The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-12-07
Washington Column
BY PETER EDISON

When Senator Hugh A. Butlei and his sec.
retary Maurice Mumtord, set out on their
2000O-mile flight through Central and South
America and the West Indies, they included
in their excess baggage not only lot oil
printed documents and statistics for checking.
but also shotgun and rifle. It being against
every known regulation for passengers to carry
firearms on planes, there was considerable
difficulty at Miami getting the baggage
cleared. 1t took a phone call to Secretary
Of State Hull, who called Secretary of Treas
ury Morgenthau, who called up his customs
officers and gave the order tina. the senator S
baggage was to be passed without inspection.
The senator and Mr.. Mumford had little
use for their shooting irons in the wilds of
Latin America, for all the planes flew on
schedule and no bad mans were encountered.
Instead of bandits wanting to take money
away, all the senator found was Americans
wanting to give U. S. dollars away-six billion
of them, he says-a hemisphere hand-out re-
plete with international WPAs, PWA's, NYA's
| and FSA's that are neither good nor neigh
borly.
But if the senator found no use fer his weap-
one below the Rio Grande he is going to
need them badly for self-defense on the floor
of the Senate in the next few days, after
printed copies of this report are distributed.
For every government agency that has dime
to spend in Latin America will be checking
his figures and issuing blasts to point out
his mistakes.
The only typewriter carbon copy of the
report made available to the press shows at
the end a tabulation OF some 60 items of
U. S. expense in Latin America during the
past three years. The total is over So billion.
1t is understood that the list is being revised
and added to On the galley proofs, so that
the total may be closer to $40 billion when
the final report comes out, but whatever it
| is, Senator Butler IS claiming only Sc billion
in commitments and expenditures - because
there may be some Implications. There are:
| Item II in the tabulation covers admins
tration of the Sugar Act of 1887 for the three
years, 194l-43, at $145 million, in round num-
bers. Item e. covers expense OF administer
ing the Sugar Act Of 1887 for the same three
years, at $l45 million. This one will probably
be caught before the final report comes out,
| but 1T is only one of the amazing items which
the senator has included to make his figures.
This isn't the only sugar in the report, how
ever, for item II lists the purchase of all the
sugar and molasses which the U S. is buying
in Cuba in these three years, at 1892 million.
Item 1t covers maintenance and operation
OF the Panama Canal for three years, at
SI5 million, though this is u. S. possession.
Similarly, item 70 covers government aid
to Puerto Rico, S57 million. At last report
this island was a U. S. territory and it will
no doubt please the natives to know they're
Jumped in as Latin America.
over two billion dollars worth of Army and
Navy expenses are listed, including 1921 mil.
hon for the Navy, $500 million fol construction
OF alrports, $500 million for military bases
S2O million for communications services, S.
million for road building and $500 million pay
| 1or U. 5. soldiers and sailors stationed in
Latin America. In addition there is said to
be uncompleted construction of another $22(
million.
Expense Of the Office of the Coordinator Of
Inter-American Affairs, Nelson Rockefeller, is
entered at 5000 million the three years
Lend-lease is Jumped at $500 million.
No effort is made to separate legitimate
purchases from what might be considered
boondoggles, and the whole thing has every
appearance of being tumble which the Tru-
man Committee investigating the defense pro-
gram, to which the report ha- been referred,
will be months in trying to strengthen it out
in some kind of orderly bookkeeping. The re-
port thus runs a good risk of not only going
off haf-cocked, but also back~firing.