Evening star., 1942-06-18
MacLeish Says Capital
Is More Like America
Than America Itself
Denies Existence Of
'Bureouerocy';; Praises
Wartime Executives
py the Associated Press.

ry the Associated Press.
CHICAGO, June 18-Archibald
MacLeish. director of the once of
Facts and Figures. pictured Wash
ington last night as more like
America than America itself"
He said he held no brief for the
Capital, but declared that descrip-
tions Of the city as bureaucracy
distinct fro mthe American people
struck him as pretty cheap.
Addressing the National Retail
Dry Goods Association, Mr.. Mac
Leish added:
Il hold no brief for the people in
Washington either. There are quite
a lot I'd send back to the towns
they came from IL I had the send
ing. But this much I do know
that the newspaper picture, the
magazine picture, of a foreign,
bureaucratic Washington hostile to
the people Of this country, putting
its own interests before their inter-
ests a bureaucratic Washington
distinct from the people, separate
from the peoples a pure and
unadulterated invention.
NO Such Washington"
There is no such Washington.
What there actually is is a city
filled with American citizens-Amer-
ican citizens from all over, from
every State-American citizens like
other American citiZenS-American
cluzens who have closed their Offices,
turned their businesses over, locked
up their laboratories and their shops,
said good-by to their wives and gone
to work in the most uncomfortable.
overcrowded city in the United
States at half or a fifth or a hun
dredth of their civilian incomes ''' :"
Mr.. MacLeiSh said that members
OF Congress were more than en-
titled to speak for the people than
those who undertake to attack
them on the peoples behalf.
1T would not be possible" he
said. Ito assemble anywhere in the
United States 53l men and women
who could more justly and more
humanity speak for the people of
this Republic than the 531 men and
women whom the people have
elected to Congress precisely for
that purpose. -"
Who are these Congressman and
Senators who are now set off in
apparent distinction from the
American people? They are the
American people. They are the
peoples representatives in Congress
elected by the people and acting in
the peoples behalf.
Praises War Officials.
And what is true of the Con-
greSs Is true also of the alleged
bureaucracy-a new word inciden-
tally in American usage-new since
the last war and generally used
only in the past few years.
Members Of this association, like
members Of similar associations
throughout the country. have reason
to know the truth about the bureau
Gratis who figure rs hostile army
in the propaganda prints and in the
reckless statements of those who
take the propaganda prints for
truth.
The tens and scores and hun
dredS of American businessmen and
American lawyers and American
scientists and American engineers
who are working in Washington at
s6,500 or IS 900 or $1,000 a year, liv-
ing in hot rooms in back hotels and
maybe sight of their wives every
seven weeks with their kids for
getting their faces? And for what?
For CASH? For fame? Or to get
the job done?
You will forgive me if I say that
the whole picture of Washington as
a bureaucracy distinct from the
American people strikes me as
pretty cheap-contemptible and
cheap.
'Insistence of the People"
"The truth of the matter iS-and
1t is, to me at least, a very moving
truth-that the organization Of the
American people 10 fight this war
is an organization chiefly remark
able for the fact that there is no
bureaucracy in the European sense
that there is no. such distinction
between the people and their Gov
ernment as the propaganda pre-
tends.
IF there ever was a wartime
Government truly responsive to a