Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1962-02-02
STOCKPILING
Continued From Page Al

IL is LOT CQe senate 10 OeClQC
who conducts the investigation.
When asked if, in the event
of investigations by two sub
committees, the administration
would furnish documents to
both groups, Mr.. Salinger said
that problem would be consid-
cred when the Senate had de-
cided how the investigation
would be conducted.
The Government has paid
$50 billion in the postwar
years to build up the national
stockpile, Senator Symington
told a news conference yester-
day. The present market value
Of the materials, he said, is
about ST. billion.
President Kennedy said that
about $3.4 billion of that Is In
excess Of "our emergency re-
quirements as presently de-
termined."
The stockpile is now supposed
to fill national needs for a
three-year, conventional war.
Since Pentagon war plans do
not now contemplate such q
long and large non-nuclear
global war. it is assumed that
one result of the Investigations
may be to reduce the goals and
turn even more Of the stockpile
into "excess.
The average came in the
1950s when the goal was to
build stocks for a five-year war.
In the national stockpiles
are a wide variety of ores and
minerals, including tin. alu-
minum. copper, lead and plati-
mum plus many odds and ends,
such as silk, shellac, castor oil
(for fire bombs). feathers (fol
sleeping bags and opium (for
medicine).
Senator Symington said he
knew of no "wrongdoing of any
kind whatsoever" in the pur-
chase of the stockpile. but the
President said on Wednesday
that this excessive storage OF
costly materials" was a "poten-
tial source of excessive and I'M
considerable profits"
Suspicious Voiced
Persons familiar with stock.
pile problems said it would be
surprising If some wrong doing
was not discovered. The Rob.
ertson committee has found
several questionable practices
by suppliers in the past.
There also were politica,
overtoneS in the investigations
Senator Symington said his
committee had studied the ma
tional stockpile four times ir
the past, but that so much
material had been kept classi.
fled that there had been little
incentive to try to dig deeply
into the pile. Other sources
said that President Eisenhower
had not been interested In q
sweeping change in the pro-
gram, as is Mr.. Kennedy.
President Eisenhower did
however, reduce the stockpile
Of gold and order executive
studies of the program.
Actually there are several
stockpiles in question, each
created by separate acts Of
Congress.
The Symington COMMITTEES
has jurisdiction over the larg-
est, the so-called national
stockpile." The Robertson COM
mittee handles the Defense
Production Act stockpile, a SIS
billion supply Of similar ma
terials, much of which eventu-
ally is transferred over to
the national stockpile. Senator
Byrd's group has watchdogged
these, plus the 81 billion Sup
Elemental stockpile" Of defense
materials, the agricultural COM
modities stockpile worth about
$50 billion and other small
special stockpiles.
Even the farm stockpile af-
fects the various defense stock
piles. The Agriculture Depart
ment can barter it's stored crops
for minerals and turn the min
erals over to the Defense Pro-
duction Act stockpile--which in
turn passes part Of this mate
rial over to the national stock
pile.
The defense stockpiles were
an attempt to avoid in any
future war the shortages oil
World War II. AS the possibility
of another long, non-nucleaI
war Of attrition, has faded, the
program, in the opinion Of
many vocal Congressman, ha:
become a disguised price sup
port and subsidy program.