHILLIPS


that:
Congress is beginning to warn
up. but not the weather here.
We have acted upon the appro.
priation bill for the Post Office De-
partment and the Treasury De-
partment, and upon the bill which
will permit the merger of the
/ Western Union and Postal Tele-
! graph companies, and we have eX-
/ tended the life of the Dies COM
mittee for another two years and
created a special committee, from
! the appropriations comm tit e c
membership. to investigate men
ard women in government employ
who seem more interested in other
theories of government than in
ours.
MAY GO TOO FAR
We are getting up another COM
mittee to check the regulations and
orders of bureaucratic agencies.
There is a danger that Congress
with its fighting spirit aroused by
the recent elections. and the eyi-
dences that the people are tired of
government regulations, rat h er
than by laws. will go too far in
the appointment of these commit
tees. but this has been pretty
thoroughly discussed on the floor
and the understanding is, unani-
mouSly. that none of them is to in
terefere in any way with the war
effort, nor with the Presidents au-
thoritv in war matters.
Lend-lease will be before us in
the very near future. Senator Taft
proposed. when lend-lease was first
introduced to the Congress that We
would do better to set an outright
sum in money. instead of the in
definite material program which
was instituted. There is talk of
renewal of that idea. There is
very general discussion of the idea
that land-leaSe seems to be now
lend lease -give-aWay program. Also
that we must watch carefully the
use of this ma aterial after the war.
Even some of our closest allies are
not overlooking the necessities of
world trade after the war, and
while taking our war materiel un-
del lend-leaSe. thev are themselves
building freight planes as well as
war planes, and preparing for the
postwar period.
IN NEAR FUTURE
On the program for the near fu-
IN In
with AAA: HR 839. to prevent spec
uiation in Columbia River Basin
lands. which was before ouw COM
lnittee; HR 1870, Civilian Pilot
training. and immediately the IN
tcpendent Offices appropriation
bill. which will provoke a hot
fight. for among other things the
committee has deleted completely
the appropris ton for the National
Resources Planning Board.
The 46-hOur week order is not
generally understood. One of our
difficulties here is the habit of is
suing orders. before the details are
thought out carefully. Most of the
instances are small. The meat Or
der and this 48-hour order are
large. Remember the razor-blade
order? The average in normal
times was not one per week. And
sugar? Most families have more
sugar in the house. under ration
ing. than in normal times. New
shoes? Do you buy three pairs a
year, I don't. But then family
will use that average. Clothing?
There was a diSgraceful rush on
the Washington stores day or so
AGO. because the rumor leaked out
that clothing was next on the list.
NO MEAT QUOTAS?
Private information from one of
nv pipelines" says that the OPA
will. the first of the week. before
this is in print, remove all quotas
and restrictions on meat. just as
tho delegation recommended. un-
til ratiOning can be put into ef-
feet. We will see, That is the
way it should have been. That is
the way shoes were rationed. An
nCunce today, effective tomorrow.
1t looks to me as if the delega-
ton as soon as it catches It's
breath after the meat argument,
will have to go into the milk sit
uGtion which is rapidly assuming
troubles as serious as meat. One
Of the worst features of meat ra-
tioning was the building up of the
most serious BLACK market" since
the heights Cor depth of prohibi-
tion days. About the only differ
ence was that you can't make a
steak in a bathtub.