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Show pnl IN A RULING which may have far reaching r e p e r cusslons, Speaker Sam Rayburn of the house of representatives has barred "television "tele-vision and radio broadcasts of the proceedings of house committee hearings. Since the speaker's word is final in interpreting house rules, unless overruled by a majority vote of the house Itself, It is likely that his decision will stand for this session ses-sion of the congress. . Republicans in the house led by minority leader Joseph W. Martin, Jr., and Congressman Paul W. Sha-fer Sha-fer of Michigan, immediately charged the speaker with "administration "adminis-tration censorship." The speaker told newsmen his ruling applied not only to "live" radio and TV coverage of hearings, but to tape recordings, TV filming and newsreel coverage as well, but not to "still" news photographs. ' While the speaker's ruling does not affect the senate, last week Senator Herman Welker, Republican, Repub-lican, Idaho, a freshman senator and a member of the senate crime committee which has been investigating investi-gating crime in the District of Columbia, Co-lumbia, fired a broadcast at his colleagues for making a "spectacle" "spec-tacle" of the proceedings of the senate commltteees, and violating the civil rights and the rights of privacy of witnesses before these committees. After charging that the senate probe committees had no rules of demeanor and were governed by no rules of law, that they admitted hearsay evidence and conclusion of witnesses in violation of all the rules of jurisprudence, that the witnesses wit-nesses were subject to the whims of the senators on the committees invading the constitutional rights of citizens, Senator Welker said: "I say there has been too much mugging mug-ging on the part of many senators who have enjoyed this limelight of being on the television and before the radio audience, and I say it is about time to get back to fundamental funda-mental justice, and decency, and get some courtroom judicial demeanor de-meanor Into this matter." Both house and senate armed services committees have now approved ap-proved a similar universal military training bill. The house committee report said the bill would save the nation $13 billion dollars a year once the plan was in full operation. Without UMT. the report said, the national security would require a standing force of 3,700,000 service-men, service-men, plus 1,000,000 active reservists. reserv-ists. With UMT, It said the standing stand-ing force could be reduced to 2,000.-000 2,000.-000 and the reserve upped to 2,500,-000. 2,500,-000. As the bill came from the senate sen-ate committeee, S-2441, It provides for six months military training and TA years reserve service for all able-bodied 18-year-olds. Major difference dif-ference between the house and senate sen-ate bill is that the latter would require re-quire selection of trainees by lottery, lot-tery, while the house bill called for selection by local draft boards. Little was done on the floor of either house of the congress and at one point Senator Joseph O'Ma-honey, O'Ma-honey, Wyoming, felt called upon to apologize to the spectators in the galleries. Said Senator O'Ma-honey: O'Ma-honey: "The reason the seats are empty today Is principally because all the Republican senators who were honoring Lincoln have not yet returned, and Democratic senators, who are about to travel to the four ends of the continental United States to honor Jefferson and Jackson, Jack-son, are getting their bags packed to depart." Because of the tactics of some of the members of the promoting committee, com-mittee, the citizens committee for the Hoover report has time and again been charged with playing politics with some of its recommendations. recom-mendations. So in a conference the committee decided to dissolve and quit "to avoid becoming involved in politics." The committee has seen about SS per cent of its recommendations rec-ommendations enacted into law and plans one more drive to revamp the government personnel system. Dr. Robert L. Johnson, national chairman and president of Temple university, said the group would disband May 31. The Truman administration ad-ministration has approved most of the recommendations of the Hoover commission which brought out its report for reorganization of the executive ex-ecutive branch of the federal government gov-ernment in 1949. |