The Rivals

At foreign-aid time, there are few sharper antagonists in the House than Louisiana Democrat Otto Passman and Minnesota Republican Walter Judd--Passman passionately against, Judd dourly for. Louisiana's Passman, 59, onetime refrigerator distributor and World War II Navy materiel and procurement officer, seven-term Congressman and Appropriations Committee axman, is an acknowledged expert who knows how to find every foreign-aid dollar in every foreign-aid pipeline and how to take maximum debating advantage thereof. Minnesota's Dr. Judd. 60, onetime medical missionary in China, is a nine-term Congressman and Foreign Affairs Committee veteran who just as expertly supports foreign aid out of his own personal experiences.

Last week, as the House considered the President's request for $3.9 billion for foreign aid in fiscal 1960, the rivals took to the floor, soon moved from statistics and specifics to their basic philosophies. Said Otto Passman, dazzlingly arrayed in a crisp white linen suit: "First, we cannot spend ourselves rich. Second, we cannot make ourselves secure by giving ourselves away. Third, we cannot buy friends. We were once told that foreign aid would stop Communism. Now we are told it is our duty to buy our way of life for countries all over the world. But we cannot in fact improve their living standards by as much as one per cent even if we should give away everything we own."

Replied Minnesota's spectacled Walter Judd: "The question is what is to happen in our nation's interest. Sometimes we act as if we were not at war--and in the most perilous situation in which the U.S. has ever been--partly because it does not look like war. Therefore we do not go all out to do the things necessary to win."

At debate's end the House, by 279,136, upheld Otto Passman, upheld the Appropriations Committee's slash of foreign-aid funds from the President's $3.9 billion to $3.1 billion, including $435 million lopped off U.S. military aid to U.S. allies.

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