Evening star., 1950-08-27
Paul Douglas Is
An Economist
Who Economies
Dy Gould Lincoln

%S~tS @ssh&Ssts
The war In Korea and mobilisa- =
ton In this country have put q
flaming sword In the hands OF that
fighting liberal, Senator Paul II.
Douglas of Illinois. New Dealers,
Fair Dealers and conservatives in
the Senate have never completely
recovered from their surprise at
the onslaught which the freshman
Democratic Senator made last
year on the rivers and harbors
bill, in the name of governmental
economy and balanced budget.
His stand was entirely. out Of
character-as recognized lib
eral." Again and again. however.
Mr.. Douglas has returned to the
fray. With q war on, and with
Federal taxes soon to be greatly
increased, he is In better situation
than ever to demand careful
spending and economy In the
Government.
Latest Maneuver
Senator Douglas most recent
maneuver for economy came when
the Senate last week was consider
ing the Federal aid highway bill.
He offered series of amendments
cutting deep into the appropria-
tions which the measure proposed
to authorize, and while his major
proposals were defeated his whole
effort was partially answered
through amendments offered by
Senator Byrd of Virginia-his
predecessor by many years In the
fight for economy-and adopted
by the Senate.
The action of the Senate on this
measure, indeed. gives hope Gov
ernment appropriations. save for
national defense. may be curtailed.
AS the bill passed the House, it
carried $646.5 million; as it was
originally reported to the Senate
by the Public Buildings Commit
tee 1t carried $748.5 million. With
large chunks of money needed for
the armed services and a warning
from President Truman in mind,
the committee knocked $120 bill
lion off the total, and the Senate
itself cut $59.5 billion more, leav-
ing a total of 1863 million as it
passed the upper house.
In the opinion of Senator
Douglas, this is a mere drop in
the economy bucket.
with annual additional appro-
priations of from $40 billion to
SIS billion for the armed services
coming UP. Senator Douglas in
sisted. "We must cut Govern
ment expenditures wherever pos
sible. and to the bone"
Sitting in his ONCE, the big,
keen-faced Illinois Senator also
gave 1t as his opinion that Fed
eral taxes must be far more
drastically increased than the S.
billion bill now In the legislative
works. He proposes to support the
excess profits tax, advocated by
Senator O'Mahoney. Wyoming
Democrat. In addition he has
some tax increases which he him
self will offer.
Taught Economics
1--WE can't afford to let deficit
spending continue to rise" Sen
ator Douglas said. With the public
debt already approximating $265
billions, it Is his contention that
the public may soon be drained
of its savings or be unwilling to
put more into Government bonds.
Then the Government will have
to put pressure on the banks.
and the inflationary spiral will
be in full bloom.
Senator Douglas is a former
University Of Chicago professor OF
economics. His Fair Deal friends,
who hailed his election to the
Senate in 1948 as a major achieve
men, regard him as something
fantastic, professor of economics
an economist-who believes in
balancing the Government budget
by cutting expenditures. That
is not the kind of economist the
New Dealers and the Fair Dealers
have been used to-not when they
desired to go ahead with huge
deficit spending. Further, Senator
Douglas is a liberal who declines
to be liberal with other peoples
money-the American people.
The Illinois Senator, in his