Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-01-30

Plan to Limit Gruin Use
Held Move to Emborruss
6. O. P. in Rural Areas
By David Laurence
President Truman is evidently
playing the game Of wet" and
"dry" politics OF prohibition days
and Is apparently trying to put the
Republicans In q hole by insisting
that they pass class legislation cur
failing for several months the use
of grain In manufacturing distilled
spirits.
This is the only plausible expla-
nation for the dispatch to Congress
of a special message asking for
authority to reduce distillery oper-
alton by 23 per cent when no other
users Of grain are to be curtailed
and when also 1t Is known that the
distillers use an infinitesimal frac-
ton of the total wheat supply.
The politics of the situation LIS
that the "drys" are anxious to re-
store prohibition under the guise OF
q national emergency-something
that happened In World War I. The
vets as such are not yet conscious
of the political implications and
have not organized against a re-
turn of the era of bootlegging which
brought to America the underworld
gangsters and crime waves of the
'20s.
"JOckeying for Position"
The President asked for author
ity last month to limit the distil-
lers to specific amount of grain
till the end of January, and Con-
gress gave him that power as an
emergency measure. Chairman
Wolcott of the House Banking Com
mittee, however, warned on De-
cember 7 that the administration
would be expected thereafter to fol-
low the procedures laid down In the
anti-inflation law with respect to
hearings on commodities where
voluntary agreements appear to be
unattainable.
What the administration did in
stead was send to Congress an
other request for similar power till
the end Of February. The House
Banking Committee refused to re-
port out the bill. Possibly the adj
n,inistration thought that this
would embarrass the Republicans
with the dry" voters of the rural
areas, so much Of which is Repub-
hcan normally.
But the Republican majority
stood its ground and, in effect, in
sisted that the administration stop
jockeying for political position and
obey the mandate Of the anti-in-
f1ation law which seeks to treat all
industries alike and to give them
all fair hearing.
The anti-inflation law prescribes
that the President must submit "a
complete record of the factual EVIL
dence on which his recommended
tons are based, including all infor-
nation provided by any agency of
the Federal Government which may
have been made available to him
in the course of his consideration
Of the matter"
Evidently the administration
doesn't like to follow this provision
because it means a complete revela-
ton that no executive agency has
attempted to curtail the use of grain
by all professors and users but has
merely singled out an industry which
1t thinks is politically vulnerable.
The House committee, by insist
ing that all the facts be divulged
and that public hearings be held by
the Joint Committee on the Eco
homie Report, as prescribed by law,
is putting the responsibility back on
the President, who has already ridi-
culed the law and its effectiveness.
Position UntenabIe.
BY attempting to avoid the use of
the very provisions written into the
law for those cases where voluntary
agreements are not feasible, the
administration puts itself in an un-
tenable position, so that now the
controversy Is back within the pro-
visions of the law
The administration will not be
able to prove it is not discriminate
ing as between users of grain, but
in the Presidents message is a
shrewd attempt to create special
class of users of grain "for the pro-
duction of ethyl alcohol, including
but not limited to distilled spirits
and neutral spirits
This means that some industrial
alcohol users have now been in
cluded, but the question is whether
grain for use in alcohol constitutes
Glass" as the term Is used In
the law and whether restriction on
distillers who process grain as by
product for cattle feed puts them
on a parity with other users of grain
for feeding cattle.
The hearings should provide an
interesting discussion on these legal
points and should disclose just why
the administration is so vehement
about curtailing the use by distillers
when the latter are willing to re-
strict themselves to $500, 900 bushels
a month instead of the 2.500,00C
asked by the Agriculture Depart
ment. Surely on the basis of nine
month curtailment, this difference
OF 100000 bushels, as against the
hundreds of millions of bushels used
by other professors of grain, does
not appear to be consequential.
Getting votes on the wet" and
"dry" issues in campaign year ap-
pears to be at the bottom of it
Whether one likes to see prohibition
returned Is not the issue. Whether
the Government shall apply its laws