The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1953-08-07
By JAMES L. McDEVITT, Director,
Labor's League for Political
Education, AFL

GuuCdIloL, AT II
President Eisenhower was elected
partly because of the belief that he
was a great administrator who could
unite our country in peace and pros
perity. Unfortunately up to this hour
the record fails to indicate any sue
cess in that direction. Therefore we
should ask what has gone wrong and
raise our voices in the hope that the
President and his lieutenants will do
something to get the ship of state
back on a steady course.
Recently | reported what seemed
to be a trend to appoint top gov
eminent officials who are opposed
to the particular laws which they are
charged with carrying out. Not only
has Eisenhower's relationship with
Congress gone from bad to worse, but
the tendency to make sweeping
changes affecting every citizen by
administrative action has continued.
McKAY'S TIMING BAD
Secretary of Interior Douglas Me-
Kay has given another rush to the
new "give away program by recon-
of its % synthetic rubber plants
which the taxpayers have kept on a
standby basis in case rubber from
Asia is cut off again.
Considering the sudden drive of
the Reds into Laos, which is at the
door of the rubber-rich Malayan pc
ninsula, it seems that Secretary Nc
Kay's timing was bad. Amy taxpayer
who remembers the tire shortage af-
ter the Japanese captured South East
Asia should be alarmed by McKay's
actions.
Mrs. Hobby, the new Secretary of
Health, Welfare and Education start
ed her cabinet career by appointing
an advisory committee on social Sc
curly made up of six members. Four
of the six turned out to be members
of the Chamber of Commerce social
insurance committee which has rec
commended abolishing social security,
dividing up the IL billion dollar trust
fund and returning to the old charity
system. After protests were made, she
expanded her committee to add an
AFL and Clio representative.
Now she is in hot water again over
the deal which was made with the
American Medical Association in or
der to get ANA support for the
new cabinet position. The deal was
that ANA spokesman be made spec
ial assistant in the department with
power to pass on all matters affect
ing medicine. AS result, the heavy
hand of the ANA was very apparent
in Mrs. Hobby's appropriation re-
quests. She asked that the approp-
riations for the public health service
be cut more drastically than for any
other agency in her department. This
means reduced medical research and
the closing of at least three hospitals.
But much more serious was her re-
quest to eliminate the entire mass
X-ray program for the detection of
tuberculosis.
Defense Secretary Charles Wilson
startled even his best friends when
he told Congressional committee
that whats good for General Mo-
tors is good for the country. "How-
ever, nobody took him seriously I'M
til he unveiled his "Wilson plan" to
marrow the defense base" In plain
English what Wilson proposes is that
I'll the billions of dollars spent for
military equipment and ammunition
would be given to the biggest manu-
facturers. Wilson's contention is that
the orders around among
the smaller companies is inefficient.
Since General Motors is the biggest
defense manufacturer, my reaction
is that Mr.. Wilson is doing a little
wishful thinking out loud. The WALL
STREET JOURNAL was one of the
few newspapers to print the official
record that only IA per cent of the
defense orders and subcontracts are