Madison County Democrat. (London, Ohio) 19??-1958, 1951-08-28
The World Today
CIVIL DEFENSE
BY James NARROW

was III u QdIk anu WOIIleQ tIlOOQ,
Congress passed the Civil Defense
Act.
This act made possible broad
program of cooperation between
the federal government and the
states and cities in many fields,
such as building air raid shelters,
training people, setting up warn
ing signals, and SO on.
But that was the time we were
taking a pasting from the comnu
nists in Korea and the country
was iittery, not knowing what to
expect next. The mood seems to
have changed.
President Truman and Millard
Caldwell, boss of civil defense
asked Congress for $685., 100000
to carry on the program this next
year. The House acted.
1t cut the amount requested
$469, ,745,00 by voting only $685.
5000 for the governments civil
defense program.
The main reason given in the
House: Caldwell's program is
''unrealistic" and I'VE cannot pro-
vide all that is necessary for civ
il defense without too much strain
on our resources"
Said Caldwell, still smarting
form disappointment: civil defen-
Sc should be supported or killed
outright and we should quit har-
assing the public"
This cut isn't final, of course,
unless the Senate also approves.
It hasn't started to consider the
money for civil defense yet. But
it will when it listens to Caldwell
and his aides.
No one expects the Senate to
give Caldwell all he asked. We
won't know the final figure until
House and Senate finally get to-
gether and agree on some one
amount.
OF the SEE, ,255 900 voted by the
House, about S50,00O,000 must be
used for supplies in case of an
air raid Most of it will be med
ical supplies. Under the head of
supplies Caldwell asked for $780,
100000.
But since S50,00C ,o0O of the
$62, 2,255, 900 must 60 into supplies
If the House action is agreed
to by the Senate-that will leave
only $15,000,000 for everything
else in the governments civil de-
fense program.
On one item-planning and
helping build bomb shelters-the
House turned thumbs down alto
gether. 1t said that's a job for
state and cities.
Caldwell, the day before the
House voted, said not one city in
the u. S. has even approached
the point where it could withstand
an atomic attack now"
II he thought this would keep
the House from knocking his
plans to splinters he was mistak-
en-.
Nor were two members of the
house itself-Melvin Price of Ill.
inois and Henry NJ. Jackson oi
Washington, both Democrats
able to sway the other congress.
men with sharp warnings.
Both are members of the Con.
gressional Atomic Energy Com.
mittee whose members get secret
information from government ag
encies on Russia's atomic progress
Both spoke against the big cut
in civil defense. Boiled down, This
/ is what they said:
Russia is in the atomic busi,
ness in a big way; they couldn't
reveal the exact number of bombs
Russia is believed to have but
they are bigger and more potent
than previously believed; and ar
atomic attack on this country
is possible.
The National Civil Defense Ad-
yisory Council came to Caldwell'S
support. It's made up of three
governors, three mayors, two
newspaper publishers, and four
distinguished citizens.
This week the council accused
Congress and the Defense Depart
ment Of showing little concern
for the the needs of civil defense
and it said:
A token setup" might do more
harm than good by giving a false
sense of security to the people"