White House Press Release, Message from President Harry S. Truman to the United States Congress

187 #1138 HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE May 22, 1947 CONFIDENTIAL: To be held in STRICT CONFIDENCE and no portion, synopsis or intimation to be given out or published until the READING of the President 's Message has begun in either the Senate or House of Representatives. Extreme care must therefore be exercised to avoid premature publication. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: In March of this year the Congress passed and I approved a bill known as the First Decontrol Act of 1947, ex- tending for three months a few of the powers originally granted in the Second War Powers Act. This extension was authorized to enable the Congress to make further review of the specific controls needed during the coming year. Since the enactment of this law, the interested depart- ments have reexamined the need for continuation of these powers. Their review shows that it is still essential to maintain certain limited materials controls, in order to prevent harm to our own economy and give concrete support to our foreign policy. Since V-J Day, American industry, agriculture and labor have established notable production records. If production abroad had reached similar heights, no materials controls at all would be needed today. But the progress of world reconstruction has been necessarily difficult and slow. In a few respects the United States has been adversely affected by this delay, and there- fore, in a few instances, controls over certain imported commodi- ties are still needed. However, any adverse effects suffered by us are slight in comparison with the tragic conditons of life/faced by most countries of the world today. It is primarily because of these conditions, with their enormously important political and social repercussions, that we must still retain a very limited por- tion of our wartime powers over materials. to The remaining powers [which it is necessary to retain -fall into two groups: (1) Allocation and priority powers to maintain the stability of our economy. bos (a) While our economy is still hampered by the lack of a number of imported materials, there are only a few in which the lack is saso serious and the importance so great that continued controls are required. The need in these cases is well known. Specifically, it is necessary to continue the power to allocate the following imported materials: tin and tin products, manila and agave fibres and cordage, antimony, cinchona bark, quinine and quinidine. Except in the case of -tin products, where the allocation of tin plate is also essential to the solution of world food problems, the continuation of these controls is solely for the purpose of assisting our own industry and agriculture. (b) As a corollary to the above, it is also necessary to continue the power to issue export priorities for materials needed to increase the production abroad of products that we urgently need in this country. This is a matter of direct and immediate self-interest (2) Allocation and priority powers needed to carry out our foreign policy and to assist in world reconstruction. (OVER)