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Show mynr777sil 1 1 1 jfha Low-Cojt Housing Bill POUR MEN deserve chief credit " for senate passage of the Taft- Ellender-Wagner bilL which will provide pro-vide low-cost public housing for an estimated 500.000 families In the next five years. They are: G.O.P. Senators Sen-ators Charles Tobey of New Hampshire, Hamp-shire, Co-Author Bob Taft of Ohio, Ralph Flanders of Vermont and Democrat John Sparkman of Alabama. Ala-bama. Only Insiders know how tirelessly Toby worked to get the housing measure out of the banking and currency cur-rency committee, which he heads. Almost equal credit belongs to Flanders, Flan-ders, who chairmanned the sub-committee, and who teamed with Taft in blocking last-minute efforts by the real estate lobby to gut the legislation. legisla-tion. Sparkman was a pillar of strength on the Democratic side. So was South Carolina's Burnet Maybank, who did yeoman service lining up Democratic support both in committee commit-tee and on the floor. . Democrats Alben Barkley of Kentucky, senate minority leader, and Scott Lucas of Illinois also struck some potent blows for war vets and others affected af-fected by the housing shortage during dur-ing the floor fight. On the "debit" side; the colors of the real estate lobby were carried car-ried by G.O.P. Senators Joe McCarthy Mc-Carthy of Wisconsin and Harry Cain of Washington. Both battled to the last against the long-range public housing program. G.O.P. Sen. James Kem of Missouri and Spessard Holland of Florida, Democrat, Dem-ocrat, gave them vigorous support Major house opponents of the housing bill are Banking and Currency Cur-rency Chairman Jesse Wolcott of Michigan, who has persistently blocked house action, together with Charles Fletcher of San Diego, Calif, Backstage in Italy NCW THAT THE ITALIAN elections elec-tions are over, some of the backstage back-stage developments can be told. One factor which influenced Italian Ital-ian votes was the state department's offer to return Trieste to Italy an offer which the Russians eventually turned down. What wasn't known was that Tito had been planning to make exactly the same offer himself on behalf of Russia. But U. S. Intelligence services picked up this fact, and we beat Tito to it This was some of the fastest footwork the state department de-partment has put across in some time. Another factor was Ambassador Dunn's insistence that the American fleet get out of Italian waters. Some of the military men around the White House didn't like this advice, thought the fleet should remain. But Dunn argued that its presence gave political ammunition to the Communists. Commu-nists. He was right. The fleet was withdrawn, and the Commies had to pipe down. One thing which nearly upset the applecart was the amendment by Congressman O'Konskl of Wisconsin making Marshall plan money available avail-able to Spain. Until this was reversed re-versed in the senate, it had a bad back-fire in Italy. a Alien Smuggling THE CLOAK - AND DAGGER sleuthing of a Pennsylvania congressman con-gressman soon may blow the lid off a notorious racket smuggling aliens into the U. S. Congressman John McDowell of Wilklnsburg, Pa., has been making personal trips to Panama and Mexico Mex-ico tracking down the border-hopping of Communist spies, war criminals crim-inals and other undesirables. He has uncovered organized rings that smuggle political riff-raff into the United States for a fee, often with political string-pulling. For some time, McDowell has wondered won-dered how the dregs of Europe could get into the United States, while deserving refugees were barred. Worst hole In the dike, he found, was Windsor on the Canadian border, bor-der, A parade of notorious Europeans Euro-peans passed rljht under official noses, armed with hand-out victors vic-tors permits, goad for only six months. Once' on tie Inslie, haw-ever, haw-ever, It was a simple nutter to get the visas extended. Other undesirables took a less legal le-gal route, secretly few across the border without any papers. In one case, a Frenchman brought load of Communists and ex-Nazis across the Atlantic in the same boat. McDowell predicts that his investigation inves-tigation will shock the country hen It becomes rublic. The state anj Justice departments already have asked to see the secret testimony of one border official, U. S. Consul John Bankhead at Windsor. After word leaked out that Bank-head Bank-head had tallied to McDowell, he received a bottle of poisoned whisky. Later a mystcrluus assailant fired two shots nt him nnd fled. McDowell has called upon the justice depart-i depart-i mcnt to protect ranVncad's life. ' As . a result of McDowell's Investigation, Inves-tigation, the United States has closed both borders, c-.cc fr rrr.-.ns with overwhelming proof of tt-.cir business I la tliii country. |