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scene one. Take 1 to 1. 40. Senator Smathers, Do you think this is here in your nation's capital? Is Senator George Smathers reporting to the people of Florida? This takes the form of an informal discussion. Let's join the discussion, Senator. In our last report to Florida, we briefly discussed the situation in regard to Medicare under Social Security.

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Now I understand you are one of the conferees which will handle this particular measure. What's going to happen now? And how many other conferences do you have to contend with? Well, of course, the Senate passed the so called Medicare by a vote of 49 to 45.

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We then had to consider the rest of the bear, which has to do with Social Security amendments, all of which provide for additional Social Security benefits, one of which provided that you can draw your Social Security benefit and make up to $1500 a year. There were other liberalizing features.

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It was for that reason that I voted against the Medicare part of the bill but voted in the final passage for the Social Security bill in order to get into conference, because if we had all gotten together then and defeated Social Security bill, you'd have neither Medicare nor Social Security increased benefits anyway.

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It's now in conference. The House has already acted on it. Once there will be an effort made to instruct the House to support the King Anderson bill. I don't know how that will come out, but my guess is that it will go to conference Wilbur Mills.

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Will they have five members of the conference? The Senate will have seven in this instance, and we'll stare at each other and argue with each other, and we'll finally try to arrive at some happy compromise with respect to this matter. Some say that Medicare provisions will be knocked out.

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How do you feel about Well, I will vote I as a contrary representing the Senate. I have to support the Senate position as an individual. I voted against the Medicare provisions, although I believe in a medical care program. But I voted against the King Anderson Bill, and I hope that the King Andersonville is not a part of the legislation because I don't think it really answers the problem.

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Senator, From a standpoint of our foreign situation, you made quite a impassioned speech on the floor of the Senate outlining the progress that's been made in South America. You just give us a few of the highlights briefly. I think that we have seen more progress made in the last year in our relationship with our neighbors in South America than we've seen in the past 10 years.

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And the reason I say that is that first, we've seen a great transformation occur in Brazil. We were about to lose Brazil. Brazil is the biggest country in all of South America. They have a population bigger than all the rest of South America combined. They have a geographic area as big as the United States.

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That country was about to go communist. It has now thrown out the Gillard government. We have the new government there, which is very friendly to us. We have seen a great transformation in Venezuela. For the first time in their history, they have actually had an election and moved from one government, one Democratic government to another without having a dictator takeover.

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On top of that, we have seen pressure now being brought through the Organization of American States for the first time, all the countries of South America and Central America, with the exception of Mexico alone, have broken relations with Fidel Castro and Cuba and Uruguay just joined the other day.

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Bolivia and the other countries that had voted, actually even against sanctions. But they've all taken a strong position against Cuba, and I think we're going to continue now to squeeze Cuba until it's inevitable. Certainly, that Fidel Castro falls now. I think that the credit for that in a great measure belongs to a fellow that we don't hear enough about.

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That's a fellow by the name of Tom Man. Lyndon Johnson and the president appointed Town Man two be the under secretary of state for Latin America. But what he did, which was very beneficial, was not only make him the head political officer, but he also put him in charge of these various government agencies which do work in South America, such as Aid and the Alliance for Progress.

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Because here, before the money had been administered by one agency, the ambassador of the country was doing something else, and nobody knew exactly what to expect from the United States. Now we speak with one voice and that one voice is Tom Man. Thank you very much, Senator George Matters.

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I'll return you now to your station announcer While we're on the subject of South America, Let's bring in Cuba since you've already mentioned it. Bill, which you sponsored went along with was the Cuban Claims Bill, which passed the Senate this past week. What will it do in its final form?

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Well, what it provides for is the machinery by which people who had their property confiscated live Fidel Castro and his communist government. They will have a the machinery provided the procedures set whereby they can make claims and the Claims commission will adjudicate those claims. And if the day ever comes, when there is the the assets of the Cuban Communist government are sold here in the United States.

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They can make a claim against those assets or they can make a claim against the Cuban government. Now, Senator, I'd like to go in a little bit about this reapportionment business. By the time this program has heard, probably there might be a vote on closure, but what will be the outcome?

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Well, I hope that we'll have enough votes on closer to pass it. I think that we've discussed it at great length seven senators, eight senators running a filibuster. We want to get out of here and unless we can stop them from talking while we never will.

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Now the Mansfield Dirksen compromises, I think, is a very satisfactory, salubrious compromise. It allows the states that gives them some breathing time in which to organize themselves to comply with the Supreme Court decision, at least in so far as one House of Representatives is concerned, so I hope it'll pass.

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Now that is, the closure will be passed. If that fails, then there will be a motion made by the Liberals to table the Mansfield Dirksen proposal in my judgment, that will be defeated. And so we'll be right back here where we started from, and we'll talk endlessly until finally we can arrive at probably another substitute compromised by which we can get enough votes to finally get ourselves unhitched and untangled from this norm in which we find ourselves in our last report.

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Senator, speaking about tangles and snarls. We've had one hurricane after another. You did get in touch with the weather bureau about certain alerts which failed to come about at the proper time. We have now had probably the worst one so far. How is your relationship with the weather bureau, and what do they promised to do?

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Well, the weather were first with the weather Bureau had only to do with Cleo and the weather Bureau, I think, did generally a fair job. I think that one of the bulletins which they put out in the Miami area at 10 o'clock going the night that the storm struck I think that was somewhat inaccurate, and it led a lot of people to believe that the storm was going to miss.

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Therefore, they went to bed, pull down the shades for, turned off the radio and forgot all about. Next thing you know why the storm hit him. That's the only thing, the only area where I think they really missed. But that was speculative. I don't think they ought to speculate, however, with respect to the big Storm, Dora and Cleo and all of those storms we've been, Unfortunately, there's a lot of low pressure area around Florida this year, and these storms are coming in there.

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But much damage has been done. The federal government, of course, provides a great deal of help we're sending out information is the various ways in which they can help. The Small Business Administration has loans that they will make the small businessmen who stores have been hurt at very low interest rates lower than they can get anywhere else.

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The Farm Home Administration has a program which they helped the farmers. They also will let the farmer bar enough money to replant a crop. We have, of course, the facilities under the Community Facilities Act, which provide for sewerage help and things of that character we're going to get.

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And we'll have by the time this program has heard all of these agencies together offering a combined package of various AIDS to the people of Florida and it's unfortunate we get them but the storms. But we're getting them this year, and we're going to have to get a lot of help from the federal government and will now has the president taken cognizance of the situation as it exists now very much.

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The president has been in touch with it all the time. He has certain emergency funds which he himself has been willing to make available with the governor declared a disaster area, which I think by this time probably the governor has done. But the president, I think when he goes to Florida this week this coming week, I expect that he wants to ride over the area, which has been most severely hit.

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Thank you very much, Senator George Smathers. I'll return you until our next report to your station announcer.