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Show PASSAGE of the so-called Harris natural gas bill which takes the regulation of natural gas prices out from control of the Inter-State Commerce Commission, and hands it over to the various State Public Pub-lic Service Commissions for control, con-trol, will do three things: (1) It will undoubtedly Increase the price of natural gas to some 25,000,000 consumers eventually; (2) It will likely cause a split In the heretofore unified ranks of the Democratic party; and, (S) It will place the Democratic party in the position of being a party to the "glve-a-ways" for which they have so furiously condemned con-demned the Republican party. This is virtually the same bill passed by the Congress originally original-ly under the name of the Kerr bill, for Senator Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma, and which President Presi-dent Truman vetoed. Last year under a new version it was re-Introduced re-Introduced in the House by Representative Rep-resentative Harris of Arkansas, a Democrat, and Just skinned through the house with heavy Republican support, and somewhat lighter Democratic support, but enough to pass It. The companion bill was Introduced in the Senate by Senator William Fulbright, Democrat Demo-crat of Arkansas, and was made one of the "must" bills by Senator Sen-ator Lyndon Johnson, the Majority leader in the Senate. One of the heaviest lobbies In history has congregated In Washington Wash-ington to bring about passage of the bill throughout the debate. Opposition to the bill ' has been spearheaded by Senator Paul Douglas, Democrat, of Illinois, and he sought several crippling amend-famxti amend-famxti to the msasurt, oa oi which would eliminate the 27 Viper Vi-per cent depletion allowance granted the oil corporations, and another which would have eliminated elimi-nated the tax deductibility of cost of drilling a dry well which the oil companies enjoy. Proponents of the measure declare de-clare that the present bill has been provided with safeguards to protect pro-tect consumers. However the opponents op-ponents still maintain that the passage pas-sage would cost consumers as high as $600,000,000 annually in increased in-creased cost of natural gas, and that the so-called safeguards are purely of the paper variety and that a breakdown of federal regulation reg-ulation of prices at the well-head will mean large price Increase at the other end of the pipeline in the middlewest and eastern states. There has been no statement of policy from the executive branch of the government as to the possibility of a presidential veto. a The Nation's college and university univer-sity enrollment this year will top the three-million mark for the first time in history, according to a report of S. M. Brownell, Federal Commissioner of Education. Institutions reporting the largest enrollment include: University of California, 38,594; State University of New York, 33,634; New York University, 81,867; City College oi the City of New York, 26,426; Columbia Co-lumbia University, 25,887; University Univer-sity of Illinois, 24,129; University of Michigan, 23.763; The University Univer-sity of Minnesota, 23,393; Ohio State University, J1.744 and University Uni-versity of Wisconsin, 20.119. Total enrollment Includes 1,784,000 men and 937,000 women. |