Evening star., 1951-04-24
Dispersal Bills
Death Sharpens.
Space Problem
10 Senate Democrats
Join With 6 @ p.
To Bury Measure

now that the prospects of addi.
tional space are denied by thu
Senate's killing of the dispersa
bill.
That measure would have au.
thorized four buildings in tht
suburbs to provide Office space fol
10000 workers and the transfer ol
agencies with an additional 5000
jobs to other cities. Offset against
thus making space for $4,000 en-
ployes in the Washington area
would have been the razing OF
the World War II temporary
buildings, where $1,000 are en-
ployed. The net result would
have been space for $4,000 more
workers. Wy.
w. E. Reynolds, public buildings
commissioner, said he is faced
with requests for Office space for
quite a few thousand additional
employees.
II don't know what the answer
is" he said. ut looks pretty
bleak"
Space Bids Fall Short.
He pointed out that when ar
rangenlentS were made to lease
for Office space two apartment
houses nearing completion, Con-
greSs blocked the deal. Recently
the Public Buildings Service called
for offers to the Government of
100000 square feet of Office space.
Seven tenders were received, for
a total of only 381,066 square
feet.
The Budget Bureau already had
announced that agencies with
about 5000 employees would be the
first to be decentralized-moved
to other cities. Mr.. Reynolds said
that only where funds and au-
thority are available could this be
carried out and that only a very
few would be affected.
The dispersal bill received its
quietuS through a motion by Sen
ator Dirksen, Republican, of Hi
noiS, to send it back to the Public
Works Committee. The motion
carried by a vote of As to 80.
Ten Democrats voted with IS
Republicans to recommit the bill.
They were Senators Byrd and
Robertson of Virginia, O'Conor of
Maryland, Connally of Texas,
George of Georgia, johnson of
Colorado, Johnston and Maybank
of South Carolina, McCarran of
Nevada and Smith Of North
Carolina.
Five Republicans Favor Bill.
Five Republicans voted with "a
Democrats against the move. They
were Senators Aiken of Vermont,
Case Of South Dakota, Ives of
New York, Morse of Oregon and
Margaret Chase Smith of Maine.
When the motion carried,
Minority Leader Wherry and SEN
ator Dirksen then joined in a
parliamentary maneuver to clinch
the shelving of the bill by pre-
venting later reconsideration. This
was adopted.
Senator Holland, Democrat, of
Florida, who managed the bill on
the floor, said this was IAN i'm
portant new development" in that
it made clear the Republicans had
made action on the bill a party
matter. t.-'
He told reporters later that any
further action to prepare the
Capital for an attack would have
to wait for constructive sug-
geStion from the Republicans
1--WE should wait for the Repub-
licans to find out there is such
a thing as an atomic bomb," he
said.
Sees Attack Invited.
Chairman Mcmahon of the
Joint Committee on Atomic En-
ergy, said to reporters:
ut will be interesting to see
how they will dispatch the retail
atory forces when Washington is
bombed. The 'warhawks' of the
China theater do not realize they
may have precipitated attacks on
the unready cities of the United
States and by their action today
may have deprived the people of
an effective defense which can
only come from a unified COM
mand." This last was a reference
to what he believed might result
from an attack on the Capital.
The vote to recommit came
after an afternoon of debate in
which the measure was assailed
on several counts. Senator Dirk
sen characterized it as "puny," 4"
and Senator johnson of Colorado
adopted this word and said he
would call it ''phony" were it
not for his respect for the bills
hackers.
Senator Dirksen said the bill
would take some people out of
Washington and bring others in,
$50 you would just be killing a
different set of people,
More Decentralization Support.
There appeared to be more sup
port for decentralization than for
dispersal. An amendment by Sen
ator Cane, Republican, of Wash
ington was adopted which would
have made mandatory the sending
OF agencies with $4,000 jobs to
other cities.
Several other efforts to amend
the bill were in the offing but the
vote to recommit came before
there was a chance to bring them
to vote. Senator johnson pro-
offered one, which would have cut
out the dispersal provisions but
left the other features of the bill.
Senator Capehart, Republican,
of Indiana sent one to the desk
which would have substituted for
the measure before the Senate one
providing $75 million for highways
to facilitate the evacuation of the