Strident Step

Congress had its busiest week of the session. Besides voting overwhelmingly in favor of air power, it came to grips with everything from U.N. revision to the long-range housing bill (see Housing). In the Senate, Minnesota's Joe Ball hitched up his trousers for a whirl at refurbishing the Taft-Hartley law. In the House, committeemen met behind closed doors to debate extension of the reciprocal trade agreements.

One strident step forward was repeal of the tax on oleomargarine (TIME, May 10). By a vote of 47 to 30, the Senate overruled Arthur Vandenberg's decision to send the House repeal bill to the anti-oleo Agriculture and Forestry Committee, routed it instead to the pro-oleo Finance Committee. The vote virtually assured repeal in the Senate and the end of the butter lobby's 62-year reign.

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