Evening star., 1946-07-04
Senate Group
Working Today
On 0nNew0PGBi||
Compromise Proposal
Offered by Borkley
Wins Tuft's Favor
By J. A. OLeory

oyJ.A. OLeoy
The Senate Banking Commit
tee was prepared to spend Inde-
pendence Day trying to report
out a new OPA bill, which Ma
jority Leader Barkley offered
late yesterday in an effort to
bridge the gap between Congress
and the White House over price
control.
Although it differs only slightly
from the measure President Truman
vetoed Saturday, committee men,
bers seemed hopeful the President
would 60 along with it, provided the
Senate itself does not upset the COM
mittee.
Observers recalled that when the
original one-year extension bill came
out Of the Banking Committee sew
eral weeks ago, the Senate went far
beyond the committee by writing
IN amendments that would have
ended all controls on meat, poultry
dairy products, gasoline and tobacco
Even though these specific decon-
trolls were eliminated in conference
before the bill went to the White
House, Mr.. Truman vetoed it.
Avoids Taft Proposal.
Main difference between the vetoed
bill and Senator Barkleys new pro-
posal is that it rewfites the Taft
profit formula. on which Mr.. Tru-
man centered most of his opposition
The Taft amendment allowed
manufacturers. producers and proc
essors to use the base prices of the
first half of October, 1941, plus the
weighted average increase in unit
cost OF a commodity since then.
Senator Barkley would allow the
average dollar price" during the
calendar year 1910, plus increased
costs since then. In his veto mes
sage Mr.. Truman contended the fall
OF 194l was high-price period.
The President also objected to the
Wherry amendment in the vetoed
bill, which dealt with the profits of
the wholesaler, distributor and re-
taller. allowing them their January
l, 1946, markups or discounts, based
on current costs.
After the Taft substitute is dis
posed Of today, Senator Barkley is
expected to offer a modified version
Of the Wherry amendment.
Senator Wherry, Republican. of
Nebraska told a reporter, however
i won't accept anything that's not
better than We got" The Nebraskan
is not on the Banking Committee,
but has taken an active part in
shaping floor action on price control
heretofore.
Taft Sympathetic.
Senator Taft is on the committee,
and received Senator Barkley's re-
vision of his amendment synpa-
thetically last night. He called it "a
very reasonable proposal for dis
cussion."
Senator Barkley said he had at
tempted to simplify Senator Taft S
pricing provision by cutting out ref
erences to such things as weighted
average increases.
We talked good deal about
weighted average increases" Senator
Barkley reported after yesterday
closed, three-and-a -half-hour ses-
sion. I'VE finally decided that q
good example of weighted average
increase was weighing horse and q
rabbit and dividing it by two"
Senator Barkley said he was very
hopeful of obtaining an agreement
today within the committee.
If the committee completes work
on the bill today, it has authority
to report it to the Senate in time
to be taken up tomorrow.
Wherry Assails Terrorism"
In radio broadcast last night
Senator Wherry charged Chester
Bowles, retiring stabilization direc-
tor, Is conducting "a campaign of
terrorism" in an effort to "perpetu-
ate the obstructionist controls CT the
OPA."
Senator Wherry termed Mr.. Bowles
an apostle of fear and panic" and
declared Mr.. Bowles had made
claims of shortages" and skyrocket-
ing prices which had not developed
Senator Taft also accused admin
istration spokesmen of making hys-
terical statements about the price
situation since OPA died Sunday
night. and urged the public not to
be 'stampeded" while Congress is
trying to "straighten out the con-
fusion into which President Tru-
mans veto of the OPA bill has
thrown the country"