Evening star., 1945-10-17

policies. The more individuals whit
buy the bonds the better it is fol
the country. The President and Mr.
VinSon are to be commended for s
special effort to put these Govern
ment securities into the hands of ths
"little fellow"
However, this seems the time Il
remind them that this special efforr
lays upon these two men very spe.
cial obligation.
Bonds Must Be Made Safe,
A special effort on the part of the
administration to sell bonds to the
individual must be accompanied BY
a very special effort to make the
bonds safe beyond all possible doubt
This is not to say that the bonds
are not still the best investment In
the world-because they are. 1t Is
10 say that full responsibility resk
upon Mr.. Truman and Mr.. Vinson
to see that that safety is increased
not deceased. 1t Is to say that If by
reason of their failure to do every
thing possible to increase safety
that safety should become ever
slightly impaired, Mr.. Truman and
MIR. Vinson would become the two
most execrated and despised men In
the country-and would deserve to
be.
Responsibility for the safety OF
Government securities has rested
upon all Presidents and Treasury
Secretaries. But because of the un-
precedented size of our debt and
deficits, the responsibility of Mr.
Truman and MIR. Vinson is heavier
and clearer than upon their pre-
decessors.
Neither Has Evidenced Realization.
So far, neither has given evidence
Of complete realization of these
facts. They seem to assume the
safety of these bonds can be main
tanned without exerting themselves
to the limit in the two directions
essential to safety - taxation and
economy.
They have no right to make thai
assumption and they have no right
to refrain from the special effort
Take first, the matter of taxes. Mr.
Vinson Is urging land Mr.. Truman
supportingl a tax reduction bill
which has some concededly good
features, but some which clearly
cannot be reeonciled with the "spe-
cial effort" obligation which rests
on them.
For one thing, 1t reduces Govern
ment revenues too much; for an
other, its reductions come too soon
for a third, 1t eliminates altogether
some $4,000, 900 individuals as tax
payers, thus narrowing the base and
weakening the whole tax structure
1t is not easy to fit this In with a
sound, nonpolitical tax policy or a
special effort" to buttress Govern
ment credit.
Take next the vital business OF
retrenchment. the Federal Govern
ment is swollen to enormous size
and is operated at staggering cost
Waste is greater than can well be
described. Everybody knows this but
not enough people seem to care
particularly those who can do some
thing about it. True, the President
has asked Congress for power~to re.
organize the Federal machine, but
in the meantime, though the wal
has been over for months, the de.
crease in the civilian payrolIs /,
trif1ing-and in some cases there
have been large increases.
Federal Employment Rises.
A number of war agencies have
been "liquidated" but the employees
on their payrolls have not beer
dropped-they have merely beer
transferred to another department
The latest figures of civilian job
holders show that on August the
total was 3,554,920 but on September
it had been increased to 3,64e ,569
as shown in the recent report pre-
sented to the Senate by Senator
Byrd.
The point is that, despite the
Truman plan to reorganize the
machine, he has taken no effective
steps to reduce its size and cost In
the six months he has been in the
presidency. And the only big Gov
ernment expenses curtailed are those
due to the cessation of war which
were automatic and required little
effort.
In brief, no special" effort to save
money has been made. On the
contrary, both Mr.. Truman and Mr.
Vinson strongly supported the origi-
nal so-called full employment" bill
which would have opened wide the
door for further vast public expendi-
lures upon the discredit theory that