 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company, maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? From the CBS television news staff, Larry Lusser and Charles Collingford, our distinguished guest for this evening is the honorable Wright Patman, representative from Texas. Representative Patman, you represented Texas for the last 25 years in the House of Representatives, and now I understand you're observing your quarter-century anniversary by writing a book. Yes, the American government, the answers to 1,001 questions on how it works. I see. Well, are there any particular questions, Representative Patman, that keep cropping up, that people ask frequently? In other words, what do they want to know about most? Well, almost every kind of a question. I get out a week or letter every week over commencing about 23 years ago, and I commence to put in about three questions that I'd received from my constituents each week and the answers to these questions. Soon I had a couple of hundred questions, and the school teachers wanted them, so I had them emigrapped and sent out to the school teachers. That's the way I got into getting up questions and answers. Now I have this 1,001 questions and answers. All about government. All about government, yes. Congressman Patman, have the nature of these questions changed very much in the past 25 years? Yes, they have. You know, when I first came to Congress, when Mr. Hoover was elected president, I was elected the same year. So I served the four years during Mr. Hoover's time, and all during the time, of course, Mr. Roosevelt was in, and Mr. Truman. And the first 10 or 15 years I was in Congress, 10 or 12 years, times were very hard, and people were in distress. Millions of people unemployed. Then we had all kinds of relief work. You know, the leap-breaking started back during that time, and we had people wanting jobs all the time. The last few years hadn't been that way. What do you think is going to happen now, Congressman? You're a specialist on economic matters. What do you think about the economic situation which the country faces today? Well, I think that the administration will have to do something. Otherwise, we are liable to slide into a devastating depression. I don't think we're in a depression now. I don't claim that at all, but I think we're in a recession. But do you think this recession is deepening? Yes, deepening, yes. Well, you say the government ought to do something. What do you think the government ought to do? Well, we need spending. We need more spending. Now, we have plenty of production in certain lines. You take, for instance, automobiles. The automobile plants can turn out 8 million cars this year, but they'll not do it. They'll only turn out about 5 million. So we don't need more money for expansion of automobile production, but we need more money among the masses of the people to buy production. We need spending among the masses. Well, translate that, if you would, sir, into terms of government policy. Do you mean that the government should make tax concessions to ordinary people rather than to business? Yes, I do. I believe that all these excise taxes, wartime, emergency taxes... Well, I'd like to go ask you a question about that. Now, this house action which favors this billion-dollar cut in the excise taxes, do you favor that? I do favor it. Put money down to the consumer? Yes, I do. And not only that, I feel like we should increase the exemption up to from $600 up to $800. By doing that, you have the low-income groups, and you allow them to keep money that's now going for taxes, and they will immediately spin that. It'll go into the channels of business and trade and industry and help the whole country. Well, the administration wants to raise the debt limit, Congressman. Do you think that they should be allowed to do that? Well, that's a fiction. That's a fiction. You are no member of Congress who can honestly resist that. You see, if you vote for the appropriations, it would be intellectually dishonest. I mean, I'm saying I'd be intellectually dishonest if I were to refuse to vote to raise the debt limit to permit those appropriations to be paid. That's like a member of Congress voting for all appropriations and against all tax bills. You know, it's a fine thing to have a record like that, but somebody's got to face the music and vote for the tax bills to pay the appropriations. Same with the national debt. You've got to increase it, if it's that saying. Well, Congressman Patman, the administration does have some policies which they feel will head off a recession, and particularly the housing bill. Now, I think that's good. Yes, but it's insufficient. It's almost a hoax, that housing bill. It doesn't go far enough. They are programming about a million houses this year. We need two million houses a year for 10 years. It'll take that to take care of the needs of the people, and it's about 50 percent what it should be. Furthermore, I'm not convinced that we're going to get houses built under the plan they're proposing, and they're increasing interest rates there. They're, you know, here to follow their margin. Has been one-and-a-half percent between long-term bonds and rates on long-term mortgages. Now they're proposing in this new housing bill to increase that to two-and-a-half percent. That means a one percent increase. That's hurtful to everybody. Well, Congressman, you've been charged by some newspaper economists with being a pro-inflationist, I suppose, because you sponsored the first Veterans Bonus Bill. Yeah. What do you think of this administration policy on hard money? Well, I think they've gone too far. Now, of course, back during the time when I was trying to get three-and-a-half millions of veterans paid, three-and-a-half billion dollars, they said that prices would go out the roof if we paid that. But of course they didn't when it was paid. The hard money policy has gone entirely too far. The first six months of 1953, they were terrible, and they were devastating to the people. It caused the interest to be high, and whenever people have to pay more interest, that means the government's got to pay more interest. The states, counties, cities, political subdivisions, school districts, all. That means taxes go up at all these different levels. That means the utilities like electricity, gas, water, telephone, transportation, freight and passenger rates, they all go up. That means that more money that the average John Q. Public receives, every payday, more of that money will go for interest and services, and less of it, he'll be able to spend for comforts and necessities of life. That hurts business and hurts the country. Well, now, congressman, one of the things about a congressman is he's got to have a political philosophy on everything. While we're digging into your political philosophy, you come from a farming district. Yes, sir. What do you think of Secretary Benson's proposed farm policy? Well, I think it's terrible. Secretary Benson, he keeps talking about efficiency on the farm. Well, you can't pull a stopwatch on a farmer, and you can't use a slide rule on his conduct. It just doesn't apply to farming. At least a third of the farmers in the nation are farming as a mode of life, as a mode of living. They just eke out an existence, but they're able to educate their children, their boys and girls, and if you were to take out all the fine men and women out of the business and industry today who were reared and educated on those motor-leading farms, you'd almost stop the country. Well, do you think that 90% parity should be extended now? Well, certainly it should. It should be extended, and this flexible farm program, Mr. Benson's, will not work. Now, he thinks by cutting down the price to 75% that that will cut down production, but it will not cut down production. The farmers will just work harder to produce more to make up for that loss of income. They did that in 1937 on cotton. They produced more cotton than they ever produced before because the price was low. So what are we going to do with all our surpluses, though, sir? Well, I think we should have a plan like the administration has adopted on wool. They're going to permit the wool producer to sell wool in the open market, and then whatever it lacks, bringing 90% of parity or the price agreed upon, it'll be paid out of government fund. That's what used to be called the Brandon plan. Well, they'd call it the Brandon plan, but that shouldn't condemn it because a lot of people advocated, and even if Mr. Brandon did advocate, it's still a good plan, and if it's good for wool, the administration's adopted it for wool. Well, Congressman Patman, you've championed small business in the past, and of course you're the co-author of the Robinson Patman bill. How do you think this administration favors small business or big business? Well, of course, the way the policies impressed me is favoring big business. Big business, a small business administration. The first thing it was done, the administration abolished the RFC, which is the best brand that small business ever had, and this small business administration, which takes its place, has not disbursed up to a week ago as many as six loans in the entire United States. So that's not doing anything for small business. Well, Congressman Patman may I ask you as a final question. Now you've been in Congress for 25 years. Could you tell us what your aims are in Congress for the next 25 years? Well, of course, I don't know what the people will permit me to stay there 25 years. You know, a member of the House runs every, he's got to offer himself every two years, which is the finest thing in the world under our system of government, which is the finest and best government on earth. And every two years, the people can elect an entirely new House of Representatives. And the House of Representatives, it has certain powers that the other body doesn't have. All revenue bills must originate in the House. So every two years, the people can elect a new House of Representatives, and that way they have control of the first strings at all times. Well, if I'm permitted to stay in Congress, I have certain plans along monetary reform lines that I think something should be done about the Federal Reserve system. I think the banking system is is riding for fall. I think they're becoming government bond brokers and commercial bookkeepers. They're being they're keeping their portfolios filled with government guaranteed paper and government bonds. And I was always told as a kid, when we used to hunt coons and rabbits and go a fox hunting down there, and we never did feed our dogs before we started hunting. When that's where the banks are, they're all fed up with government bonds and guaranteed paper. And they're more or less indifferent towards the little man who needs local loans. We got to make some changes. You think they should go back into banking than do you, Congressman? Well, we got to do something about that, I think. Thank you very much for being with us tonight, sir. Thank you, sir. The opinions you've heard our speakers express tonight have been entirely their own. The editorial board for this edition of the Lone Gene Chronoscope was Larry Lisser and Charles Collingwood. Our distinguished guest was the Honorable Wright Patman, representative from Texas. The finest things in life usually come high. A happy exception, fortunately, is a truly fine watch. Do you know that you may buy and own or proudly give a Lone Gene the world's most honored watch for as little as $71.50? Here is beauty. Here, too, is superb performance, the superb performance expected from Lone Gene. Traditionally, Lone Gene makes watches only one way, the Lone Gene way, with greater accuracy and long life inbuilt through faultless performance. 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