Evening star., 1948-01-15
Truman Budget Hides
Cost Of Bureaucracy
Under Defense Needs
Muny Kept on PoyrolIs
As civiIion Employees
On Such Pretext
By David Laurence g

It appears to be so easy to propa-
gandize America. The oficial story
as given to the people is swallowed,
and there is very little dissent.
Thus, with a nonchalance that
Is characteristic Of the mention of
billions Of dollars these days, Presi-
dent Truman offers a 10000, ,000, 900
budget for the coming fiscal year,
and then says 10 per cent Of the pro-
posed expenditures reflect the costs
Of war, the effects of war and our
efforts to prevent future war;"
Then, with the same self-assur-
ance that billions will be Tforthcom-
ing for almost any benevolent pur-
pose, the President says that "only
81 per cent"-which means $8,000,-
000, 0,000-f1nances the broad areas"
Of social welfare, housing, education,
research, agriculture, natural re-
sources, general administration, etc.
An item of eight billions may look
inconsequential to President Tru-
man, but 1t is more than the Fed
eral Government collected in 1941,
and America didn't really have diff
Guilty in 1941 in surviving without
the luXuries included in the "only
81 per cent" category.
Bureaucracy Cloaked.
Most important, of course, is that
the budget message CLOSES over what
has happened to bureaucracy and
the parasites who feed at the public
trough. Under the cloak Of ma
tional defense" many employees of
Government VINO should have been
eliminated from the payroll are still
there. Mr.. Truman's message, pre-
pared for him no doubt by the
Budget Bureau, mentions this tell
tale fact: About 40 per cent of all
Federal civilian employees will be en-
gagged in defense activities" in the
fiscal year 1948-49.
1t is conceded, moreover, that an
expenditure of about $4,000, ,000, 900
will be used ITO pay civilian workers
engaged in industrial supply, main
tenance and administrative activi-
ties, overseas and in the United
States, on defense programs"
There were approximately 1000, 900
persons on the Federal civilian pay
roll in 1947 according to latest avail
able figures, so the foregoing means
that about 100000 persons are now
included on Government jobs as
defense" employees.
4 This is something, certainly, for
congressional committees to ex-
plore, but the $4,000, 100000 isn't the
only item that needs explanation.
Why is the Federal Government
spending $11 1,000, ,000, 600 for defense
and nearly $1,000, ,0O0, 900 for aid to
Europe, and can no economies be
made? The Presidents message
gives the impression that the spend
ing must 60 on and that amounts
for the next fiscal year must be in
creased over the preceding one.
Defense and Aid Items.
The biggest items of ala total
Of about $4,000, 900 ,000-are nation
al defense and aid to Europe, and
these two things are closely related
to the conduct Of our foreign policy.
President Truman has virtually abb
dicated that function and delegated
1t to the State Department, where
secrecy is like it was in wartime.
Public knowledge of what goes on
in our relations with Russia is lin
tied. If there were a basis for un-
derstanding with Russia without
detriment to Americas position in
the postwar world, 1t would be diff
cult to CLEAN any such idea from
the information available.
The whole atmosphere here Is
colored by feeling Of the ineW-
liability of war with Russia. Ofdcials
deny any such contingency will oc-
cur in the immediate future. Yet
the campaign to introduce a mill
tary draft of the youth of the coun-
try and the spending Of more and
more billions for defense and for po-
litical support of countries in
Europe is all based on fear OF a
war with Russia.
So the realistic truth is that
America is spending about half>it
budget of $4,000, 900, 900 largely on
account of fear of war with Russia
"a confession that America can no
longer rely on diplomacy and moral
force and must prepare for war or
the coercion of Russia by economic
or physical force. If war is not in
the offing, then much Of the ex-
penditure Is wasteful. AS 1t is, the
combination of a war psychosis and
political bureaucracy is costing the
taxpayers more than is necessary for
either defense or the prevention OF
war.
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