THE CONGRESS: Unbruised

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Secretary of State George Marshall got two plans for European recovery last week. The first came from a group of Maryland cub scouts, who called to tell him about their own "Junior Marshall Plan" for raising funds to help Europe's children. The other came from Michigan's big, grey Senator Arthur Vandenberg.

Sprawled comfortably in his high-backed committee chair, Chairman Vandenberg was obviously feeling pleased with his contribution. After more than a month of hearings and five days of closed-door conferences, his Foreign Relations Committee had approved, by unanimous vote, the first draft of the European Recovery Program. The job had been done without a major fight.

New Timetable. The news was good enough to impress even hardboiled Capitol newsmen. Vandenberg's logic and persuasion, plus the force of public opinion,* had brought ERP to the point of Senate debate unbruised by its first big test. Chairman Vandenberg deserved the congratulations which the newsmen showered down on him.

On the two major points in dispute, Van had produced a statesmanlike compromise. As the Administration had requested, Congress would be morally committed to continue ERP through June 1952. As Congress had insisted, the commitment would not be an ironclad guarantee. The initial sum for ERP would be cut from $6.8 billion to $5.3 billion, but the time to spend it would also be cut from 15 months to twelve. Thus the overall appropriation for ERP would be reduced, but not the monthly rate of spending. The 12-month limitation would also give the newly elected 1949 Congress an early chance to review ERP's progress on the basis of actual experience.

The administration of ERP would fall somewhere between George Marshall's insistence on out-&-out State Department control and opponents' demands for a bipartisan corporation. The committee compromise followed the lines of the Atomic Energy Commission, with a $20,000-a-year administrator of Cabinet rank, backed up by a bipartisan advisory board of twelve men chosen from outside the government. The administrator would have complete authority to make grants and loans (through the Export-Import Bank), would be responsible to the State Department only for mutual exchange of information.

To handle ERP's business abroad, a mission headed by a liaison officer of minister's rank would be sent to each participating country, supervised by a roving, $25,000-a-year ambassador-at-large. Congress would have a 14-member watchdog committee chosen from both Houses, which Vandenberg hoped Massachusetts' Representative Christian Herter would head.

Careful Course. The committee bill steered a careful course between what Europe could accept and what the U.S. felt it needed as assurance that ERP would not be a running drain on the U.S. taxpayer. The bill did not attempt to ram conditions down Europe's throat. It simply expressed "the hope . . . that these countries through a joint organization will exert sustained common efforts which will speed the achievement of that economic cooperation which is essential for lasting peace and prosperity."