National Affairs: Work Done

Last week the Senate: ¶ Passed the Minimum Wage Act.

¶ Unanimously confirmed Elder Statesman Bernard M. Baruch as U.S. representative on U.N.’s Atomic Energy Commission; approved (66-9) Missourian James K. Vardaman Jr.’s nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

¶ Sent to the White House a bill forbidding Music Czar James Caesar Petrillo to: 1) tax canned music, 2) ban amateurs, 3) featherbed on U.S. radio.

The House:

¶ Received from the Banking & Currency Committee approval of a one-year extension of OPA (from June 30) with modifications that will permit a bulge in the price of clothing, autos, meat and household appliances.

¶ Sent to the Senate a bill hiking postal workers’ pay $400 a year.

¶ Passed, subject to Senate approval, a bill legalizing the immigration of 1) teenage Giovanni (Johnny) Camera and Anthony di Ina, troopship stowaways, 2) 31-year-old Masuyo Sudo Cromely, Japanese wife of a U.S. newsman, 3) 37-year-old Virginia Casardi, U.S.-born spouse of an Italian diplomat. Sent back to the Immigration and Naturalization Committee for further study was a similar “request of asylum” bill for three Russian stowaways, all adults.