Letters, statements, exhibits, etc., submitted for the record by-Continued Kaul, Ralph R., chairman, critical areas committee, Defense Produc- Keyserling, Leon H., chairman, Council of Economic Advisors: 4. Gross private domestic investment. 5. Personal consumption expenditures. 6. National income under effective stabilization policy. 7. Supply and demand for consumer goods under an effective Lawton, F. J., director, Bureau of the Budget: Comments on S. 1397-- Exports of rubber and rubber products, 1950, and January and Excerpt from testimony before House Foreign Affairs Committee Magnuson, Warren G., Harley M. Kilgore, Herbert H. Lehman, Letter on S. 1397, and appearance thereon_-- Martin, William McChesney, Jr., chairman, Board of Governors, Voluntary credit restraint committee... Minimum down payments and maximum maturities on con- sumer credit subject to Regulation W table.- Private credit expansion, June 1950-March 1951; table- Total nonfarm housing starts, 1922-29; table. Maybank, Burnet R., a United States Senator from the State of Statement opening hearings- Article, New York Times, Amortization Law Defended by Olds.. Staff memorandum on price ceilings and roll-back of beef prices. - Mead, James A., Chairman, Federal Trade Commission: Information Murphy, Charles S., special counsel to the President: Letter enclosing memorandum concerning amortization of Letter enclosing report of Wilson committee on private credit Air Force report-rent control. National Association of Manufacturers: Information on industry Petroleum Administration for Defense, Bruce K. Brown, Deputy Administrator: Standards for processing applications for accelerated tax amortization in petroleum and gas industries__ Sawyer, Charles, Secretary of Commerce: Letter and suggested amendment to aid small business. Shawcross, Sir Hartley, president, British Board of Trade: Statement Letter to Senator Maybank on authority of Department of De- Page 775 781 199 372 191 382 16 119 120 614 722 899 39 Letters, statements, exhibits, etc., submitted for the record by-Continued Small, J. D., chairman, Munitions Board-Continued Stockpile procurement by ECA.. Actual or prospective critical areas involving Defense Depart- Procurement of meat during fiscal years 1951 and 1952.- Additional memorandum on condemnation__ Requirements for cotton, cotton textiles and cotton duck. Taylor, Dr. George W., Chairman, Wage Stabilization Board: State- Tobin, Maurice J., Secretary of Labor: Percentage changes in wage rates, June 1950 to February 1951__ Percentage changes in earnings, and price indexes, January 1950 Nonfarm housing in relation to population.. Warren, Lindsay, Comptroller General of the United States: Letter on Calendar of formal actions taken by Federal departments to im- plement Defense Production Act.. Letter to Senator Maybank enclosing memorandum on procure- Woods, Tighe E., Housing Expediter: Material on rent control__. Consumer prices, 1939 to March 1951, chart and table-- Forms for landlords petition for adjustment of rent. Chart, ratio of operating expenses to gross income of rental prop- Letter to Senator Ives on exclusion of States meeting certain Decontrol by type of action and number of units involved. Letter, June 5, 1951, on rent controls in connection with S. 1550__ DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1951 MONDAY, MAY 1, 1951 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in room 301, Senate Office Building, Senator Burnet R. Maybank (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Maybank, Robertson, Douglas, Benton, Bricker, Schoeppel, Dirksen, and Bennett. The CHAIRMAN. I will ask that the committee come to order. I have a short statement to make about a matter that the committee agreed upon in executive session before this meeting started, and I trust the press will be good enough to carry it as it explains the situation we are up against. We have requests from 150 national and seminational organizations to be heard. We have limited to 60 national organizations the number that the committee believes should be heard. We have 20 days for the hearing. The committee intends to sit mornings and afternoons for the balance of the month to give everyone a fair chance to be heard. The question has come before the committee as to how much time the various witnesses should have. The committee desires, starting tomorrow, to call the attention of all the Government witnesses, and all the witnesses of national organizations, to the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, particularly that part carried on page 22 that states That each standing committee shall, so far as practicable, require all witnesses appearing before it to file in advance written statements of their proposed testimony and to limit their oral presentations to brief summaries of their argument. The staff of each committee shall prepare digests of such statements for the use of committee members. We are going to ask and require all of the organizations to file with this committee 24 hours in advance 75 copies of any statement that they intend to present to us. That takes in the Government, farm organizations, labor organizations, manufacturing organizations, or chambers of commerce. The purpose in getting the 75 copies here is so the Senators can get those copies and take them home at night and study them before the next day's meeting. Additional copies will be given to the staff so they can study what the witnesses are going to testify to, and then it will be the purpose of the committee to ask the witnesses, as the reorganization law states, to summarize their statements. Their statements, of course, will be printed in full, but the committee does not believe it will have the time to hear long statements read that they themselves have already read, by the requirement of a 24-hour advance filing. I trust that the press will be good enough to help us out, because it is a tremendous job to hear Government witnesses all this week and through next Tuesday and then to hear 60 national organizations representing the various labor groups, farm groups, chambers of commerce, real-estate boards, and so forth. So, if you can help us to get the thought over that we are going to be fair and hear all we can, as time is just running out on us, we will appreciate it. The other thought was on commercial rent. The committee believes it is not going to take any testimony on commercial rent unless they decide to do so later on. The committee will be glad to have any briefs filed on Federal control of commercial rents, either for or against it, but the committee does not believe sufficient study has been given to the problem to know exactly how to move on commercial rent controls. We have requests here from a large number of witnesses desiring to appear on commercial rents, but these other things appear so much more important to us that we put over commercial rent until the end if it is taken at all, but we will accept filed state ments. Senator ROBERTSON. Mr. Chairman, may I inquire? Senator ROBERTSON. Am I correct in understanding that the committee would like each witness, after this program has been published, to make his oral presentation and confine his testimony, as far as possible, to 15 or 20 minutes? The CHAIRMAN. The committee is hopeful that the witnesses will be, I might say, generous with us, because we have so many that want to be heard, and I know there is going to be a lot of dissatisfaction about who we picked and who we did not pick, and I know that there are a lot of people that are displeased about this and displeased about that, and we just do not want this to be a sounding board for people who are angry about some specific order. We want to get to the facts of inflation and facts of control and what sort of control bill should be passed to aid the country in its present serious inflationary dilemma. Senator ROBERTSON. Take, for instance, an organization like the Farm Bureau Federation representing all phases of agriculture. We would not want a man to discuss beef all day long. They may have a specialist on livestock, cotton, wheat, corn, tobacco, and so forth. Each one of those can file as voluminous a brief as he pleases that we can read and assimilate, but when he comes to give us his views he ought to get it boiled down to 15 or 20 minutes. The same way with major labor organizations. They may have various large groups, the CIO or the AFL, but each individual of those groups should confine himself to a brief presentation of his viewpoint so that in 20 days we can have a pretty good cross section of the various interests of the Nation. The CHAIRMAN. Take, for example, as the Senator mentioned, the AFL and CIO. We are hopeful that, in the case of the CIO and the AFL, the testimony directed toward automobile workers may be 20 minutes, directed toward the steel workers may be 20 minutes, and so forth, and so on. We are not telling them how to do it, but we hope we can get a general knowledge of it all. Likewise, when the Farm Bureau comes here, they are interested, of course, in the farmers' representative on wheat, cotton, corn, beef, and so forth, and we are going to hope that they will not try to use up all the time for one commodity. We should get a picture of the whole problem. Are there any further questions, gentlemen, before we start? Senator BENTON. Mr. Chairman, it was my understanding that we decided not to have any witnesses on commercial rent control, but that we did not reach any decision about whether the subject of commercial rents would constitute part of the hearing. The CHAIRMAN. We only reached a decision that after we got through the present bill and present law we would then take it up if we decided to take it up, but everyone would be permitted to file a statement on the subject matter, and we are not going to schedule any witnesses unless we deem it advisable to do so after the hearings are finished on the present bill. If there is nothing further, we will begin the hearings. I want the record to show the statement that I have made and the bill that I have introduced, S. 1397. It is not necessary for me to read the statement. I introduced this bill by request. All amendments submitted to the Senate and referred will be printed in the appendix to this volume. (The bill referred to follows:)" [S. 1397, 82d Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To amend the Defense Production Act of 1950, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the “Defense Production Act Amendments of 1951". TITLE I-AMENDMENTS TO DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT OF 1950 SEC. 101. Section 102 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (Public Law 774, Eighty-first Congress) is amended by striking out the third sentence and inserting in lieu thereof the following sentences: "In making such designations the President may prescribe such conditions and exceptions with respect to the accumulation of materials in excess of the reasonable demands of business, personal, or home consumption as he deems necessary to carry out the objectives of this Act. This section shall not be construed to limit the authority contained in sections 101 and 704 of this Act." AUTHORITY TO REQUISITION AND CONDEMN SEC. 102. (a) Title II of the Defense Production Act of 1950 is amended by adding to the heading thereof the words "AND CONDEMN". (b) The first sentence of subsection (b) of section 201 of the Defense Production Act of 1950 is amended by striking out the word "title" and inserting in lieu thereof the word "section". (c) Title II of the Defense Production Act of 1950 is furthre amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: "SEC. 202. Whenever the President deems it necessary in the interest of national defense, he may acquire by purchase, donation, or other means of transfer, or may cause proceedings to be instituted in any court having jurisdiction of such proceedings to acquire by condemnation, any real property, including facilities, temporary use thereof, or other interest therein, together with any personal property located thereon or used therewith, that he deems necessary for the national defense, such proceedings to be in accordance with the Act of August 1, 1888 (25 Stat. 357), as amended, or any other applicable Federal statute. Upon or after the filing of the condemnation petition, immediate possession may be taken and the property occupied, used, and improved for the purpose of this Act, notwithstanding any other law. Property acquired by purchase, donation, or other means of transfer may be occupied, used, and improved, for the purposes of this section prior to the approval of title by the Attorney General as required by section 355 of the Revised Statutes, as amended." |