The East Hartford Gazette

Holding Controls
The anti-inflation bill passed by the Senate at four A. M. one morning, after an all-night session, is still a matter of much controversy.

Leading the fight for the bill was Senator Burnett R. Maybank, Chairman of the Banking Committee, which had written the measure. Being one of the first Senators to attack the Administration for not imposing controls quickly enough, Maybank nevertheless turned out to be surprisingly mild in his thoughts for a new control bill.

The Administration asked a stronger anti-inflation measure and explained the inflationary pressure on the national economy in the next twelve months would be far greater than in the past twelve months, largely because of increased defense spending. But many Senators turned a deaf ear to this appeal and voted to exempt certain groups from control provisions.

Despite bitter attacks on the bill by Administration supporters, Southern Democrats and a majority of Republican Senators had the strength to pass it, and Maybank knew it. He kept the members in session under threat that all controls might expire if some action was not taken. Yet it was obvious the House couldn't pass a new controls bill, and that the only remedy would have to be a thirty-day extension of anti-inflation controls. On the same day the Senate passed a new bill, after an all-night session, the Senate also passed a resolution continuing the old law for thirty days.

Actually the all-night session, then, wasn't necessary. But Maybank, many Republicans and Southern Democrats, defended the bill. They argued that exemptions had been held to a minimum. They attacked the idea of more and more controls and said some of the requested controls weren't necessary.

The moral: The consumer will find out for himself, after the new bill goes into effect, who is right.