Evening star., 1946-09-27
The Problem of Arms

The Problem of Arms
Taken by itself, one of Henry A.
Wallace's sounder points in his
fight for peace" is the point deal
ing with postwar military expendi-
lures. AS of today, out of total
recommended Federal outlay of
S36, 900 100000 for fiscal 1947, the
huge sum of $4,000, 900, ,ooo-more
than third of the whole-has been
set aside for the Army and Navy.
Stated another way. although the
last of our Axis enemies has long
since been disposed of, we are still
spending on our armed forces over
ten times what we spent on them
annually in the 1930s.
The reason for this, of course, is
that our own security and our grave
responsibilities abroad demand that
we remain militarily strong until the
peace is firmly established. To say
this, however, does not alter the
fact that if we are ever to achieve
a real balanced budget and reduce
taxes, we must begin sometime to
give serious thought to ways and
means of tapering off on our Army
and Navy appropriations without
injury to our safety. In all prob
ability, more than a few years will
have to pass before the level of the
1930s can even be Appropriated, but
certainly, II we are to put our fiscal
house in order, we cannot indefinite
ly devote $13,OOO,OOO 900 a year to
our postwar arms. The same holds
true for other nations; together with
us, they must cut down on such ex-
penditureS or risk the danger of
self-impoverishment and the crea-
ton of world permanently divided
into fear-ridden armed camps.
There are many things to be said
against the methods Mr.. Wallace
would use to cope with this prob
lem, but he does not exaggerate the
Importance of doing something
about it at the earliest possible date.
Nor is he alone in feeling that way
Senator Tydings, for example, who
is anything but pro-Wallace and
whose record is that of a man who
favored Americas prewar prepared
ness, has expressed a similar view in
a significant speech delivered the
other day at Baltimore. Looking
upon the subject with the same
sense of urgency as Mr.. Wallace, and
believing that the arms race is al
ready on, he has called upon Presi-
dent Truman to move Immediately
for the convening of a conference
to discuss total disarmament on a
worldwide basis. He would have
this conference held Independently
of the United Nations and he would
have it aim at setting up a rigid
international inspection system to
prevent any country from maintain
ing more than 100000 men in its
armed forces. Further, in his judg-
ment, unless such program is un-
dertaken noW-at once-and unless
there is full inter-Allied agreement
on it, the United States will have no
alternative but to arm to the
teeth; the American tax load will
never decrease; every power will do
its best to make bigger and better
atomic bombs, and the U. N. prob
ably will decline into the most CO.
lossal and sad failure of all the in
stitutions created by mankind in
history"
Not less than Mr.. Wallaces, Mr..
Tydings' proposed methods are open
to attack on several grounds-on the
ground, for instance, that the reali-
ties of the moment initiate against
the immediate calling of a disarma-
ment conference; or on the ground
that there would be little sense in
holding it outside the United Ma
tions; or on such other grounds as
that the Senator underestimate the
great value of trying to move step
by step toward an enduring peace
with measures like our atomic con-
troll plan. Nevertheless, irrespective
of methods and again like Mr..
Wallace, he has not exaggerated the
Importance of the problem, but has
rather rendered a service by helping
to spread public aWareness of the
fact that sooner or later, unless we
are all to keep on living in an at
mosphere of militarized fear poison
Gus to our individual liberties and
our productive economic strength,
the United States and the world
must drastically disarm.
The how and when of this prob
lem are highly debatable, to be sure.
But what is not debatable is that
the problem itself exists and that
it Is urgent and that men like Sen
ator TydingS and Mr.. Wallace do