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on today's report from Washington, Senator Smathers discusses domestic and foreign problems of interest to the people of Florida and the nation. Now here is the first question. Well, senators matters. I'd like to have first your comment on the appearance of Ambassador Lodge before your committee. Well, we had him before the Foreign Relations Committee, as usually made a splendid impression.

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He's done, I think, outstanding and highly commendable job in South Vietnam, I think, as he expressed it, Conditions have improved considerably over the last 10 months. How the policies which were following there are basically the same policies which we have been following since 1954 when President Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles put us into South Vietnam.

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The policy generally is to, of course, defeat the Communist and not lose that South Vietnam and to the Communists, thereby losing not only South Vietnam but Cambodia and Laos and all of Malaysia and the rest of that very rich in populist world here of the world.

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Was he explicit, and the reasons that he gave for resigning and returning to this country given to you, we didn't go into the political aspects of it up there before the committee. I think it's evidence, as he has stated, that he's come back here to help head off by Goldwater if he can.

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Well, now let's look to the south of us. We've got some what looks like Good news. Castro's sister defected, If you can call it that, indicating that he was a tool of the Communist Party and she could no longer go along with his thinking, asking the only has to help in this situation.

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I think this is an indication of things as they exist in side Cuba, and I think there will be more and more of this. It's encouraging in the sense that people who are really close to Fidel Castro are now appreciating the fact that a Fidel Castro is totally a committed Communists, which he has been, which I've said he was since long before he came into power.

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But secondly, and more importantly, that the communist system will not work, and therefore he will not give it up. And so they're defecting from what about these 75 American citizens who are in Cuba and who were told not to go there? Well, I I wish that they wouldn't go.

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They've gone violated in some respects, our law. I'm not for their pay position. I think that they are doing a disservice to their country. Senator, back to the Senate itself. You handled the matter of excise taxes on the Senate floor. You were also one of the conferees.

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Can you tell us what to expect now in regard to excise taxes? Well, as you know, the Senate had voted in sort of an orgy of tax cutting week before last $507 million reduction of excise taxes. Now, of course, everybody would like an additional tax reduction.

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But we must remember that this year, 1964 we have already reduced taxes by $11,000,000,600 million across the board for everybody. And there's got to be an area of responsibility. So we went to conference in the House, conferees refused to accept any of the Senate cuts. And so I was selected as the man to bring back the sad news to the Senate and try to get the Senate to act responsibly.

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And I think the Senate has, after all, we were faced with a deadline that if we did not agree to what? The house position or to the house position. We would start losing a billion. Well, the total of a billion $900 million of excise taxes would go off as of that night, on the liquor and on cigarettes and on beer and things of that character.

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And I don't think anybody actually want him to lose that kind of money in revenue to the government, particularly at a time when employment is up when business conditions are good, when we've already had a sizable tax scale. What about this tax equalization? Your committee on finance, I believe, is handling that.

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Yes, we expect to report that very shortly. What we're trying to do in the tax equalization has put a tax on foreign securities that are sold in this country, too. Uh, so that our foreign capital, our goal from the United States will not go to foreign countries where then translated into dollars and the dollars are drain on our goal.

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We're trying to beef up our fiscal and monetary position here in the United States by passing this bill, and I'm satisfied it's a good bill and we'll pass. This matters. Uh, Florida and many of the Southern and Western states are still very much disturbed about the importance of people.

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Understand, you may be going to arrive at some conclusion on that the Finance Committee. Uh, well, if it has not already done so by the time people listening to this broadcast will, in my judgment, have reported favourably a beef quota bill. In other words, it will give to Australia, New Zealand, the other countries of the world that they're selling beef in great quantities here in the United States.

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It will limit them to a quota, which would be based on the amount which they have shipped in over the last five years. Give them a certain growth position as the market grows here. I think, actually, this will somewhat alleviate the problem of the low price of farmers getting the ranchers getting for his cattle.

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It's very serious in Florida. It's very serious in other states where they raise cattle where cattle is a basic crop, well, will it raise the price of the consumer? And now it won't raise the price to consumer, as is usually the case, the consumer he pays the big price almost in any event.

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Actually, Well, it is. At the moment, the price of the consumer has gone down a little bit, but not in anything like the price to the farmer has gone down. And that's why there has been a call by Senator McGee of Wyoming and other senators that there should be an investigation into the sort of the middle men retail and the retail stage of the selling of the beef.

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Because the consumer has not enjoyed the low price of beef, which the farmers getting. I'd like to ask you a question dealing with civil rights Governor affairs. Bryant's position, I think, is pretty well known. And yet here we also have former Governor Colin is going to take over in charge of this presidential investigation, if you could call it that because its administrative branch of the government on civil rights.

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Well, of course, where this arises out of the civil rights bill. There was a section in the civil rights bill which set up what's known as the community relations and that has been assigned administratively to the Department of Commerce and Secretary. Hodges is the secretary of the Department of Commerce.

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He was governor of North Carolina at the time that Leroy Collins was governor of Florida, and during that time they became not only close friends, but each one of them developed a very high admiration for the other. Now, as long as the bill the civil rights bill is going to be become the law and the community relations is called, the agency will be created.

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Governor Luther Hodges wants to get what he thinks is the best man it's possible to get to head it up. And he has this great admiration and, I think, a justifiable admiration for Leroy Collins. Secretary Hodges called me about a week ago, as he did Senator Holland, and asked us what we thought about Leroy Collins.

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And I responded that he was a top quality man. He had been an outstanding governor of Florida that I felt certain that he would be a success in any job which he undertook. Now this, of course, this particular job will be a very challenging one to him because of the emotions which are involved because of the divisions which exist between the white and non white communities at the moment, and because of this recent civil rights Bill, governor.

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Former governor Collins gives up a great deal because he was drawing a much larger salary as the head of the National Association of Broadcasters. And he gives that up now to take a government job. Well, I think that Governor Collins as is properly motivated. I don't think that his first ambition in life has ever been to make money, as I don't believe most men in public office.

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First ambition in life is to make money for If they were, they wouldn't have gotten into politics In the first instance. I don't know of anybody, frankly, of any ability who could not stay in private life, economic life and make considerably more money than he could make in politics.

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So Governor Collins first motivation is public service, and that's here is a very challenging opportunity for him to render public service. And I think with that in mind, he's taking this. What will be a very difficult job for it? Is Governor Bryant's viewpoint similar to that of Governor Collins?

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Would you say Well, I would say that they are not a similar. I say there's some dissimilarity between how they feel about the whole problem of integration and segregation and the attendant problems that grow out of that big problem. Thank you very, very much. Senator George Smathers.

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I return you now until next week to your station announcer.