Against the Grain

When the eighty-second Congress moved into the Capital in January, one of its first actions was to restore the old delaying powers of the House Rules Committee. To show its appreciation, that committee is now sitting firmly on top of a bill to provide 2,000,000 tons of food grains for India which would help avert widespread famine in that country.

The aid bill went to the Rules Committee over a month ago. It has the support of many Congressional leaders, and President Truman has repeatedly prodded Congress for action on it. Every day it becomes more crucial that Congress authorize the grant, since the monsoon season comes to India during the summer and makes the reshipment of grain within the country very difficult. If the grain does not leave this country soon, there will be much suffering in India by the end of the summer.

Opposition to the aid bill ranges from the irrelevant to the dangerous. There is one group which favors making the shipment conditional on India's guaranteeing to provide us with certain strategic materials. But the strongest opposition comes from those who feel that India has not been enthusiastic enough in opposing the spread of Communism and that aid should be withheld until India stops flirting with the Chinese regime. None of these critics realize that to attach strings to our aid would be disastrous, since it is the existence of a free India, following its own policies yet enjoying the friendship of the Western democracies, that is our strongest argument to keep Asia from going Communist.

If the Rules Committee will move its rump aside for a moment and take a good look at the aid bill, it will discover something that will do more to keep Asia on our side than all the guns and technical aid that this country has poured into corrupt and undemocratic governments. Perhaps then it will act.