Voices Across the Aisle

Speaker Joe Martin stepped down from the rostrum into the well of the House one afternoon last week to make one of his infrequent speeches. He urged his fellow Republicans to vote for the $4.9 billion foreign-aid bill approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Martin said, with a glance toward his Midwestern colleagues, that he believes in economy but that some grave mistakes can be made in its name. Said he: "Security is more precious than dollars . . . Let us take the leadership that God has placed in our hands and use it wisely for the benefit of humanity . . . Let us give Dwight Eisenhower a chance to prove his merit."

Across the aisle, the Democrats' "Mr. Sam" struck the same note as his old friend Joe Martin. Said Ex-Speaker Rayburn: "If we could . . . help prepare those who stand with us so that they could resist, even though it took $5 billion . . . every year for the next ten years, if we could thus prevent a war . . . it would be the greatest investment the people of the United States ever made."

The combined voices of Jos Martin and Sam Rayburn did it. The House passed the bill (280-108), after voting down a whole series of attempts to cut it. Sam Ray burn's side of the aisle did the most to "give Dwight Eisenhower a chance." Of the 280 votes for the bill, 160 were cast by Democrats, 119 by Republicans and one by an independent. The opposition votes came mostly from Midwestern Republicans and Southern Democrats.

As it stands, the bill calls for $476 million less than the Eisenhower Administration requested, and $2.6 billion less than Harry Truman proposed. Before Congress is through, the total may be cut further, by slashes in specific appropriations bills.

Last week the House also:

P: Passed (363-35) and sent to the Senate a bill extending the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act for one year. At the President's request, the bill also sets up a 17-member commission to explore the whole subject tof foreign economic policy.

P: Passed and sent to the Senate a bill appropriating $5.2 billion to run the Veterans' Administration, the Atomic Energy Commission, the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Selective Service System during the next fiscal year. This is 18% less than the Truman Administration requested and 6% below the Eisenhower Administration's request.

P: Whooped through a bill allowing Congressmen to deduct from their income tax, as business expenses, all the money they spend to live in Washington (such deductions are now limited to $3,000 a year). In the same bill, for economy's sake, they took away the Cadillac of Capitol Architect David Lynn, who has been a Government employee for 51 years.

The Senate:

P: Passed the Administration bill to give 1,000,000 tons of Government-owned wheat (bought for $80 million under the price-support program) to Pakistan to alleviate famine there and surplus here. This is the first of several moves to give away surplus wheat before the new wheat-acreage quotas are established next month, If enough is given away, the Department of Agriculture will not have to impose such stringent acreage controls on wheat farmers.

P: Passed and sent to the White House the conference-approved bill extending the physician-dentist draft for two years, exempting any who have served on active duty for as long as 17 months since Sept. 16, 1940.

P: Passed and sent to the House the "exploding sweater bill," banning shipment of highly inflammable clothing in interstate commerce.

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