The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1943-09-30
REALITIES AND THE OCD

REALITIES AND THE OCD
Washington. Sept. %
When, some weeks ago, Mr.. James
Lands resigned as head Of the Office
Of Civilian Defense to become econom-
ig director Of the Middle East. there
was widespread feeling that. con-
sidering the state Of the war, the OCD
was ripe to be aboIished-or. at least.
cmtailed,
But, that is not the idea of the Act
ing Director, Mr.. John &. Martin
not by long shot. In a statement
just issued Mr.. Martin somewhat cx-
citedly rejects the suggestion that bv
reason Of the disappearance Of all
danger of anything resembling large
scale enemy air raids in this country.
the OCD should be dismantIed, dimin-
ished or diverted. Quite vehemently.
he asserts that the bombing danger
has not passed and declares this assor-
ton is based on the opinion Of mil
itaIy authorities"
##%
OF course, Mr. Martin is wrong on
both counts. The danger Of large-scalc
bombing, always exaggerated is now
definitely over and there is no sense
in pretending otherwise Even the pos
sibility of local raids" is so remote
as to be practically negligible. And
any quotation to the contrary from a
military authority will have been
acquired through White House-burcau
pressure, such as, foY example. as the
kind year ago as that which induced
Under Secretary of War Patterson to
send love letters to bombastic labor
leaders eulogizing the "mselfsh and
patriotic" cooperation Of organized
labor at a time when many millions of
war contracts under his own depart
ment were being held up by strikes,
waIkouts and slowdowns.
$500
The fact is that every competent
military authority privately agrees
that the necessity for the OCD as it
now has been expanded no longer cX-
lists. One Of our Axis foes has been
knocked out Of the war Both the 9th
ers are on the defensive. Their COM
plete defeat is inevitable We have as
air supremacy in every thea
ter. Our margin of mastery is steadily
growing. We are destroying planes
faster than they can make them; we
are making them faster than anyone
dreamed possible Under the circum-
stances, to contend that the danger of
enemy bombing remains the same is
foolish. While, in the first part of his
statement, Mr. Martin appears to
make this contention, in the last part
he appears to abandon it by admit
ting changed conditions make certain
adaptations and notifications" desir-
able. One Of these adaptations he
suggests is the use in the more re-
mote inland communities Of the OCD
to supplement the "depleted normal
services Of the community such a.
police, fire and medical"
In no part Of his statement does
Mr.. Martin suggest that OCD might
Heet these changed conditions by
its organization and reduc-
ing it's payroll For, despite its large
volunteer force, it has large pay
roll and spends lot of money, But,
an organization in that way
is the last idea to occur to the head
Of a Government agency. From sug-
gestions Of that kind they recoil as
from a rattlesnake. Actually, Mr.
Martins statement conforms perfectly
to the New Deal party line in such
1t justifies the charge that
always when the need for an agency
has ended, some way is found to
keep going" Even when the agency
is abolished by Congressional action,
the jobholdcrs merely transfer to
some other board or bureau.
a,a#
Of course, the time has come tore
duce the OCD to a size necessary only
to protect the limited coastal locaIi-
ties from the exceedingly unlikely
local raid that conceivably may oc-
cur, 1t would be a welcome relief to
the people generally to be rid Of use
less blackouts and air-raid alarms. 1t
would be pleasant, too, for the heaV-
lily burdened taxpayer to feel that an
drain on the public funds
had been stopped; that the steady
stream of millions required by the
full-siZed OCD had been reducted to
trickle. Certainly, it was essential
when we entered the war to guard
against the afraid danger. AS It
turned out, the danger never mater
ialized, but it might have. Now the
d9OCar ig OIJnr tho fOO1iShnpSc of CON