Evening star., 1951-01-13
The Political Mill -
Defense Program Seen
Back Door to Fair Deal
Labor Support for Truman
Gives Body to Rumor
By Gould Lincoln

growing suspicion that the defense
program is to provide back-door route
to the Fair Deal measures, advocated
by President Truman and the so-called
liberal wing of the Democratic Party, is
making itself felt in the National Capt.
tai The alacrity with which some Of
the leaders of organized labor have gone
to the front for President Truman's
recent message on the state Of the
Union to Congress gives body to this
lowering rumor. The labor leaders say
ok. We are going right along with
the President, especially on national
defense" William Green, president Of
the American Federation of Labor. am
plifies. He points out that Mr.. Truman
in message urged Congress not to over
look improvements for the "long pull
and Mr.. Green spoke particularly Of
national health insurance.
To Mr. Green, and, indeed, to all Of
the 100 per cent Fair Dealers, compul-
sorry national health insurance does not
mean socialized medicine, or even plac-
ing many more billions of dollars on the
backs of the taxpayers.
More Realistic View.
The man on the street seems to have
a more realistic view. But the man on
the street soon is going to be ground
down by heavier and heavier taxes-and
when he is-for the sake of national
defense-he may be forced into frame
of mind friendly toward proposals for
free medical service. That at least is
what the Fair Dealers hope. They will
tax him until he is unable to pay for
medical care-and then tax him again
to subsidize free medicine. It's a nice
idea-for the Fair Dealers who want the
Government to do everything-if. 1t
works.
Further, with the prices of foods going
up to a point where the man on the
street and his family are going to have
a difficult time getting enough to eat,
there is going to be demand for Gov
ernment subsidies to help keep these
prices down to the consumer while at
the same time letting the prices the
farmer and the middleman get remain
at higher levels. Then the Brannan
farm program, with it's production pay
ments to farmers and its subsidies to
the consumers, is going to be launched
again-make no mistake. The admins
tration promises that the Brannan plan
will keep prices up for the farmer and
low for the consumer may be as phony
as the old medicine shows. But they
will sound better, when the man on the
street has been softened up enough.
Here, too, the man on the street will
have been taxed until he cannot buy
food he needs for himself and family,
and then will be taxed again to provide
subsidies so he can get more meat and
butter and eggs, etc.
Correct View Undecided.
Washington also is trying to decide
whether the Mr.. Truman who addressed
Congress last Monday and who soft
pedaled the Fair Deal measure gives the
correct view of the administration
present attitude or the Mr.. Truman who
militantly declared at his press confer
ence on Thursday that the Fair Deal
measures were not being abandoned at
all. Mr. Truman made no plea to Con-
gress to put through an FEPC law or
other civil rights measures-as he did
with emphasis when he spoke to the last
Congress. But at his press conference,
when he was asked if the civil rights
program was being put aside for while,
his answer was an emphatic NO
The idea has grown-immediatel
after the Presidents message to Con-
gress-that he had decided not to press
for civil rights legislation now-or to seek
repeal of the Taft-Hartley labor law.
His recent letter to Senator Harry Byrd
OF Virginia, asserting he believed they
could cooperate, gave additional color
to this belief. But when he was asked
point blank at his press conference
about these things, the President gave
emphasis to his assertions that these
things had by no means been abandoned,
even temporarily.
Organized labor leaders, who are op-
posing wage controls and demanding
price controls, must have had some kind
OF assurance from the White House, it
Is said here, that the President still
stands for outright repeal of the Taft
Hartley Act. Otherwise they probably
would have been yelling their heads of.
Whether the Negroes are going to accept
the Monday Truman, or the Thursday
Truman, remains to be seen. Some hold
that the Negroes are being sold down
the river to bring about rapproche-
ment between Mr. Truman and the
Southerners in Congress.