Evening star., 1950-05-02
Baruch Again Urging
Overall Program in
Preparation for War
Twice Before in History
He Tried to Give Advice
To American People
By David L0aprence

By David Laurence
Twice in history just before g
world war, Bernard M. Baruct
tried to give some advice to the
American people on what they
should do to prepare for war. HI
has been giving some advice agair
In public speeches recently, so thi.
correspondent wondered whether
the elder statesman sees war II
the offing.
rs there going to be another
world WARP" he was asked.
Il don't know"
"Why don't you know?"
Because nobody knows - Ger.
tainly not the American people"
why don't they know?"
Because they are not being
given the information on which
they can base a judgment and
doubt whether anyone in our Gov
ernment knows"
Wants Standby Program.
Mr.. Baruch is convinced that
the best way to avert war is to
prepare for it as if it were going to
happen instantly. He wants a
standby program on the statute
books that can be put into opera
ton at once. AS he sees it, there
is in effect now no overall plan
ning-no board of peace strategy
which is but another phrase for
cold-War strategy.
The chief point that Mr.. Baruch
makes is that the National Sc
curity Council today consists of
men in Government who are too
busy to give time and thought to
the concept imbedded in the title.
1t comprises officials who are busy
doing their regular jobs. He
thinks membership on the council
should not be a part-ti affair,
but a full-time job and that the
members should do nothing but
study the problems of national
security.
1t isn't all military problem,
but, to a large extent, economic.
Thus, as Mr.. Baruch views it, a
board of strategy should have
ready an industrial mobilization
plan that is law before the shoot
ing starts. He believes that along
with this must go an enlargement
of our general intelligence agen-
cies which gather information
from all parts of the world.
Is Russia buying wool and in
what quantities? How much rub
ber is she putting into her stock
pile? What did she mean recently
by her upward revaluation of the
gold ruble? Did the United States
sit by idly while Russia increased
the purchasing power of her gold
in certain places? Were there no
counter-measures possible in the
gold markets? What about the
forces that are causing initiation
to rise in America and thus in
crease the cost of our prepared
ness program? Is Indo- China be-
ing handled properly by the Allies?
Why does Britain recognize Com
muniSt China while Australians
talk Of sending troops to fight
communism in Southeast Asia?
Information Lacking.
These are only a few of the ques-
tions to which answers are i'm
portant to the Allied side where
apparently no unified program of
strategy yet exists.
Mr.. Baruch comedies that some
of these things might be in proc
ess of being taken care of but he
will not feel that any real progress
is being made toward prevention
OF war unless America is ready
with an overall program. He
urged the same thing in 1889 to
no avail.
Leaders in Government-con-
gressional and military-frequent-
ly consult Mr.. Baruch but at the
moment he is not being consulted
by the White House due to some
political differences. These seem
unimportant in relation to the
value of the experience which Mr..
Baruch has had with international
economic issues. Asked what he
could advise at this time other
than the overall board of STRAIT
egy and the industrial mobiliza-
ton plan-that is, what policies
might be followed in the cold war
he said: Il just don't know. The
facts we need in order to evalu-
ate the whole situation simply do
not appear to be available"
If Mr. Baruch doesn't know
what's coming, it is a rather un-
usual position for him. His back
ground and acuteness of judgment
are very much needed in the coun-
cils of the Government today
If only to evaluate the facts that
are known only to Government.
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