Evening star., 1948-01-31
The Congressional Cutters

It would have been better if the Presi-
dent had chosen his words more carefully
in his press conference comment on pro-
posals to cut $4,000, 900 from the initial
appropriation under the Marshall Plan.
For the words which were used can be
interpreted to mean that Mr.. Truman is
arbitrary, that he is putting too much
emphasis on maintaining an exact figure
and too little on securing approval of the
essential substance of the program, that
he is serving notice on the Congress that
he must be given precisely what he has
asked for or nothing at all.
This is unfortunate because it plays into
the hands of those who are looking for
excuses to oppose the Marshall Plan, and
will see in the Presidents words weapon
which can be turned both against him
and against the program itself.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the
President was right in his main thesis.
There are men in Congress who apparently
have made up their minds that, come what
may, they are going to cut the fund re-
quested to put the European Recovery Pro-
gram into operation. There Is no rhyme
or reason to what they are trying to do,
no documented case to show that the job
can be done with less money. There is
rather, simply determination that there
Is going to be cut, and 1t was to this
school of thought that the Presidents
remarks were directed.
He argued, and he Is perfectly right,
that it would be an act of folly to 60 into
this thing on penny -pinching basis. The
objective of the Marshall Plan is to enable
the Western European nations to pull
themselves together and get out of the
economic mess they are in. We have
humanitarian interest in this, an economic
interest, and, above all, a security interest.
For the belief is, and 1t is a sound belief,
that these nations, or at least some of
them whose integrity is vital to us, will
fall into the Communist camp unless they
can be revived economically. If this
should happen-if France or Italy or both
should come under the thumb of Moscow
there is not the slightest doubt that
the chances for peace would be simmer
than they are now, and they are slim
enough as 1t Is.
So Mr.. Truman urges that If we are
going to embark on this undertaking. we
do 1t on a scale which offers reasonable
promise of success, Perhaps he puts un-
due emphasis on the particular figure of
$6,8OO00o,OOO for the first fifteen months
of the program, for no one can say exactly
how much money will be- needed But
there is this to be remembered: The Tru-
man figure is not an off -the-cuff estimate.
1t is an estimate based on careful and
expert study, and its approximate correct
ness is supported by an impressive mass
of evidence. That is great deal more
than can be said of those who profess
to believe that the job can be done for
a billion dollars less, two billion less, or
some other figure. They cannot support
these lower estimates with persuasive evi-
dence, and the strong impression is that
they are not really estimates at all but
mere guesses, and some of them politically
inspired at that. Hence, while the all-or-
nothing tone adopted by the President may
have been inadvisable, he is much closer to
the mark than his opponents in this mat
ter And if the American people are wise,
if they correctly appraise this. possibly
last chance for peace, they will support
the President and not those congressional
guessers who would gamble with the life
of this country to be able to say: We said
we were going to cut him, and we did.