| Show WEEK 0 W ashington 00 .00 6000000000000006 passage billiey billivy by y th the a h house IOUs of the 56 billion mi military itao a ailiprbpha 1 pibpiia tions eions bill the largest arget in peacetime history with th only two idad idld d S senting nting anting votes another 1 .1 smear 11 by senator Se flator joseph mccarthy in which afe hfe h6 ha again charges 29 state department employees wih varying degrees of disloyalty and debate over the foreign assistance appropriation biu bill were highlights of the washington scene but despite the seeming unanimity in the house there is in the senate some indication that republican policy may call for a showdown show down and a ceiling on basic defense policies the ile new tug of war may come behind the closed door of the senate appropriations committee hearing the house bill testimony it may take the form of a rehash re hash of the controversy over the relative strength of the air ground forces and navy or it may seek to set a ceiling on defense spending the GOP forces are taking into consideration the fact that at least 10 billion more tor for defense will be asked for this year by the truman administration behind the scenes in this congress a deep rooted struggle goes on on two fronts one is between the power lobbyists hobbyists and the federal government over a national public power policy and the second between the states and the federal government over control of billions of dollarson dollarsof dollars dollar sof of reserve oil beneath coa coastal stal waters aters more commonly known as the Tide tidelands lanos oil battle the word vmra amra tiaelan& tl delands however ev er isa isamisnojner m1snq er since there is no controversy over actual tidelands delands tl that Is the water between high and low t tides des or in the rivers harbors or bays what actually Is involved is the oil beneath the water from low tide seaward to the three mile limit and in some instances farther out the supreme court in three decisions involving california texas and louisiana has ruled the federal government is now and has been at all times pertinent hereto possessed of paramount rights in and full power and dominion over the lands minerals and other things under lying etc in the case of california the court ruled the federal government controlled con trollo the waters out to the three mile limit in the case of texas the court held the government has ha authority over 70 to 125 miles mile to the outer edge of the continental shelf f in the louisiana case the ruling was 2t at miles seaward the government never pressed its rights until a critical shortage of oil reserves caused the USA to became an importing nation bringing oil in from venezuela and the far east secretary of interior oscar chapman says there Is to in reserve in the gulf of mexico 14 proved fields 280000000 barrels of oil and in california coastal fields 156000000 barrels in event of war the nation faces a shortage of 500000 bar dels of oil a day chapman told a senate committee question now Is can congress override a supreme court ruling and make it stick unconstitutional or not the courts ruling was based primarily on the tact fact that international law governs the seas and congress cannot give quit claim deeds to states to own rn the land because ownership flows nows from the common law whereas the paramo paramount unt right of the federal government under the court decision flows from international law one thing appears certain if the measure giving title to the states is passed pawed the president will willagain again veto the measure as he ddduring did dd during the last congress and it is doubtful if it can be passed over his veto an impending battle royal is forecast when the resolution introduced trod uced by senator benton connecticut virtu virtually virtuall all ousting senator mccarthy trom from the senate gets to the floor or even comes out of committee there was some surprise even when the senate accepted the elections committee subcommittee sub report investigating the election of senator john butler of maryland the report contained about four pages of bitter denunciation of the role played by senator mccarthy in what the report called a despicable back street weet election |
