SHOWDOWN NEAR IN CONGRESS
Showdown Near In Congress THE dominant theme of Sen. La Follette's article above was also the theme of a bitter, basic fight which was nearing a showdown in Congress this week. Rushing to provide...
...He has been denounced especially for turning over disposal of Government-held farm land to the banker-minded Reconstruction Finance Corporation, headed by Jesse Jones, rather than to the farmer-minded Department of Agriculture...
...A number of Clayton's acts thus far have aroused the bitter criticism of progressive forces...
...Backers of the House bill, which provides for a one-man administrator, are pressing for retention of Will Clayton, millionaire cotton broker and former Liberty Leaguer...
...Clayton is now acting as Surplus Property Administrator on temporary appointment of President Roosevelt...
...It would require disposal of farm lands.to former owners, tenants, or returning veterans, and it generally encourages the development of family-sized farms...
...In the form in which it awaited final passage at mid-week, the bill paid lip-service to the needs of small, independent business and the principles of anti-trust enforcement and family-sized farming, but contained few provisions designed to effectuate these principles...
...The Stew'art-Taft-Murray Bill in the Senate provides far more safeguards against industrial monopoly and corporate agriculture...
...Atty...
...Small business received one safeguard when the House adopted the amendment by Rep...
...Clayton's decision, Littell asserted, will permit private real estate brokers to realize millions of dollars in unnecessary commissions...
...The House version of surplus property disposal was bitterly denounced by progressive forces in and out of Congress...
...Norman Littell charged before Senate investigators last week that Clayton had followed the advice of a real estate lobby in giving the RFC control over the disposition of millions of acres of farm land...
...Ass't...
...He said he based his demand on Clayton's demonstrated hostility to the true interests of the farmers, small business, and labor...
...Rushing to provide machinery for the eventual disposal of some 100 billion dollars worth of Government-owned war factories, supplies, and lands, the two Houses of Congress were moving toward conflicting solutions this week...
...The policy will "invite disaster" because it turns the farm land over to brokers who are not interested in the social problem of getting small farmers on the land, Littell contended...
...This version, on which the Senate has not yet acted, would give the Smaller War Plants Corporation power to step in and help independent enterprise secure materials and plants and empower the Attorney General to stand guard against the sale of plants and materials to monopolies...
...Jerry Voor-his, California Democrat, requiring the disposal agency to sell "all surplus property in the smallest practicable lots consistent with the usual and customary commercial practices...
...Local units of government, schools, and hospitals would also receive special recognition in property disposal...
...James G. Patton, president of the National Farmers' Union, called on President Roosevelt to remove Clayton...
...There is widespread agreement in Washington that much will depend on who administers whatever version of surplus property disposal is passed...
...The President, he said, cannot afford to tolerate any longer an administrator with so narrow a conception of the public welfare...
...Patton's demand drew no response from the White House...
Vol. 8 • August 1944 • No. 35
