The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-07-05

EUSUU Oll SoRAUOA 444A4s
 On the same day the San Fran cisco Conference opened, War Mob- ilization Director Fred M. Vinson appeared before house committee and asked for action now" on re- newal of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements act, the Breton Woods International Monetary Fund and Bank, extension of the Export Im- port Bank legislation and repeal of the Johnson act prohibiting loans to defaulting foreign governments.
 Just for the fun of it, take a look at what has happened to those four measures on which Judge Vim son wanted so much action in a hurry.
 The Trade Agreements act was passed by the House on May 26, reported out in the Senate June g, has been debated of and on since then. AS they go into the stretch, there is every probability that the San Francisco Charter will be drafted before the Trade Agree ments act becomes a law.
 BRETON WOODS BILL STILL TENDS
 The Breton Woods measure passed the House on June 2 but is now tied up in Senate committee hearings with no indication of when it will be considered by the Senate.
 Export Import Bank legislation, containing provision for full repeal of the Johnson act, has just been introduced in the House. The de- lay here has not been the fault of Congress but of the Foreign Eco- homie Administration, which took two months to draft the bill it want ed Congress to consider. There is an even chance that nothing will be done about this legislation before the end of the present session, when Congress goes home for vaca- tion.
 Alert and conscientious Congress- men are aware of this traditional slow motion, as evidenced by the work of the LaFollette-M Monroney joint committee to study reorgani- zation of Congress. But even this committee, which has been hold ing hearings since last March 13,. has made only one report. It is working on two other reports, but if it takes over three months to plan the reorganization of Con- gress, think what speed is demon strated by drafting in little over two months plan to reorgani0e the whole cockeyed world.
 CONGRESS NO MODEL
 FOR SPEED
 The San Francisco speed is in fact almost equal to the best that Congress has shown since the early days of the New Deal. The rec ord is probably the passage of the original Lend-Lease bill in 1941. It became law in just two months and day after it was requested by President Roosevelt. Some of the war appropriation bills have been pushed through Congress in a little over month, but these rec ords have been made only after weeks of hearing by appropriations slb- committees which theoretically examine every item before approv- ing.
 With this lack of speed the chronic condition in Congress, it will be a great though pleasant surprise if the Senate ratifies the United Ma tions Charter in anything less than the two months required to draft that document at San Francisco.
 Memory is short, but the book still shows that when President Wilson brought back the Treaty of Versail- les and the Covenant of the League of Nations in May 1919, the argu- ment went on until March 1920. when it was killed.
 If President Truman should be able to fly the San Francisco Char ter back to Washington and t tae Senate by some hook and no crook should ratify the document before vacation adjournment, it would be a miracle, and maybe the dawn of a new age of speed for statesmen.