The excess-profits tax on business was continued for 6 months, to December 31, 1953, to coincide with the date of tax cuts for individuals and to bring in some $800 million of needed revenue to the United States Treasury.

Millions benefit from tax revision law Millions of persons and thousands of businesses will enjoy additional tax cuts under the far-reaching tax revision law the Republican 83d Congress enacted this year.

Over 60 percent-$827 million-of the $1.4 billion of tax relief provided in the law goes to individuals.

The first complete revision of the internal revenue laws in more than 75 years, the tax reform law represents the combined efforts of congressional committees and administration officials to simplify Federal tax laws, remove inequities, close loopholes, and stimulate the country's economic growth without at the same time endangering the Government's financial condition.

New tax features of particular benefit to Individuals include:

Larger deductions for medical expenses, affecting some 8,500,000 persons;

Tax deductions up to $600 for costs of care of dependents (child under 12 or other dependent mentally or physically unable to care for himself), affecting some 2,100,000 working people;

Fairer treatment of persons receiving retirement income, affecting some 1,800,000 people; more generous treatment of annuities, affecting some 800,000 people;

More liberalized deductions for dependents, affecting some 1,400,000 taxpayers;

More flexible provisions for depreciation, affecting some 9,600,000 persons;

Partial relief from double taxation of dividends, affecting some 7,100,000 of the 47 million taxpayers in this country;

More liberal deduction for interest under installment purchase contracts, affecting some 1,600,000 people; and

More liberal allowance for soil and water conservation expenses, affecting some 500,000 farmers.

Some $536 million in tax relief will flow to business under the new tax code. At the same time, Congress continued for 1 year the 52 percent tax on corporate earnings over $25,000 which, it is estimated, will bring in $1.2 billion in revenue.

Features of the new tax code designed to stimulate business growth and create jobs include:

More flexible provisions for depreciation, affecting some 600,000 corporations;

A longer period for applying net operating losses against profits and allowance for divident-received credit and percentage depletion in computing losses, affecting some 50,000 businesses;

An option to taxpayers to deduct research and experimentation costs from current expenses or to amortize the costs, affecting countless businesses;

Less stringent tax treatment of "surplus" earnings accumulated by businesses to allow business, especially small enterprises, greater freedom in retaining funds for growth and expansion;

Increased rates of percentage depletion on a variety of critical and strategic minerals in order to encourage the development of domestic sources of supply;

More equitable treatment of partnerships; and tax accounting in closer accord with business accounting.

Congress closed over 50 loopholes through which taxpayments had been avoided in the past and improved the law by many more technical provisions. Honesty and fairness replace corruption in tax collecting

Besides providing generous tax cuts for the American people, Republicans cleaned up the mess found in the Nation's tax collection agency, the Internal Revenue Service.

Shown to be riddled with corruption under the Democratic administration, the agency is now well on its way toward becoming a model of honesty and fairness under the Eisenhower administration. The crooks and grafters have been weeded out. Tax cases are being vigorously prosecuted.

The up-to-date business methods installed by Republicans are giving taxpayers quicker rulings, faster audits, and earlier refunds.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES TO HAVE GOOD HOMES OF THEIR OWN

The Republican 83d Congress has made it possible to help fulfill the fundamental desire of American families to have good

homes of their own.

Enactment of the Housing Act of 1954 and related laws constitute a program designed to meet the problems of housing, for both civilians and servicemen, while providing sound community development and maintaining a growing economy.

President Eisenhower asserted in his housing message to Congress last January 25 that the major objective of the Republican administration's national housing policy was "the development of conditions under which every American can obtain good housing." When he signed the new law August 2, he hailed the congressional action as "a major advance toward meeting America's housing needs."

Lower downpayments, longer periods to repay

The Republican-sponsored housing law permits lower downpayments, lower monthly payments, longer repayment terms of up to 30 years, and increased mortgage limits of up to $20,000. More money is made available for home loans by the merger of all FHA mortgage insurance activities into one authorization which was increased by $1.5 billion.

Under the new FHA-insured mortgage program, it is possible, for example, to buy a $9,000 new home for $450 down and monthly payments of $46.83.

This example of the new lower downpayment-in this case less than half the former downpayment rate-indicates how housing opportunities can open up in areas and for income groups never before reached. Mortgage amounts under the new law are now 95 percent of the first $9,000 of the value of a new home plus 75 percent of the value in excess of $9,000. A $12,000 home can be purchased for $1,200 down, instead of $2,400, with monthly payments of less than $60. Home buyers also are protected by guaranties required from builders or sellers using FHAinsured mortgages.

Housing actions result from intensive study Within a few weeks after taking office in 1953, the Republican Admininsration ordered a complete review of all Government housing activities and policies. A 23-member Presidential Advisory Committee on Housing was appointed. The Senate and House Banking and Currency Committees held extended hearings in the 1st session of the 83d Congress. These resulted in the Omnibus Housing Amendments of 1953, which encouraged construction of lower priced sale and rental housing and authorized construction of 33,000 public housing units. More than 1,100,000 new homes were constructed during the first year of the new administration. Then, with the study of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Commission, and testimony received by congressional committees, a broad-scale housing program has become law. This Housing Act of 1954 presents a coordinated pattern, instead of a patchwork of assorted housing laws.

Protections for home owners provided Also during the second session of this Congress, congressional committees unearthed a major scandal wherein many alleged irregularities and the taking of windfall profits were found to have occurred in

the administration of housing laws under the Truman administration. Republicans were determined to stop profiteering and other abuses and tightened up provisions of the 1954 law with this end in view. The law also provides protection to home owners from shoddy repair work by making lenders take part of the risk in each FHA-insured loan for home improvements or repairs. FHA cracked down on luxury repairs by issuing an order in June 1954 prohibiting loans for such purposes.

The new housing law includes a new element. This is the urban renewal program to save our cities by clearing slums and redeveloping blighted housing areas. Where salvage of blighted areas is impossible, slum clearance is promoted and families are provided with public housing. The law allows commitments for upwards of 35,000 such public housing units during the coming year for low-income families.

Early in 1954 the volume of private housing construction began to move ahead of 1953. In midsummer the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that for the first 6 months of this year 564,100 units had been completed, indicating that the 1954 rate may come close to the all-time record. Housing is geared into almost every industry in the country. These feeder industries cover the whole range of consumer durable goods. Taken as a whole, they add up to employment for some 5 million persons and a sound prosperous economy.

The long-standing concern for servicemen and their families received action by the Republican Congress in a new law authorizing up to $175 million for 13,613 units of family housing for personnel in the military services. The Secretary of Defense would certify the necessity for such housing to be provided by the military departments near military bases. Military statisticians estímated that the cost of the units would be amortized over a period of 14 years because no housing allowance would have to be paid for each family occupying the housing units that could be constructed under this law.

The Congress also authorized home and farmhouse loans to veterans and granted Korean war veterans the same preference as World War II veterans in admission to Government housing.

BUILDING THE NATION-DEVELOPING RESOURCES

Under Republicans, the Nation moved forward with a great program of public works and with outstanding measures to develop our natural resources.

The Republican Congress authorized over $1 billion for 183 navigation, flood control, and beach erosion projects throughout the Nation.

It approved the St. Lawrence seaway project.

The administration, through the Federal Power Commission, approved construction of the St. Lawrence River power project by the State of New York and the Province of Ontario. When completed, the project will generate the second largest amount of power of any similar project in the country.

The 83d Congress approved the largest Federal coast-to-coast roadbuilding and improvement program in history.

It authorized an $837 million military and naval public works construction program.

It modernized the Atomic Energy Act to speed up the development of nuclear energy for peacetime use.

It revised Federal land acts for a more economical development of mineral lands and other natural resources.

It authorized irrigation and reclamation projects.

It made surplus seed available for reseeding of rangelands.

It revised the Water Facilities Act to aid conservation of land throughout the United States, its Territories, and possessions.

The Republican Congress returned to the States their rights to submerged lands, but

retained for the Federal Government almost nine-tenths of the offshore lands and 83 percent of the estimated mineral deposits.

It provided for upstream watershed protection and flood prevention under local control, thereby helping reverse the 20-year trend toward a policy of having the Federal Government hand down decisions on what projects are needed and where.

It permitted the Federal Power Commission to license local public-utility districts and private power companies to pay for and construct their own power projects at no cost to the Federal Government. Such projects would be operated on a partnership basis with the Government, with the Army engineers handling navigation and flood-control features of such projects.

It authorized what potentially will be the third largest public power dam in the Nation-Priest Rapids Dam on the Columbia River. Construction of other dams also was authorized.

It authorized construction of new tankers for defense purposes.

It approved a modernization program for merchant ships and created a Federal Ship Mortgage Insurance Fund to facilitate private financing of new ship construction.

It approved a lease-purchase program whereby rent money may be used for eventual purchase of Government buildings, saving taxpayers millions of dollars in outlays for new post offices and other Federal structures.

It approved legislation for various services to improve public lands.

The President proposed a vast $50 billion national road-building program, most of which would be self-financing.

Platform pledge on resource development fulfilled

The record of this Congress in the fields of public works, natural resources, and water policy fulfilled in detail the promises in the Republican platform adopted in 1952. For example, the platform stated: "We favor restoration to the States of their rights to all lands and resources beneath navigable inland and offshore waters within their historic boundaries." This was done.

In the first session, two long-standing and important questions relating to use of submerged lands and the historic rights of States were resolved. The Submerged Lands Act of 1953 confirmed the ownership, title rights, development rights, and leasing rights of States to the lands and resources under navigable waters out to their historic boundaries. The Federal Government's authority is preserved in the case of navigation, commerce, national defense, and related matters. Another new law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, extended the jurisdiction and control of the Federal Government to the subsoil and seabed of the entire Continental Shelf adjacent to the shore of the United States.

The Federal Aid to Highways Act authorizes a 2-year program of $1.9 billion in Federal aid for building, improving, and modernizing roads in every State. It will make possible the improvement of about 40,000 miles of highways; stimulate the Nation's economy through additional employment and increase business for manufacturers of road building materials and equipment; strengthen national defense; it means less traffic congestion and safer travel. In July 1954, the President proposed a $50 billion contruction and modernization program for the Nation's highways. The plan is based on a system of properly articulated highways that is intended to help solve the problems of speedy, safe

transcontinental travel and intercity communication, plus a financing proposal based on self-liquidation of each project where that is possible.

Dream of seaway to Atlantic Ocean realized

The dream of an all-water route from the Atlantic through the Great Lakes to the

Midwest for most oceangoing ships was realized in the St. Lawrence seaway legislation. Increased expansion in commerce and trade will in all probability run into the billions. The seaway will bolster the line of communication in our national defense system. Cost of the project is to be financed by bonds which will be paid off by tolls.

The omnibus rivers and harbors and flood control bill authorized more than $1 billion for 105 navigation projects at an estimated cost of $319.2 million, 56 flood-control projects at $413.3 million, 22 beach-erosioncontrol projects at a cost of $14 million, and modifications for a variety of existing projects. Almost every area of the Nation is benefitted by the law.

The Republicans gave more impetus than ever before to the development of atomic energy for peacetime use by our people. The Congress passed legislation bringing the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 up to date for the common defense of free nations, for the promotion of peacetime uses, and to meet other realistic and fast-moving developments in the fields of nuclear energy. The act permits limited exchange with United States allies of information about atomic developments and authorizes and encourages atomic development by private industry. The Atomic Energy Commission is permitted to dispose of electric energy it produces in the course of its own operations, but not to produce electricity for commercial purposes unless authorized by Congress. Private industry will be permitted to use atomic re

actors and related facilities under a licensing system. The Congress expressed its belief that atomic power at competitive and consequently lower cost could be reached more quickly if private enterprise were encouraged to participate. The AEC entered into an agreement with the Westinghouse Co. to develop and build an atomic powerplant near Pittsburgh. The Duquesne Light Co., a privately owned public utility serving the Pittsburgh area, was licensed to operate the atomic generating station, paying the Government for the atomic heat generated at the Westinghouse plant. The heat would be used to make electricity. The AEC also announced it was negotiating with a private utility in the South to furnish AEC with power. The AEC in turn would feed the power to TVA which is running short of electricity because of atomic demands. The AEC also entered into a contract with North American Aviation for an atomic power test plant near Los Angeles.

REPUBLICAN ACHIEVEMENTS BENEFIT WORKERS Without fanfare and without the aid of a lot of new laws, the Republican administration set a record of substantial achievements benefiting workers throughout the Nation.

Foremost among these was the successful transition from a war to peace economy without serious effects on the workers. The picture for the first half of 1954 shows that after a slight dip in economic activity, prices were stabilized, industrial production raised above 125 percent of the 1947-49 base of 100, employment pushed to 62 million, and personal income headed for an annual total of $285.5 billion, over three-quarters of a billion better than the same period in 1953 which was the most prosperous year in American history. Extremes of inflation and deflation, most harmful to wage earners, were avoided by Government policies and activities.

Where employment difficulties arose, as in scattered pockets of labor surplus areas, the

administration moved swiftly to meet them with a corrective program. The Labor Department gathered and analyzed data from 150 labor market areas, pinpointing those in need of aid. The Commerce Department set up a development division to aid depressed areas in locating new industries and launching new products. The Small Business Administration set up by the 83d Con

gress increased its loans to small business, helped small producers to bid on defense work, and pressed prime contractors to subcontract work to small firms. The Office of Defense Mobilization modified its manpower policies to help absorb unemployment and eased tax amortization procedures to aid firms in depressed areas. Special "set asides" in defense procurement were held open for firms having idle capacity and surplus labor.

Unemployment compensation reserve

established

Congress strengthened the Federal-State providing for a $200 million reserve out of system of unemployment compensation by unemployment tax revenues and earmarking this reserve for loans to States. In addition, the excess tax revenues will be returned to the States to stimulate them to provide larger benefits. Since Republicans took office in January 1953, 25 States (19 with Republican administrations, 6 with Democratic) have increased their unemployment insurance benefits. These actions, supplemented by substantial tax cuts, price stability, and general stimulation of the economy, prevented these pockets of labor surplus from resulting in severe hardships to workers and communities or endangering a sound economy during the changeover from war to peace.

Making good on the Republican pledge to encourage an era of industrial peace, the President announced a policy of keeping the Government out of labor disputes and the administration moved to restore collective

bargaining to full force and effect. It ended wage controls, releasing the backlog of negotiated wage increases blocked by Government regulations under the previous administration. The National Labor Relations Board speeded up its procedures for handling elections, settling labor disputes, and disposing of cases of unfair labor practices; while the Labor Department increased its disposition of wage violation cases under the Davis-Bacon Act.

Taft-Hartley Act changes stymied by
Democratic votes

The Republican administration proposed and Congress carefully considered over a score of improvements in the Taft-Hartley Act which experience had indicated were fair and necessary, but Democrats in the Senate killed the legislation. By voting solidly to send the bill back to committee, Senate Democrats clearly labeled their action as political in order to discredit the law and to save the issue for another Democratic Party bid for the favor of labor leaders in future campaigns. Yet the law had been passed originally over President Truman's veto with Democratic support in both Houses, had not been repealed afterward by two Democratic-controlled Congresses, and has for more than 6 years successfully safeguarded the rights of union members against labor bosses and management alike.

Under the act strike losses to workers have been greatly reduced, collective bargaining strengthened, and the growth of labor unions stimulated. As late as last fall at its St. Louis convention, it was announced that the A. F. of L. had a million and a half more members than it had in 1952; while President Walter Reuther announced to the CIO convention in November that "The CIO • • is at the strongest point in its history, both in respect to the size of our membership and our financial structure."

The administration alded labor in many other respects. A new clause was put into effect in all Government and defense contracts eliminating discriminations on account of race, religion, color, or national origin in the recruitment, employment, pay, training, and promotion of employees. The cost of living has been kept down and tax reductions amounting to more than $7.4 billion in 1954 practically amount to a raise in

pay for all workers, with a large number of additional benefits going to workers in taxrevision legislation. Average hourly and weekly wages are again rising. Social security has been broadened and benefits increased. Congress enacted an expanded program of vocational rehabilitation which in 5 years will raise the number of disabled persons restored to self-supporting lives from the present 60,000 to 200,000 per year.

REPUBLICANS BOLSTER THE NATION'S FARM
ECONOMY

In policy and action the 83d Congress and the Eisenhower administration fully recognized the importance of farmers and farming to the national welfare.

The agricultural progress record is impressive. Chief among the accomplishments was the slowing of the decline in farm pricesa decline that registered its greatest drop during the last 2 years of the Truman administration.

From February 1951 to January 1953, just before Republicans took control of the Government, the farm price average dropped 17 percent. Since then, there has been a further trend downward from the war and postwar price peaks, but the decline has been held to less than 8 percent.

The Congress and administration together have acted to strengthen the farm economy in the following ways:

1. Developed, with the cooperation of farmers, farm organization leaders, landgrant colleges, and others, new farm pricesupport program keyed to peacetime conditions and directed toward assuring agriculture its rightful share of the national income while preserving the American farmer's traditional independence and initiative.

2. Reduced taxes and changed certain tax law provisions to make them more equitable to farmers.

3. Expanded both off-farm and on-farm grain storage, essential to the proper functioning of price-support operations.

4. Launched a large-scale farm-surplus disposal program in an effort to move some of the surplus into stomachs, instead of storage.

5. Provided far more than did the preceding Democratic Congress and administration for REA loan funds for extension of rural electrification and telephones.

6. Stepped up soil-, water-, and forestconservation work.

7. Gave generous assistance to droughtstricken farmers and stockmen in the Southwestern States in the form of credit, low-cost feed, hay, and reduced rail rates.

8. Stabilized cattle prices by the purchase of 250 million pounds of beef in 1953 and programs to stimulate beef consumption.

9. Sent special trade missions abroad to explore possibilities of expanding United States agricultural trade.

10. Supported continued United States participation in revised International Wheat Agreement with an average increase in price of 25 cents a bushel for wheat.

11. Intensified agricultural research and education activities.

12. Increased the 1954 national cottonacreage allotment to 21.4 million acres, to alleviate hardship on many cotton farms that would have resulted from the 18-million-acre allotment required under previous legislation.

13. Reorganized the Agriculture Department to effect better supervision, coordination, and review of farm problems and also established the National Agricultural Advisory Commission to advise the Secretary of Agriculture.

President Eisenhower and his Secretary of Agriculture carried out fully the President's assurances at the outset of his administration to support existing agricultural laws, including continuance through 1954 of price supports on basic commodities at 90 percent

of parity. However, in transmitting to Congress on January 11, 1954, his recommendations for a new farm program, President Eisenhower observed:

"Present laws discourage increased consumption of wheat, corn, cotton, and vegetable oils, and encourage their excessive production. The huge and growing surpluses held by the Government act as a constant threat to normal markets for these products. Thus, present law produces results which in turn are hurtful to those whom the laws are intended to help. Partly because of these excessive stocks, farm income has fallen steadily over the past 3 years."

The President recommended flexible-in place of rigid-price supports for the basic commodities, with adjustment to the flexible program to be accomplished gradually in the interest of both the farmers and the Nation's economy as a whole. Congress responded with legislation adhering in principle to the flexible-support provisions of the bipartisan Agricultural Acts of 1948 and 1949, but which the Democratic 81st and 82d Congresses did not permit to take effect.

Under the new legislation, the Agricultural Act of 1954, mandatory price support for the 1955 crop of five basic commoditieswheat, corn, cotton, rice, and peanuts-will be within a range of 822 to 90 percent of parity, depending upon the supply outlook for each commodity. Tobacco price support will be maintained at 90 percent of parity as long as marketing quotas are in effect.

Senator AIKEN, chairman of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, said the minimum level of support for the basic commodities next year, in view of the supply situation, would be: tobacco, 90 percent; cotton, 90 percent; rice, 89 percent; corn, 90 percent; peanuts, 86 percent; and wheat, 822 percent.

Nonbasic commodities for which price support is required are milk and butterfat and their products, at levels between 75 and 90 percent of parity necessary to assure adequate supplies; honey and tung nuts, at 60 to 90 percent of parity, and wool including mohair.

Price support for wool and mohair is designed to increase production. For wool, support is to be established at a level necessary to encourage production of 300 million pounds of shorn wool annually. For mohair, it is to be at the parity percentage necessary to obtain a desired level of yearly production.

The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, but not required, to support other nonbasic commodities at variable levels.

The law also provides for a gradual transition after January 1, 1956, from the "old parity" to the "modernized parity" formula in computing parity prices for the basic commodities to which the "modernized parity" formula does not now apply.

Among other provisions in the Agricultural Act of 1954 are incentives for good and proper land use practices and the transfer of agricultural attachés in foreign countries from the State Department to the Deparment of Agriculture.

On the Rural Electrification Administration programs, the Republican record was considerably better than that of the Democrats in the preceding Congress. For the 2 fiscal years 1954 and 1955 the Republican 83d Congress approved total loan authorizations for the electric program, including continThe gency authorizations, of $350 million. 82d Congress, under Democratic control, voted total loan authorizations for this program, including contingency authorizations, of only $275 million.

REA electric loans, in the first full fiscal year under the Republican administration ending June 30, 1954, totaled $167,104,100 compared with $164,972,662 for fiscal 1953.

The fiscal 1955 regular loan authorization for the REA telephone program of $75 million voted by the 83d Congress is the highest for any single year since the start of this program in 1950. The amount authorized for fiscal year 1954 for telephone loans, $67.5 million, was the second highest for any 1 year. Fiscal year 1954 telephone loans totaled $74,712,000, compared with $41,727,000 made by the Truman administration in fiscal 1953.

These figures make a mockery of the claim of critics that Republicans are unsympathetic to REA.

Two important agricultural conservation measures enacted by the 83d Congress were extension of the Water Facilities Act, heretofore applicable only to 17 Western States, to all of the United States, its Territories and Possessions, and the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act.

Both enable and encourage expansion of conservation and improved use of America's two greatest natural resources-soil and water.

Aids to farmers in tax laws

Tax laws enacted by the 83d Congress are of benefit to farmers and farm families in a number of ways. Under the tax revision law, farmers can claim a $600 dependency deduction for a child regardless of the child's earnings if such dependent is receiving onthe-farm training and the farmer continues to furnish more than half of his support.

The revision law also allows for farmers: Deductions up to 25 percent of farm income for soil and water conservation expenses;

More rapid writeoff of the cost of new depreciable assets-farm machinery, equipment, etc. Under the declining balance method of depreciation now permitted, the farmer can write off in the first year twice the amount allowed under the straight-line method;

Removal of the tax on proceeds from sale of cattle when the sale is necessitated by disease, provided the proceeds are reinvested in cattle within 1 year after the close of the taxable year.

Previously where a farmer did not file a declaration of estimated tax by January 15, he had to file his final income-tax return by January 31. This deadline is now extended to February 15. Also, where a farmer files a declaration by January 15, his final return is now not due until April 15.

are

Farmers' accounting requirements eased to permit the use of the farmer-preferred hybrid bookkeeping system.

Another Republican-passed tax law provides for rapid amortization of farm grainstorage facilities. Whereas before such facilities could be amortized only over their "useful life," this now can be done over a 5-year period. This provision was included in the Technical Changes Act of 1953 (P. L. 287, approved Aug. 15, 1953), which was reenacted by the tax-revision law. REPUBLICANS SET NEW LANDMARKS IN CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

The Republican Party has been traditionally the party of civil and political rights. In 1953-54 the frontier of progress in these basic rights moved forward.

The historic United States Supreme Court decision of May 17, 1954, outlawing segregation in the Nation's public elementary and high schools set another great landmark.

Under the Republican pledge to press for equality of rights of all citizens of every race, color, and creed, the Justice Department filed a brief and a Justice Department official appeared before the United States Supreme Court on December 8, 1953, to urge, in behalf of the Republican administration, that the Court find public school segregation to be in violation of the 14th amendment to the Constitution. The decision of the Court was unanimous.

Among the forthright actions taken by the administration since it took office in January 1953 was that of eliminating segregation in the Armed Forces. That action was coupled with the abolition of segregation in military post schools and among civilian employees in military and naval installations and in Federal civilian employment.

A Government Contract Committee has been established to promote equal job opportunities on all Government work done by private industries. This is a direct effort to prevent discrimination among employees of those industries engaged in Government work.

The Veterans' Administration was ordered to eliminate segregation in all veterans' hospitals as rapidly as possible without sacrificing medical considerations. That program is well on its way to fulfillment.

Various steps have been taken to eliminate segregation in the Nation's Capital. The Department of Justice argued successfully in the case of a restaurant before the Supreme Court with the result that all restaurants and public places in the District of Columbia are now open to all persons. Since the Supreme Court's May 17 decision, plans have been initiated by District of Columbia officials to bring segregation to an end in their schools, city playgrounds, institutions, and agencies.

Negroes receive important posts Negroes have been given high political appointments in the Republic administration, including delegate to United Nations; legal counsel, Post Office Department; minority groups consultant, Labor Department; member, Caribbean Commission; Ambassador to Liberia; adviser and consultant, War Claims Commission; member, Federal Parole Board; Register, Treasury Department; adviser on business affairs, Commerce Department; Special Assistant to Commissioner of Public Housing on Racial Affairs; Advisory Committee on Government Housing Policies and Programs; member, International Development Advisory Board; assistant counsel, Foreign Operations Administration; Governor of Virgin Islands; Assistant Secretary, Labor Department; head of United States Educational Mission to Afghanistan; National Board of Field Advisers to Small Business Administration; member of Board of Foreign Scholarships; and in many other departments and agencies.

The 83d Congress passed legislation to remove certain restrictions against Indians and to give them more rights of American citizenship. Public Law 281 gives the Indians personal-property rights whereby they may sell or buy without permission of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Public Law 280 provides that Indians can obtain the same rights as others in civil and criminal cases. Indians are also permitted to negotiate their own land leases.

The Federal Voting Assistance Act of 1954 makes it possible for members of the Armed Forces and civilians serving overseas to vote in national and State elections provided they are qualified voters in their respective States.

Solid Democratic Party opposition defeated the passage of a bill to give the vote to 18year-old citizens.

Statehood for Hawail was voted but blocked by Democratic Party tactics in the Senate tying statehood for Alaska in the same bill, despite the fact that Alaska and Hawaii present entirely different problems of statehood. BETTER

HEALTH, EDUCATION, WELFARE, AND
SOCIAL SECURITY

To expedite and improve human welfare and social progress many agencies operating in these fields were drawn into a new Health, Education, and Welfare Department with Cabinet status. For the first time, all such problems are receiving systematic and comprehensive study instead of piecemeal consideration.

Education

tricts which are overcrowded because of FedRecognizing Federal responsibility in diseral activities, the 83d Congress provided financial aid for school construction. Congress also continued to July 1, 1956, Federal aid in the maintenance and operation of schools in these areas. These funds will cover the expenses of about 1 million school children.

The Office of Education was authorized to contract and cooperate with universities, colleges, and State educational agencies for research, surveys, and demonstrations, and to establish a nine-member National Advisory Committee to aid in supervising educational problems. A $1 million fund was approved for allotment to States for conferences on educational problems preliminary to a White House conference scheduled for November 30, 1955.

Health

To safeguard the Nation's health the HillBurton Act was extended to 1957 and expanded for hosptal facilities for the aged, chronically ill, and phsyically disabled.

It

A broader program of vocational rehabilitation has been established to increase State financing and activities, and to encourage closer Federal-State-local cooperation. includes the training of doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, rehabilitation counselors, psychologists, and social workers. Increased emphasis is placed on improvedment of rehabilitation techniques and special facilities such as community workshops, speech and hearing clinics, and initial staffing of such facilities.

Increased grants were made for research on cancer, heart, mental health, and arthritis. A new clinical center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., was opened with 500 beds to seek cures for such diseases.

As a health protective measure, Congress passed a law specifically giving the Food and Drug Administration power to inspect factories where pharmaceutical and food products are manufactured.

The Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center was opened for the purpose of research in the public sanitation field.

Social security

Welfare

AID TO VETERANS

pendents faster, better service at less overhead cost.

Among the more important specific benefits given to our veterans was the increase in compensation payments to those with service-connected disabilities as well as an increase in the monthly payments to widows and dependent parents of veterans. Nonservice-connected disability pensions were also increased.

The 83d Congress extended to July 1, 1955, the act providing for Federal contributions of dependency allotments for more than 1 million enlisted personnel. Over 11,000 Korean war prisoners and soldiers missing in action were benefited for a period well beyond the truce by extension of the Missing Persons Act to July 1, 1955, providing for a continuance of pay checks and family allotments. Privileges of soldiers overseas to send home gifts duty-free and bring back their personal possessions free of duty were extended for another 2 years.

The Congress increased by $100 million the revolving fund to finance direct Veterans' Administration loans to war veterans unable to finance home and farmhouse loans through private lending sources.

Under the old-age and survivors insurance system, military personnel under certain circumstances are provided wage credits for active duty without payment to the OASI fund.

Congress simplified the handling of veterans' life insurance policies, giving better protection for the insured veteran as well as realizing savings of about $600,000 a year through less paperwork.

A law was passed which provides that all types of tuberculosis among veterans causing 10 percent disability within 3 years of discharge is presumed to be service-connected.

Korean War veterans were granted the same preferences as World War II veterans in war housing, in civil-service appointments, and in free postage service. Time has been extended for Korean veterans to initiate training under the GI bill of rights.

Funds for hospital beds largest ever voted

To take care of the ever-increasing load of hospitalized veterans and to provide them with adequate facilities, the Congress enacted the largest appropriation ever provided for a total of 114,415 beds, the highest number the VA feels it can use and staff properly.

Federal payments for each veteran cared for in a State soldiers' home have been increased.

Under appropriations passed all veterans' hospitals will continue to operate. Since January 1953, new veterans' hospitals have been opened at Birmingham, Ala; Syracuse, N. Y.; and Durham, N. C. Further, a portion of the new hospital at West Haven, Conn., providing 396 beds for tuberculosis cases, has been opened and the hospital at Indianapolis, Ind., has been converted to a tuberculosis hospital.

Construction was completed on hospitals at Chicago and Oklahoma City as well as at Minneapolis. New hospitals are being built and completed at Ann Arbor, Mich.; Brockton, Mass.; Chicago; Cincinnati; New York City; two at Pittsburgh; at St. Louis, Mo.; Salisbury, N. C.; and Los Angeles. Additions are being made to existing hospitals in Dallas and Houston, Tex., and conversion projects started on the hospitals at West Roxbury, Mass.; Dearborn, Mich.; and Jefferson Barracks, Mo. Additional hospitals are being planned for early construction at Cleveland; San Francisco; and Topeka, Kans. REPUBLICAN ACTION ON THE COMMUNIST ISSUE The Republican 83d Congress, acting in concert with the Eisenhower administration, was able to put the full weight of the Federal Government behind the effort to deal with communism as a domestic issue in the United States. Action has been vigorous and results tangible.

With the threat of Communist domination hanging over the entire world, Americans

sometimes forget that for 20 years the Republicans with the aid of those Democrats who had not surrendered to the New Deal fought this battle. Never in control of the executive branch, and always a minority in the National Legislature-except during the 80th Congress-it was a ceaseless Republican effort that brought about the great exposures and forced through the first installments of remedial legislation. The breaking of the Alger Hiss case was a Republican achievement. So was the William Remington case. The revelation of the destruction of subversive records in the armed services was brough about by Republicans. When a journalist's beat revealed that there was a secret military directive permitting the commissioning of Communists in the Army, it was the Republica attack that forced the Truman administration to cancel the order. In the field of legislation it was the Republicans who passed the Taft-Hartley Act-with its non-Communist oath over Truman's veto. What eventually became the Internal Security Act of 1950 was initiated by Republicans during the 80th Congress, and it was Republican determination that provided the pressure to pass the final act over the Truman veto.

With the installation of the Eisenhower administration, action on the Communist issue began at once. The Truman Loyalty Order (Executive Order 9835 of March 21, 1947) was revoked and on April 29, 1953, the President issued a new order completely reorganizing security procedures. The executive branch moved forward using existing law. The Congress pushed on with investigations of infiltration and simultaneously began the consideration of new laws.

A series of measures, passed by both Houses and sent to the President, strengthens the hand of the executive in combating the Communist conspiracy in this country. These measures include:

1. S. 3706, which outlaws the Communist Party and provides for the determination of the identity of certain Communist-infiltrated organizations was passed with almost unanimous support of both parties in the House and Senate.

2. S. 16, which makes possible the granting of immunity to witnesses testifying before congressional committees. Under this measures subversives will no longer find an easy refuge in the fifth amendment. Furthermore, witnesses who otherwise might be perfectly willing to testify but who dread penalties, are now encouraged to give evidence that will throw additional light on the conspiracy.

3. H. R. 7486, which imposes heavier penalties for concealing persons from arrest. Only light penalties could be imposed upon the four Communists who concealed Robert Thompson in the Sierra Mountains for months before the FBI ran him to ground. Thompson was one of the 11 Communist leaders convicted in 1949 in the first Smith Act trial. Under the new measure much stiffer penalties can be imposed for harboring fugitives.

4. H. R. 8658, which imposes heavier penalties on bail jumpers. The genesis of this measure was the Gerhardt Eisler case. Eisler, a top Communist agent, escaped from New York on the Polish ship Batory after he had been indicted for passport violation.

5. H. R. 9909, known as the Alger Hiss bill. The measure denies a Government pension or retirement benefits to any Government employee convicted of a felony.

Still another measure, approved by the President July 29, 1954, amended the Internal Security Act by requiring that all printing presses owned or controlled by Communists must be registered with the Attorney General.

Meantime investigations were continued by congressional committees. The most sensational single revelation was the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee's disclosure

Proof that the exploration of the past is still a hot issue was shown by the fact that during the year 1953, no fewer than 305 witnesses before congressional committees invoked the 5th amendment. A substantial number would not answer questions about their past affiliations. During the 2d session of this 83d Congress, 27 recalcitrant witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Committee were cited for contempt of Congress; 5 such witnesses before the Senate Committee on Government Operations were cited.

While these efforts were being pursued in Congress, the executive branch was pressing action under already existing law. A new Division of Internal Security has been set up in the Justice Department, in charge of an Assistant Attorney General. This Division will have the handling of all court proceedings in matters affecting internal security.

Since January 1953, 50 high-ranking Communists have been convicted under the Smith Act, which provides drastic penalties for those advocating the overthrow of government by force and violence. During the same period since January, 1953-three Communist leaders have been convicted of filing false affidavits under the non-Communist oath section of the Taft-Hartley Act. Four more are under indictment and are about to go to trial.

The Subversive Activities Control Board, operating under the provisions of the Internal Security Act, held lengthy hearings and finally issued an order requiring the Communist Party to register the names of its officers and members with the Attorney General. The Communists appealed the order and the decision of the United States Court of Appeals has yet to be announced. Meantime, after other hearings, the Board ordered the Labor Youth League to register as a Communist-front organization.

In addition to the various types of action enumerated above some 2,400 security risks were weeded out from Federal employment between January 1953 and June 30, 1954. As of August 16, 1954, 105 alien subversives had been deported since January 1953 and, in addition, 355 new deportation proceedings and warrants for arrest had been issued against alien subversives.

CLEANING UP THE MESS

The Republican Party, when it came into office in January 1953, inherited a mess. Members of the Truman administration had been convicted of fraud. The involvement of no less than 14 Government officials in instances of favoritism and influence had been exposed. Members of Truman's official family had accepted valuable gifts; mink-coat and deep-freeze scandals had disgusted the Nation. Hundreds of Federal employees had been caught trying to improve their private fortunes through their positions on the public payroll. Ten Federal agencies were entangled in shadowy manipulations.

There were 78 headlined scandals in the Agriculture Department, 48 in the Internal Revenue Bureau, 19 in the Defense Department, 10 in the RFC, 9 in the Justice Department, 5 in the Post Office Department.

Machinations of influence peddlers had spread through the land. Mixed up in the awarding of many Government loans and contracts were corrupt political bosses and underworld characters.

Pledge to oust crooks kept

In their 1952 platform, the Republicans pledged to put an end to corruption, to oust the crooks and grafters, and to restore honest government to the people.

That pledge is being kept. Under leadership intent upon exposing rather than covering up corruption, the Congress and the Executive are cooperating in providing the kind of government in which decent citizens can take pride.

The Internal Revenue Bureau is one Government agency which has felt the impact of this teamwork. Following the exposé of malpractice, unheeded by the Truman administration, a total of 388 revenue officials were separated and 60 convicted in the year 1953 alone. Even a former Commissioner, topman of the Bureau, Joseph D. Nunan, Jr., has been found guilty of cheating the Government of $91,000 on his own income taxes and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

By the end of 1953, Attorney General Brownell had referred 614 tax-evasion cases for prosecution, cases which had been hidden in desk drawers during the previous administration. Many of the tax cases involved tax exemption of racketeers who had made campaign contributions to Democrats. One such case resulted in a 5-year prison term for Frank Costello, infamous New York racketeer of the Truman era. Another was the case of the notorious underworld character, Frank Cammarata, whose income-tax delinquency was whitewashed by New DealFair Deal officials for 8 years.

The Senate Banking Committee has uncovered enormous windfall profits under the Federal Housing Administration's construction program. Top Truman officials in the FHA, including Assistant Commissioner Clyde L. Powell and General Counsel Burton C. Bovard, have been fired.

Use of restricted information uncovered The use of restricted information by Truman officials for financial gain has been uncovered. A high Agricultural Department official, Jack Cowart, accepted shares of stock in a company having dealings with the Department; Cowart has been found guilty of perjury in connection with this irregularity. Steps have been taken to strengthen the conflict-of-interests law, which is intended to prevent Federal officials from serving the interests of themselves and friends when their official responsibility is to serve the interests of the Government.

A searching inquiry by the Senate Agriculture Committee uncovered many irregu larities in the Commodity Credit Corporation during the Truman administration. As of January 1, 1954, shortages involved some $11,310,000. The Republican administration, in its first few weeks in office, discovered in the CCC books some 70 shortages which occurred during New Deal-Fair Deal days.

E. Merl Young, of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, peddled influence; Young has been convicted of perjury. An investigation by a Senate committee disclosed that the RFC Board of Directors poured about $4 million into an obviously bankrupt firm; this is still under investigation. The RFC has been abolished.

Nine indicted in surplus ship deal Nine individuals have been indicted in a crooked surplus ship deal.

The Senate Judiciary Committee found in the Office of Alien Property a number of employees who were on the subversive list. It also found irregularities. One alien businessman was found to have been drawing a salary of $97,000 a year from a defunct company.

The Republican administration exposed a cash-for-leave scheme which was operated in the previous administration. It was discovered that more than 50 employees of the Rent Stabilization Office had been fired for bookkeeping purposes as of a certain