Evening star., 1947-08-01

traordinary abnormal conditions
The Republicans are blamed by some
sor removing price controls and
housing priority controls. 1t might
be we'll to point out at this point
that these controls were removed by
the President himself because of an
Overwhelming public sentiment fol
such removal. We gave him in 1916
an OPA law under which all manu-
factured goods could have been con-
troled until July of this year. The
President removed them about the
time of the last election. We gave
him an Emergency Housing Act with
vast money for subsidies and un-
limited control. He, himself, re-
moved those controls and fired
Wilson Wyatt because nothing was
being accomplished toward the So
luton of the housing problem. The
production of adequate food and
housing is a dificult problem now
under study by two special COM
mittees we have created; but I be-
lieve very strongly that it will be
solved more quickly by complete
freedom Of operation and more pro-
duction than by Government direc-
tives.
COP Unifies Services.
In the organization of our defense
forces, the 80th Congress for many
years will be looked to as having
done more to put our defense system
on firm foundation than any
Congress in history. The Demo-
Gratis have talked about unification
of the armed services since Pearl
Harbor. A Republican Congress
passed 1t, together with a revision
of the whole promotion system
which should have profound effect
on improving the efficiency of the
Army. This after ali was pri-
mary concern before dealing with
purely domestic matters.
This Congress passed bill setting
up a national scientific foundation
to encourage research in every sci
entific field throughout the entire
United States. 1t is the first Con-
gress to realize the tremendous i'm
portance of research to our modern
life.
We passed q bill re-organizing
the whole Puerto Rican Government
and permitting the election of a
Governor by the people, the most
important step forward In our
colonial policy since the Tydings Act
which preceded Philippine indepen-
dence. We submitted a constitu-
|tional amendment to the States linn
iting a President to two terms. We
provided for succession to the pres
idency In case of the death of both
President and Vice President. We
have thus found time during the
intense controversy on taxes and
labor to develop constructive policies
in four important fields, and In
many others.
Among the matters pending on
the calendar and in committee are
extensive programs sponsored by
Republicans to provide Federal aid
to States and local communities In
the fields of health, education and
housing. 1t certainly hardly lies in
the mouths of the Democrats to
accuse us of delay in these matters
when they have been in power for IA
years without enacting such COM
prehensive programs. Apart from
the fact that we were involved In
programs demanding more imn,e-
diate action, there were several good
reasons why those programs should
be still carefully considered.
Opinions Not Crystalized.
There has not been time to crys-
talize opinion among Republicans
on the exact measures to be taken,
and there are strong differences as
to methods All of them involve a
considerable expansion of Federal
spending, and activity, even though