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Show The Senator Reports To The People Senator Arthur V. Watkins X Legislation to provide military and economic aid to European 'intries and nations elsewhere in the world has been approved the Senate and now is awaiting action by a House-Senate Con-ence Con-ence Committee. , The Senate economy advocates, of which I include myself 1 nember, succeeded in trimming the authorization considerably. -Inate and House cuts in the President's original 8V2 billion dol-request dol-request amounted to one billion, 176 million dollars. I sin-"rely sin-"rely hope this cut stands. plan. The bill, therefore, establishes es-tablishes a minimum increase of $400, which would equal 8.4 percent of an annual salary of approximately $5,000. For postal workers whose annual salary exceeds $5,000 the percentage increase applies. Under the percentage plan, salary sal-ary increases would be limited to $800. I believe the percentage percent-age plan is fair for those in the higher brackets. Their higher income tax rates will return a proportionately larger part of their increases back to the fed-' fed-' cral treasury. J I sincerely hope that by the time this column reaches Utah the House of Representatives i'will have acted favorably on :i this legislation, i Apprenticeship Training I The apprenticeship training program of the Department of Labor has been seriously threat ened in part by action of the S House of Representatives. The Apprenticeship Bureau requested request-ed a sum of $800,000 for fiscal 1952, in order to continue its practical on-the-job training in ! the skill trades. Congress ap-! ap-! proved the program for the last quarter of last year and the 1 House Appropriations Committee Commit-tee again approved it this year and included the amount in the supplemental appropriation bil1 When the supplemental bil reached the floor of the House, 1 however members of the House I apparently without protest by The time has come to start nking about the termination , the four-year Marshall plan ich was started in 1948. Euro- in economy is now stronger . n before the Second World ' j, and I do not want United :tes aid to become considered a permanent and a necessary Ve required to keep Europe its collective feet. Little relation re-lation was made in requests funds for military needs of 'se nations. The Senate real-J real-J d that Europe's military :;ds require continuing U S 1 port at. the present time. Postal Pay Increase t long last, the Senate has proved a pay increase for - deral postal workers. Under l- j Senate bill the pay increase L-.juld be retroactive to July 1, -.51. I hav consistently sup- W' . ported this bill because salary schedules for these employees have lagged behind other classified clas-sified government employees. I was glad that the Senate approved ap-proved the $400 minimum increase in-crease because the original percentage per-centage proposed d b v i ously would have been unfair to those in the lower pay brackets. In this column on June 7th and again on the following week, I pointed out that such a percentage increase would not provide adequate wages for those in the lower salary brackets, brack-ets, who are the lowest paid workers in federal service, and who have been the hardest hit by inflation. As passed by the ' Senate unanimously, the bill recognizes this inequity in the percentage a single member, permitted the 1 amount to be eliminated. This legislation is now before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Com-mittee. I have discussed the matter with Senator McKellar, committee chairman, and I am hopeful that funds for continu- ance of the program will be reinserted re-inserted in the bill. The Department's apprenticeship apprentice-ship program is one of the few which have proved most advantageous ad-vantageous to the public and to the national welfare. Labor has cooperated wonderfully to make the program a success. In one phase of the program Labor has shown its desire to advance the training of the Indians In-dians who are particularly adept at the trade skills. Haloaeton Funds Funds to expand the government's govern-ment's plan to fight the spread of the poisonous weed Halo-geton Halo-geton also are included in this supplemental appropriation bill. The House version contained an appropriation of 2 million dollars. dol-lars. I am requesting the com mittee to retain these funds so that the .Bureau of Land Management Man-agement can undertake this program, which is so important to the western livestock industry. indus-try. . |