Evening star., 1945-11-05

he is; II he were surrounded by
the best brains in the country and
had no thought of politics, the
situations with which he has to
deal still would be very difficult
As things are, some of these situa-
tions on the home front are not
far from appalling.
No one questions the Presidents S
purposes. He wants to do right. He
neither is crackpot nor a radical
He knows full well the dangers of
imitation, the necessity for retrench-
ment and the penalties of unchecked
spending. Yet, his Administration
drifts in those directions even while
he recognizes and points out the
perils.
AS seen by some reasonably astute
observers here, there are two funda-
mental troubles with Mr.. Truman.
One Is the caliber of his advisers
and department heads. With the
exception of Charles G. Ross and
John Snyder, the members of his
Inner circle" are all politicians
and little else. There is hardly q
statesmen in the lot.
Byrnes an Exception.
The best man he found when he
came in-Leo Crowley-has gotten
out. Not many of the others meas
ure up. He sees, of course, many
visitors who express their views and
opinions. But, of the men close to
him, who see him constantly, with
whom he advises and checks up,
the men who are his intimates--of
these there is not one sufficiently
endowed with judgment or equipped
by experience to be of real presi-
Dental help.
Exception should be made of Sec
retary of State Byrnes who, how
ever, is so weighted down with the
perplexities of foreign politics that
he is unable to function in the field
wherein he was trained.
The other Truman trouble is
asserted to be the nature of his
inheritance. When he became Presi-
dent, Mr.. Truman was in no posi-
tion to have policies of his own.
He inherited those of another man
and, even had he desired, he had
no alternative to proclaiming alle-
glance to them. He also inherited
a labor political setup that went
with the policies. They fitted to-
gether.
The policies support the setup
and the setup supports the policies.
They are inseparable and that is
why Mr.. Truman has so little lee
way for policies of his own. For
example, he had slight choice-or
so 1t seemed-in the matter of the
so-called full employment bill.
Originally, this was a very dan
gerous bill. 1t opened the door for
uncontrolled Government spending
and, even in its emascualted form,
it embodies a principle not friendly
to the free enterprise system,
though certainly in harmony with
the Roosevelt policies. Flamingly
championed by Secretary Wallace
and the CIO, unless Mr.. Truman
was ready to disregard the policies
and discard the political setup, he
had to champion it, too.
No Real Freedom.
Clearly, he is not ready to disre-
gard or discard and not being ready
he has no real freedom. He cannot
for another example, take a firm
stand in industry labor controver-
sizes. He cannot accept the Hatch
Burton-Ball bill, which the labor
leaders oppose. He cannot do a
number of other things for the
same reasons.
He is beginning to perceive this
but is not ready for the remedy
Perhaps, even if he were not shack
led by these inherited policies and
the inherited setup, Mr.. Truman
could not adequately deal with his
problems. But he would be In
much better position to do so. Mer
close enough to know his embar.
rassments report that he is worried
by the seriousness of the situation
which he sees more clearly than hi
did a month ago. And he is con.
cerned over his inability to do very
much about it.
OF course. he could throw thu
policies and the setup and all po.
litical considerations overheard
summon the best nonpolitical helr
available and concentrate solely or
getting the country solvent anc
healthy, and averting the danger.
he so clearly sees.
1t is easy enough to talk or write
about doing thing like that, bu
doing it is another thing. 1t is &
terrific thing to do. 1t would re.
quire tremendous determination