Evening star., 1946-09-18

|O''NO'
MY dear Mr.. President:
l hope you will excuse this lonl
letter. Personally I hate to writ,
long letters, and I hate to receiv
them.
My only excuse is that this sub
ject is very important one-prob
ably the most important in the worlc
today. I checked with you abou
this last Thursday and you sug
gested after Cabinet meeting OF
Friday that you would like to hav,
my views.
l have been increasingly disturbed
about the trend of international af
fairs since the end of the war, anc
l am even more troubled by The
apparently growing feeling amons
the American people that another
war is coming and the only way tha
we can head it off is to arm our.
selves to the teeth. Yet all of pas
history indicates that an armament.
race does not lead to peace but tt
war. The months just ahead MAY
well be the crucial period which viii
decide whether the civilized worlc
will 60 down in destruction after the
five or 10 years needed for severa
nations to arm themselves with
atomic bombs. Therefore I want tc
give you my views on how the pres
/ ent trend toward conflict might be
averted.
/ Won thi,oly rtr L.
reading further. that I should ex-
press so much concern at this par
ticular time, just after the Foreign
Ministers Conference at which real
progress was made on peace treaties
for several eastern European coun-
tries and for Italy. Others have
expressed feeling of increased op-
timism that still further progress
could be made through continued
negotiations on the same basis, even
though the remaining European
/ issues are much more difficult than
those on which a measure of agree
ment has already been reached.
l am fully appreciative of the
efforts that have been made and
the patience that has been exercised
/ by our various representatives who
have carried on negotiations with
the Russians during the past few
years. I am conscious of the aggra
vatlonS they have put up with anc
of the apparent Inconsistencies on
/ the part of Russian representatives
/ On the other hand, feel these very
! difficulties make it necessary for
some of us who. from the outside
are watching the course of events to
voice our opinions.
Most Spending for Defense.
incidentally, as Secretary of Com
merce I talk to a good many bust
nessmen, and find them very much
concerned over the size of the Fed
eral budget and the burden of the
national debt. For the next fisca
year and for the year Immediately
ahead, by far the largest category
of Federal spending is the nationa
defense. For example, the total
recommended Federal appropria-
tions for the fiscal year l947 sub
mitted to the Congress in the official
budget amounted to about S36, 6,000,-
100000. OF the total budget some
! $4,000 ,000,00 was for the War ano
Navy Departments alone. An ad.
I ditional $1,000, 100000 was for wal
liquidation activities. Ten billior
dollars represented interest on the
public debt and veterans benefits
which are primarily the continuing
costs of past wars. These items tota
s28 ,000, 900 900, or about 80 per cen
/ Of the total recommended expendi-
! lures.
Clearly, large reduction in the
Federal budget would require cut
in military appropriations Thes,
appropriations are now more thar
10 times as great as they were dur.
ing the shirties.
In the 1888 budget appropriation!
| for national defense were less thar
a bil-bn dollars, compared with sl3,-
100000. 900 for the present fsca
year. Thus. even from a purely dol
lars-and-cents standpoint, American
business and the American people
have an interest in organizing q
peaceful world in which the COM
pletely unproductive expenditures or
national defense could be reduced.
/ Of course. dollars and cents are
not the most important reason why
we all want a peaceful world. The
RI tol Il
not wish to go through another wal
and especially an atomic wal
which will undoubtedly be directed
primarily against civilian popula
tions and may we'll mean the enc
of modern civilization.
/ Yet are we really concentrating
all our efforts on q program to builo
a lasting peace? There car be nc
doubt that the AmericaT people
want and expect that their leaders
will work for an enduring peace
But the people must necessarily
leave to their leaders the specific
ways and means to this objective
l think that at the moment the peo.
pie feel that the outlook for the
elimination of war is dark, thai
other nations are wilfully obstruct.
ing American efforts to achieve @
permanent peace.
u. S. Power Is Feared.
How do American actions since
VI day appear to other nations
I mean by actions the concrete
things like $4,000 100000 for the
War and Navy Departments, the
Bikini tests of the atomic bomb ano
continued production of bombs, the
plan to arm Latin America with oul
weapons, production of B-29s anc
planned production of B-36s and the
effort to secure airbases spreac
over half the globe from which the
other half of the globe can bt
bombed. I cannot but feel thai
these actions must make it look tc
the rest of the world as if we were
only paying lip service TO peace al
the conference table.
These facts rather make it appear
either % that We are preparing
ourselves to win the war which We
regard as inevitable or ~ that We
are trying to build up a predomi-