Move to Recommit Celler Bill Made in Senate; Discussion Continues into Night Session

Sen. Harry P. Cain, (Rep., Wash.) today led resistance in the Senate to the Celler Bill which would liberalize displaced persons legislation. Sen. Cain said the bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee “without adequate documentation and without adequate facts.” He suggested recommitment of the bill to the Committee, saying “nobody will suffer if it is delayed until 1950.” (As the Bulletin went to press, discussion of the Celler Bill was still continuing with every indication that the Senate would extend debate on the issue into a night session.)

Urging rejection of any increase in the number of DP’s to be allowed entry to the U.S., Sen. Cafin said the DP Act of 1948 “has already caused to be admitted thousands of persons who displaced themselves and who were not the real sufferers in the war.” He added: “I greatly fear many of my colleagues in the Senate have accepted without question the fiction and propaganda which has been disseminated in the press and over the radio by one of the strongest lobby groups ever to operate in the national Capitol.” He charged that $900,000 has been spent on “high pressure methods.”

Sen. Harley M. Kilgore, acting chairman of the Judiciary Committee, condemned Sen. Cain’s remarks as “an attack on the integrity of members” of the Committee. He said: “I resent this criticism by a member of this body who is in no position to criticize, not knowing whereof he speaks.” Sen. Homer Ferguson said that Sen. Cain prevented the Judiciary Committee from making a detailed report on DP’s by objecting while the Senate was in session against the holding of the Judiciary meeting.