The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-29
Today And Tomorrow
BY WALTER

"a the bill IS. 1853 for a national
IAN e establishment, it may be
~ ina this IS now the best pos
Ihf e bill because it has been
srreed to by tie civilians, the
0;Idiers. sailors and airmen who
s;u have to live under it and make
work. This is no shotgun mar
riage. Nor is it a marriage ar
~aopd by the fond parents who
"l2 .bink they know better than
ms bride and groom. 1t rs no
abon7p which is to be imposed
aar the armed forces by out
.do deficiency experts or blue
.iT+ makers. Nor is it a scheme
a,.ented by the military politl-
u.aYe Of one branch o. the armed
# is the product OF prolonged
dahate by our proven military
(0adars The debate has ended in
agreement. The fact that the
war department and the Navy
nsnartment, that Patterson and
porrostaI. Eisenhower and Nimltz
~ snaatz are agreed that this
a The bin they want is a COMPEL
no reason for %favoring this bill.
Tsora is no use passing another
Nh even if some one prefers ii,
t%at they do not all agree to. For
tho whole object OF. the legislation
;s +o increase the harmony OF tie
'orious arms. The fact that they
sava harmonized themselves and
ara agreed on this bill is the best
arscticsl reason for believing that
..a bill will promote harmony.
THE reason that they have been
hronqht to agreement is that they
what is the real issue. 1t is clearly
u,ba+ is the real issu. 1t is that
IN npace and in war the President,
Commander-in-Chief must of
necessity unity the armed forces.
The question is not whether they
sball be ''unified.' 1t is whether
tbn President is to be enabled to-
know what he is doing when he
acts as commandments
This bill IS in essence a bill to
make the President a more effec-
tive Commander-in-Chief 1t is
NOT a bill about how the Navy, the
marine corps, the air corps, the
infantry. the armored divisions,
tba medical services, and what not,
are to be composed, equipped, re-
cruited, trained. Differed, paid,
fed. clothed. 1t is in the last
ANALYSIS a bill about how the
President in the White House is to
make the decisions which as Presi-
dent and Commandments he
must make about the whole com
nljoated business of national de-
tense.
The bill creates. a Secretary of
National Defense. who is in sub
stance the Presidents deputy in
the whole field of military affairs.
Below the deputy there r a
Secretary Of the Army, a Secre-
tary of the Navy, and a Secretary
Of the Air Force. The Presidents
deputy does what the President
now has to do-he promotes agree
ments and decides differences
among the various branches. He
gives his whole time to this task
whereas the President can, of
course, give only a little of his
time 10 it. He is supposed to be a
man of eminence in his own right.
Probably he will be. For his par
ticular appointment will be scru-
tinized very carefully by Congress.
the armed forces. the veterans and
the general public.
Yet the decisions of the deputy
are not final. The three secre-
taries under him, each normally
the special advocate and guardian
Of his W service, have the right
to appeal from the decisions of
the deputy to the President. But
In deciding the appeal the Presi-
dent will be, so to speak, the ST.
prene Court and not the court
Of first instance. Thus the ap-