Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-02-02
Friction in Congress
On Aid Laid 10 Lack
OF Candor by Truman
Fronkness Held Vitul
To Save Cooperation
On Marshall Plan
By David Laurence

Candor between the White House
and Congress is the only sure way
to preserve bipartisan cooperation
on foreign policy.
A lack of candor and loose han
ding by President Truman of the
request for $500, 000, 1000 for the
Marshall Plan have brought wholly
unnecessary friction on Capitol Hill.
1t is disservice to the many people
supporting the Marshall Plan to
hide o. nggle the facts on such an
import. t matter as $500, 000, 900
for European recovery. Time Is of
the essence in the program, yet
delays continue, due to peanut poll
tics and pettiness in presidential
campaign year.
The truth is a better ally at the
nolls than political juggling, only
most men in public life haven't dis
covered it.
Not Frank on Amount.
Mr.. Truman was not completely
frank when he sent his message to
Congress and asked for $4,000, 000,-
600 for the next Is months. He ex-
planned that the bulk Of the money
would be spent in those Is months
between April, 1948, and July, 1949.
Now it turns out that Of the
$1,000, 000, 900 a sum of $4,000, O00, 900
or about 331s per cent is to be &C
counted for in the budget for the
fiscal year 1850.
The explanation given officially is
that the $4,000, 100000 is needed as
carry-over and that goods must be
ordered before July i, 1949, and will
be paid for in the fiscal year ending
July /, 1850.
There have been carry-over ap-
preparations before but they usually
refer to some small portion of an
appropriation that lags from one
fiscal year to another. To carry over
such a huge proportion or such a
big amount is unprecedented.
Matter Easily ExplainabIe.
The worst feature is that the
matter could have been explained
forthrightly. The attempt to hide
it or to gloss over it was wrong.
Maybe 1t was just sheer careless
ness, of which there seems to be an
abundance in the Truman admins
tration.
The explanation that many mem
bers of Congress are accepting is
that Mr.. Truman was hard put to
it to offer a budget under $4,000
100000 and found that the Marshall
Plan for the next Is months would
run the figures above the ceiling he
had set. So it is suggested that the
President and the Budget Bureau
decided to separate the two items
and explain the $4,000, 100000 as
the money actually to be spent in
the next Is months and the $780,
100000 as future needs.
What is mysterious is that the
President did not tell why he didn't
want to present the matter to Con-
gress when it meets again in Janu-
airy, ls49. II the $4,000, 100000 isn't
needed till some time after July /,
1949, there is ample opportunity to
get authority next January from
Congress to spend it.
No Need for Mystery.
There is no need for mystery about
any of these matters There are
chairmen of appropriations commit
tees who ought to be taken into the
confidence of the administration.
Neither President Truman nor Sec
rotary Marshall took the trouble to
explain any of these items to Senator
Bridges, for instance, the powerful
chairman of the Senate Appropria-
q lions Committee.
This not only was discourteSy
but blunder in tactics which illus
trates why if the Marshall Plan gets
through it will be because of the
spirit of patriotism of Republican
leadership in Congress and in spite
of ambiguous and inadequate state
ments by the Democratic admins
tration in respect to billions of dol
lars of the peoples money.
(Reproduction rights reSeryed)