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Right-wingers have the reputation of seeing, if not a Communist, at least a statist under every bed. It is a reputation worth nurturing: statists do hide under the most unlikely beds. A case in point is the Harris-Fulbright natural gas bill—a measure hailed by its supporters as “a ringing affirmation of the principle of free enterprise” (its opponents, Liberals all, label it “legislation by and for Southwest gas producers” designed to “gouge the consumer”).

For anti-statists, the basic issue in the gas fight is whether the federal government shall retain power to regulate the price of gas at the wellhead—a power that was granted two years ago by a Supreme Court amendment to the Natural Gas Act of 1938. But Congress is not fighting the battle along this line at all (as it did, for example, when it passed the Harris-Kerr bill in 1950). The Harris-Fulbright bill, in effect, concedes federal jurisdiction over wellhead sales of gas slated for resale in interstate commerce. The split in Congress is on the question whether federal control of gas production should be indirect (as the bill provides) or direct; no matter who wins, the Federal Power Commission will be able to fix the price at which the producer sells his gas.

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L. Brent Bozell Jr.

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Right-wingers have the reputation of seeing, if not a Communist, at least a statist under every bed. It is a reputation worth nurturing: statists do hide under the most unlikely beds. A case in point is the Harris-Fulbright natural gas bill—a measure hailed by its supporters as “a ringing affirmation of the principle of free enterprise” (its opponents, Liberals all, label it “legislation by and for Southwest gas producers” designed to “gouge the consumer”).

For anti-statists, the basic issue in the gas fight is whether the federal government shall retain power to regulate the price of gas at the wellhead—a power that was granted two years ago by a Supreme Court amendment to the Natural Gas Act of 1938. But Congress is not fighting the battle along this line at all (as it did, for example, when it passed the Harris-Kerr bill in 1950). The Harris-Fulbright bill, in effect, concedes federal jurisdiction over wellhead sales of gas slated for resale in interstate commerce. The split in Congress is on the question whether federal control of gas production should be indirect (as the bill provides) or direct; no matter who wins, the Federal Power Commission will be able to fix the price at which the producer sells his gas.