ABSTRACT
The objective of the national pressure groups was to influence Congress or, at times, the administration. The industrialization of the South with the spread of the textile industry has changed this in many ways. It has changed the economic interest of some constituencies. Southern congressmen were predisposed to respond to the changes which had been occurring in the economy of the South. The Simpson bill was principally designed to hold imports of petroleum products, particularly, crude oil and residual fuel oil, to 10 per cent of domestic production. The Simpson bill became the center of Congressional debate on foreign-trade matters in 1953. The bituminous coal miners were particularly concerned to reduce, if possible, the imports to the East Coast of residual fuel oil from Venezuela. Despite all these divergencies of interest, coal, oil, and the railroads formed an alliance and waged a vigorous fight, first for the Simpson bill and later for the Neely amendment.
