Evening star., 1949-10-08
81 Election Campaign
Will Center on Issue
OF General Welfare
Voters Facing Choice Of
More and More or Less
And Less Government

More and More or Less
And Less Government
By Dorothy Thompson
The 1852 camgaign is already
on. starting off in New York State
with the senatorial election, and
with the Presidents broadcast to
American women on September
27. 1t bids well to be another of
those campaigns marked by little
discrimination on either side.
Senator Dulles has already
sounded the Republican clarion
against "statism," and has re-
jected both the Presidents med
ical-aid proposals and Federal
aid to schools, while the President
has expounded again his theories
of the welfare state. The voter
is thus asked to choose between
less and less Government or more
and more Government. But the
probability is that he wants more
of some things and less of others.
One may, for instance, be
strongly in favor of Federal aid
to schools and equally strongly
against the Presidents medical
bill. There are States of the Union
so poor in income that although
they spend far larger proportion
of their funds on education than
many of the richer States, their
children are underprivileged in
education. Most children must, in
any case, be educated collectively.
Education can be efficiently
budgeted. whether at a high or
low level, for it always is pos
sible to estimate within fractional
margins how many children Of
which age groups will, or should
be, in school.
Issue Different in Medicine.
In Federal medicine, however,
the issue is very different. Public
health is a normal province of
Government, which determines
sanitary conditions; provides for
inspection of cattle, milk and
water; provides visiting nurses in
many parts of the country: is
responsible for veterans hospitals;
and should, it seems to me, as
sure an adequate hospital network
where such does not exist. But
when it comes to putting every
physician in the country on a
Government staff, cataloguing
every soul as a case, and guaran-
teeing the care at public expense
for every one who is i'll or thinks
he is i'll, we are making very
radical departure.
The Presidents medical bill pro-
poses to collectivize the most in
dividual matter that exists. You
can teach children to read. write.
add and subtract, collectively, in
a classroom. But there is no such
thing as a collective of patients.
Illnesses and variations of them
are as numerous as there are in
dividuals. What is one mans
cure can be another mans fun
eral. and it is never possible to
budget in advance for universal
free" medicine. .1,'f
1t is also impossible to deal
efficiently with emergences. People
must wait their turn. Waiting is
all right If one wants a set Of
false teeth. but all wrong if one
has a raging toothache or needs
an emergency operation. My own
experience of socialized medicine
is that its costs are tremendous
and it's benefits seldom the ones
one needs.
Characteristic of the Presi-
dents speech is his effort to pre-
sent Government as a rich uncle
who, If he is a good uncle. will
shower his nephews and nieces
with benefits. We, however, must
remind ourselves that this uncle
has not a cent to spend on us
except what he takes away from
us. There is no such thing as
free" Government service, and
the question is simply how mucn
of the money Americans earn
they wish to spend according to
their own estimates of their needs,
and how much they wish to spend
according to Government die
tateS.
The medical bill would be paid
by every employed American by
a withdrawal from his pay check,
and by the cost to the employer
passed on in the price of his
products. And how great a pro-
portion of the workers income
would have to be deducted no.
body In the Government can tell,
for no Government has ever been
able accurately to predict the
cost.
Since the President addressed
women. a woman may be allowed
to remark that in her experience
the average American housewife
is a much more efficient budgeterE
than the Federal Government;
and that, in general, people spend
their own money more intelli-
gently than they spend the money,
of others.
If the theory of the welfare
State were carried to its last
logic, all Of us would turn over
everything we earn to the Gov
ernment and it would give us back
what it thinks we ought to have,
not in cash but, in services.
And while the President is
quoting the preamble to the Con-
stitution we might recall that the
general welfare clause does not
express its only purpose. Our
Government also exists "to secure
the blessings of liberty to our
selves and our posterity."
Released BY the Bell Syndicate. 1nc.)
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