Evening star., 1950-04-01
Baruch Urges Nation
10 Be Ready 10 Go
In Event Of New War
oy the Assoe;ossd Press

nard Baruch today called for a
"ready-to-go" mobilization plan
to place the Nation on an all-out
war footing the instant another
war is declared.
He said the time gap" needed
to convert production from peace
to war constitutes the ''gravest
source Of peril" to the United
States.
Speaking before staff members
and students Of the Naval War
College yesterday. Mr.. Baruch
said:
I'VE ian be sure that the Soviet
leaders have not forgotten that
it took us nearly two and a half
years to convert our gigantic pro-
ductive energies from peace to
war" in the last conflict.
Time Gap Is Menace.
This time gap in our mobiliza-
tion." he sAid. rs our gravest
source of peril. 1t is the weak
ness around which any enemy
must base its war plans"
The former presidential adviser
said United States possession of
the atomic bomb has not solely
prevented covert Soviet aggres-
sion these past years"
He said that mo nation in the
world will attack a mObiliZed
America"
THE only strategy any enemy
can have is to attempt to over
whelm US during that too little,
too late period while our military
power is still on order"
His mobilization plan would
include a call to arms, ceiling
prices to prevent imitation, much
higher taxes and a general sta1
for peace.
Would Invite Disaster.
"To wait until war has begun
and bombs are actually falling
before we begin to legislate is to
invite disaster" he declared.
Turning to the diplomatic front,
Mr.. Baruch said:
If our diplomacy is to be truly
total we must mobilize not only
public opinion but the necessary
economic, military and political re-
sources, applying those resources
on the basis of an overall global
strategy. That is not now being
done. I doubt that it will be done
unless some central peacemaking
agency is created.
II began urging the formation of
such GHQ for peace even before
the last war ended. In memoranda
to President Roosevelt I pointed
out that Americas greatest power
in the peacemaking would lie in
the fact that we would emerge
from the war with our enormous
productive power untouched by
devastation. No country in the
world would be able to raise its liv-
ing standards without American
help. Our problem would be how
to bring this great productive
power to bear upon the peacemak-
ing as decisively as we had done
in the warmaking.
Roosevelt Liked Idea.
Il proposed to President Roose-
welt that an advisory peace coun.
Gil be created consisting of the
Secretaries of State, War, Navy
Treasury. the director of war mo.
bilization and reconversion, the
foreign economic administrator
and Harry Hopkins. This body
was to consider all peace ques-
tions, formulating their recon-
mendations for policy. which were
to go to the President for his final
decision. This council was also to
have small staff of its own under
the direction of a counselor who
enjoyed the complete personal
confidence Of the President.
Roosevelt liked the idea and
said he would put it into effect.
He told me he would name James
F. Byrnes as its chairman and
Judge Samuel Rosenman as the
counsellor. Judge Rosenman was
then in Europe and the President
put off establishing the council
until Rosenman should return.
Shortly after that President
Roosevelt sent me to London to
discuss some matters with Win
Ston Churchill and while there I
told Judge Rosenman about the
Presidents plan. A few days later
we received the tragic news that
the President had died.
when I returned from London
I repeated the suggestion for this
peace council to President Tru-
man and he said he would create
the body. But the idea got
Shunted of.
Possibly the reason was the
creation of the National Security
Council, which. I was told, was
modelled on the earlier suggestion
of an advisory peace council to
the President. Unfortunately. if
that is what the Security Council
was intended to be, it hasn't
worked out that way. The men,
bers of the Security Council are
overworked; its membership needs
broadening; it's functioning must
be recrganized to come to grips
with the problems of achieving a
decision in the peacemaking. in
stead of avoiding decision as has
happened too often in the past"
Eoypt Counts Livestock