The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-12-04
Senate Refuses To Cut Interim Aid

fusal to accept major cut in the
stop-gap European aid program
proposed by Senator Robert A..
Taft Of Ohio and his colleagues in
the Republican Party's right-wing
leadership with support Of num-
Der Of Southern Democrats has
heartened advocates Of the total
European aid program.
Supported by virtually all of the
Senate's pro-labor spokesmen, Re-
publican Senator Arthur Vanden-
berg and the Democratic floor lead
ership turned back the drive to cut
$197, 100000 from the $597, ,Oo0, 900
pre- Marshall Plan aid bill. The
same coalition is expected to defeat
any further weakening amendments
such as the one approved by the
House Foreign Affairs Committee,
and to insure early passage of the
bill.
Only amendments accepted so far
have been those of Sen Glenn Tay-
lor 3D., Idaho) providing that none
of the funds appropriated shall go
for the purchase of armaments, and
Sen. Homer Ferguson (R., Mich
which permits Congressional re-
view of the uses to which the grants
are put by recipient nations.
As House-Senate differences on
the interim aid bill came to head
the issues of European recovery
were further confused by an at
tempt on the part Of two Republi-
can leaders who usually scorn each
others company-Rep. John Taber
House Appropriations Committee
of N. Y, avowedly rocked-ribbed
chairman, and presidential aspirant
Harold Stassen of Minnesota who
says he's out to liberalize the COP
to cut off the U. S. slight cash
trade with Russia.
The Administration is not anx-
ious to add a new economic front
to the many-sided cold war with
the USSR, and further, it believes
that increased, not decreased trade
between Eastern and Western Eu-
rope is necessary to the success Of
ERP. American embargoes against
shipments to the Russians could
only result in further worsening of
both diplomatic and economic rela-
tionships throughout the world, it
is maintained.
AS Senate action on the interim
aid bill moved to climax series
of government experts took the
stand before the House Banking
Committee and the Joint Commit
tee on the Economic Report to
testify that allocations and price
controls in the United States were
necessary to the success of the
overall aid program. Grain and
steel were regarded as the COM
modities in which the most acute
shortages will exist.
While Secretary of Agriculture
urged controls on the
of grain, former Adni-
raj Ben Moreel, president of the
Jones Laughlin Steel Co. said that
Secretary of Commerce Hartman
was wrong in urging government
control of steel ALLEGATIONS and in
sisted that the barons of the in
dustry themselves do the alloting
after the government had deter
mined how much steel it wanted |
sent to Europe. Not only did |
spokesmen for the auto industry, |
who fear that government alloca-
ion of steel supplies will decrease
he amount going to them, join the
steel men in resisting reinstate-
nent of government controls, but
farm equipment and freight car
who would be as
,ured greater supplies under the
Hartman recommendations, object
o any increase in government pow
erS.
The impression is growing that
despite the extent of the need of
europe for aid, and of the Ameri-
AN economy for check rein con-
rols, and even on occasion in spite
# immediate direct advantages to
many segments of industry, busi-
less leaders have united against
he Administrations request for
material control powers al
most as unanimously as they have
against domestic price controls.
While Congressional and business
dictionaries were preoccupied
With increased industrial profits
through the operation of ERP, and
he White House struggled with
he problem of just how it would
ecommend the long-term program
e administered, government Off
ials responsible for drafting ERP
rev ever more candid in their
iscussion of its major features.
has been admitted that the April
inaugural date of the Marshall
Ian aid is a dangerously late one,
ut legislative and administrative
roblems make it impossible to