The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1951-08-30
THE GREAT
GAME OF
POLITICS
BY FRANK X. KENT
Copyright by The Baltimore Sun and
reprinted in The Republican by
permission.
Report On The U.N.
BY FRANK r. KENT

There is terrific yowling in certain
quarters over the recent action of the
House Of Representative in reducing
this country's contribution to the
United Nations. Considering that the
cut amounts only to $3,000,000 that
we now shoulder the great bulk OF
the United Nations cost and that
there is very great difficulty getting
some of the member nations to meet
their relatively small assessments
this does not seem to horrendous.
Actually, it seems somewhat ridicu-
lous in view of the recently printed
report of the subcommittee (Senator
Herbert O'Conor, of Maryland, chair
mani named by the Committee De-
partments, to study our relations
with international organizations. The
O'Conor report discloses a condition
within the United Nations of such
complete fiscal confusion as to be al
most without precedent. The waste
duplication and overlapping thus re-
vealed, while, perhaps, not justifying
loss of faith in either the idea or the
organization, certainly should dis
turb its most ardent friends. One Won
ders how, in so short a period, its
machinery could become so mired and
muddled
But, that is the well documented
and convincing picture the O'Conor
committee paints. For example, it
points out that no one possibly can
tell exactly what the United Nations
will cost in any year for the simple
reason that the finance committee of
the General Assembly has no real
budget and expenditures of the
numerous other committees, councils
and specialized agencies attached to
and part of the United Nations. Each
of these multitudinous agencies
makes and controls its own budget.
1t also controls its own destiny-even
concerning where it shall live and
work. An instance is given Of an
agency for which the secretary
general had provided space in the
New York building but which insisted
it should go to Rome. And, at large
expense, to Rome it went.
AS to costs, the committee reports
that between 1916 and including 1850
the United Nations and its agencies
expended approximately 1857, 100000,
of which so percent was contributed
by the United States. The utter fl
nancial looseness of the organization
IS explained in the following excerpt
from the report "In the United
Nations there is adequate budgetary
review but most inadequate budget
airy control. The secretary general
formulates his budget estimates on
the basis of programs and projects
authorized by the various political
bodies. All he is able to do about
these is to interpret them in terms
of cost of meetings, personnel, COM
mon services, etc. He has no author
ity to eliminate projects nor override
the action Of political bodies"
"His authority is limited to giving
advice and making recommendations
to the governing organs and he is I'M
able to use the budget to present to
the member nations his concept of
the organization detectives and
work programs. AS result, the
budget process loses its main func-
tions-management and control. At
present the only control lies in the
exercise of restraint and judgment by
the representatives of the member
nations in offering projects and pro-
grams"
The plain fact is that these repre-
sentatives exercise neither restraint
nor judgment and attempts of the
General Assembly's Financial Com
mittee to keep expenses down have
met such strong resistance and
created such righteous resentment"
that it is rapidly becoming a mere
rubber stamp" The system, the re-
port asserts, is such as not only to
make control farcial but also to rem