Elation over Trade Bill Action

Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D.Wash.) expressed hope today that Soviet authorities would reconsider their emigration practices as a result of the trade and credit barriers erected against it by the House of Representatives.

By adopting the measures of Rep. Wilbur Mills (D.Ark.) and Charles A. Vanik (D.Ohio), Jackson said,–“the House affirmed its commitment to our deepest values of individual liberty. I hop the loud and clear message of the House will be heard in Moscow and that the Soviet government will come to realize that the American people, above all, are committed to a human detente–to the free movement of men and ideas on which a more stable and lasting peace must be based.”

The White House remained adamant against the Mills-Vanlk and the Jackson measures which are identical. A spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that President Nixon stands by” his Dec. 3 statement to House Speaker Carl Albert in which he warned he would veto the Trade Bill as a whole if the MV/J measures remained in it. The Senate will open hearings on the Trad Bill after Congress returns in Jan. from its year end recess. Sen. Russell B. Long, the committee chairman and one of the 77 Senatorial sponsors of the Jackson amendment, has not indicated when they will be scheduled.

Jewish leaders viewed yesterday’s House action as an important moment in American history, a positive act of statesmanship and a great moral victory for Americans and Soviet Jews. These sentiments were expressed in statements issued today by Richard Maass, chairman, National Conference on Soviet Jewry; Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, chairman, American Section-World Zionist Organization; Si Frumkin and Zev Yaroslavsky, chairman and executive director, Southern California Council for Soviet Jews; and Elmer Winter, president, American Jewish Committee.