National Affairs: Work Done

The advertised attraction was a full-dress Senate debate on the loan to Britain, but global economics was tough sledding for the speechmakers and for the generously filled galleries.

After a dry-as-dust opening barrage by Majority Leader Alban Barkley, the high chamber floundered bravely for a while in a dismal sea of statistics. When North Dakota’s Langer took the floor next day for the opposition, the senatorial audience dropped to a single listener. The Senators discussed wheat prices in Kansas, the profits of Henry J. Kaiser, the sex life of Government employes and, when time hung heavy, the loan.

The minds of most had long since been i made up. Even the once-powerful opinion of Jesse Jones, now expressed in the editorial columns of his Houston Chronicle, caused little visible stir. The former Secretary of Commerce blasted the loan as unbusinesslike and inflationary, proposed instead a $1,000,000,000 RFC loan secured by the collateral of British holdings in the U.S.

Last week the Senate also:

¶ Sent to the House the Wagner-Ellen-der-Taft long-range housing bill providing 1) Government loans to small-income builders, 2) slum clearance, 3) a goal of 15,000,000 new dwellings in the next ten years.

¶Approved a House-passed bill giving veterans equal priority with Government agencies for the purchase of surplus property.

The House:

¶Had a field day with OPA (see above).

¶I Sent to the Senate a measure increasing service pay up to 50% for men in the lower ranks, 10% for captains and above.

¶Passed an inadequate draft bill which extended the draft for nine months after May 15, but 1) suspended inductions between May 15 and Oct. 15, 2) exempted all males under 20 and all fathers, 3) limited service to 18 months.