The Atlantic Report on the World Today: Washington

SECRETARY ACHESON must have been the happiest man in Washington when President Truman decided to put General Marshall in place of Louis Johnson as Secretary of Defense. His position is now doubly strengthened. First, the change made a colleague of a man for whom he has a great deal of respect and with whom he enjoys an intimate relation. Secondly, it removed a man who was a constant thorn in his side. But what is more important, the President at one stroke produced harmony within his own official family. This had an immediate effect.

The correspondents reported a lift in the spirits of the fighting troops in Korea on the specific basis of the appointment of General Marshall. The country, more and more irked by the dissension in the Capital, was heartened by the example of the unity that has been produced. Dividends will accumulate in the future from the American dynamic that will now be felt in the world of affairs.

Even before Secretary Johnson left office, agreement had been achieved within the Administration to provide the leadership for the creation of a single army of about 50 divisions for the defense of Europe east to the Elbe. No more momentous decision can have been taken in American peacetime history. It was talked over with General Marshall in visits that Secretary Acheson paid to him in his retreat in Virginia. Thus the two men are in complete accord under the aegis of the President, a man in whom they have the utmost confidence. The three men are also of one mind on the Far East; they want to pave the way to deal with realities.

The three Secretaries under Marshall are Frank Pace, Jr. (Army), Thomas K. Finletter (Air), and Francis P. Matthews (Navy). They are all extremely capable, and what is more, are really in charge of their departments. No domination by the brass is tolerated by any one of these three administrators. Now they have started an informal committee so as to try to present to the Secretary of Defense a unity of approach. Thus the unification so magnificently demonstrated in Korea has been duplicated in the high reaches of the Pentagon. The progress is indeed noteworthy.

The Munitions Board

The President himself has seemed to gather strength from the teamwork that has been developed. On the heels of Secretary Johnson’s departure, he fired the head of the Munitions Board, an immediate reaction to the adverse report on the Board’s slackness from the Armed Services Preparedness subcommittee under the chairmanship of Senator Lyndon Johnson. This subcommittee is the lineal successor to the wartime ’Truman Committee. By his action the President showed that he intends to work in harness with the Lyndon Johnson subcommittee.

One of the big jobs of the Munitions Board is stockpiling of strategic materials. Remember the constant handicap to the war effort in the last conflict caused by shortages of vital items for warmaking? Never again, it was said. Yet the Lyndon Johnson subcommittee found a deplorable slackness in the operation.

The example cited in the initial report was the lack of accumulation of the commodity that has been short before — natural rubber. It appears that prior to Korea the Munitions Board allowed all opportunities to slip for purchases, yet supplies were plentiful and the price last fall was 16 cents a pound. After Korea the price jumped to 55 cents and, presumably because of this, the purchase plans were revised down. In the former case there was no business prudence; in the latter. no recognition of paramount need, which took priority over considerations of price.

The Munitions Board is the agency upon which the National Production Authority must wail for the requirements program of the military. NPA is impatient. It wants to go to work without delay in expediting the production of war goods under the greatly expanded post-Korean budget. At the head of it is a keen businessman, William Henry Harrison, head of the International Telephone and Telegraph. He was in the War Production Board during the war, and was given rank as major general. He has received the utmost encouragement from the President to make his needs known. What he worries about, in addition to the requirements program, is how to keep the sense of urgency alive in industry and labor.

BOSS of the home front

Over all is Mr. Charm of Washington, Stuart Symington, head of the National Security Resources Board. To him belongs the responsibility of the home front. Symington is a dynamo, though whether he has grasp and a disciplined imagination has yet to be proved, He showed no marked abilities at Air or, previously, at the Surplus Property Board. What he demonstrated was a flair for getting in the public eye. But he may call up unrevealed talents, for he had his successes in the business world before he came to Washington.

Symington started out as if he mEanl business when he threatened proceedings against the “hog profiteering.” All strategic materials have gone up more or less with natural rubber. Speculation, of course, has been rife, but most of the pell-mell buying has been done by manufacturers anxious to protect their positions. Under the Defense Production Act, requisition and punitive powers are availble to the government, and, on the basis of it, an anti-hoarding order has been issued by the National Production Authority. Eventually a combined materials board may be set up by the Atlantic Pact nations with powers of allocation.

The new army for Europe

The new policy for Kurope is to add up to 10 divisions to the American strength in Europe with view to encouraging the formation of a single European army of 50 divisions, including Germans.

under an American commander-in-chief. General Marshall was called in before the decision was finally made. He demurred only about the naming of a commander-in-chief before the single army had been created. Till then he counseled that the Chief should be named Chief of Staff, and this suggestion was adopted.

Thus ended a period of indecision over the American commitment in Europe. The Europeans have been saying that a single army could be created, but only after the naming of an American commanderin-ehief. We have said to them that you couldn’t have a commander-in-chief without an army. “Get your army together,”we have said, “and we will think about the other proposition.”After Korea the realization was home in upon the Pentagon, under the urging of Secretary Acheson, that America must take the lead.

The decision is like the one taken in the war: Europe first. Asia by this token has been relegated to second place, much to the displeasure of the Republican diehards, who think with MacArthur that Asia is paramount. When they seemeed in the ascendancy, relations with Britain and India were in the course of fast deterioration. But now there is constant communication between New Delhi and Washington. Nehru is urging the Administration to wind up its pro-Nationalist policy as a dead carcass, hor political reasons the Administration cannot go that far, but policy has been straightened out in successive statements by Mr. Truman, pending further clarification after the elections. Till then Asian countries, particularly India, will be consulted about the future of Korea.

Hut until the specter of war in China is removed, the American contribution to Europe will be handicapped. Again in this connection the appointment of General Marshall is helpful, He does not share the MacArthur-Johnson view of the Chinese Communists. He is not itching to come to grips with them on the ground that they are irredeemable Stalinists, And he is well known to the Peking government’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chou En-lai.

President Truman is holding the brake on the full-scale mobilization that Senator Lodge is pleading for. To be sure, the President wants Universal Military Training, but there was never any hope that it would be enacted this session. Here was the real unreadiness for Korea. Lack of action in this respect is the most grievous blunder that has been committed.

In spite of the Compton report, Congress would not act, having to contend with tlie labor organizations, the churches, the colleges, and the desire of everybody to enjoy respite from war. But to enact UMT now would be to drain off’officers for training purposes and also to clog the army camps.

The record of Congress

The second session of the Eightyfirst Congress has been dominated by national defense. Outlays were doubled. By next June spending for defense will be proceeding at an annual rate of at least 30 billion dollars. To support the extra budget the additional tax bill is expected to yield about 4.5 billions — a sum that will more than offset, the inflationary effect of the increased military outlays in the next few months while the program is getting under way.

However, inflation was incipient when Korea was attacked, and since then the rush of buying by business firms and consumers has exacerbated it. This anti-inflation struggle will dominate the economy.

Congress is full of good intentions that, it will play its part in the struggle. Yet the tax bill was not passed without much agonizing. With elections ahead, the legislators felt frustrated over their inability, because of a lack of plans for which the Treasury was in part responsible, to add a provision for soaking up excess profits. Such an impost can never be entirely equitable, but it is the kind of levy that cannot be rushed.

Credit restrictions in the new controls are not comprehensive enough to suit the anti-inflationist. He was particularly disappointed that “starts" in private construction (which are at record levels) are free from the restraints imposed upon new construction, major additions, and improvements. However, if the allocation of scarce materials is firmly administered, this should be an offset. Moreover, Secretary Snyder is pleased with the tight credit policy already in force among commercial banks.

Most of the social measures coming under the Fair Deal program never got to the statute books. Perhaps the main achievement was the extension of social security. Old-age annuity payments were raised about 75 per cent. Coverage was extended to the self-employed and some farm workers, to domestics, salesmen-agents, public and welfare employees.

But no action was taken on the Brannan Plan, Federal aid to education, civil rights, repeal of the Taft - Hartley bill, health insurance, Federal aid to states for relief, liberalization of unemployment compensation. It was a bleak session for the Fair Dealers, and, if the emergency keeps up, there can be no doubt that the President will drop many of the items in his original omnibus.

What produced recurrent, fits of hysteria in the Senate was the fear of subversion, espionage, and sabotage. Subversion was the prime preoccupation. Eventually Congress threw all the offered measures, Administration and otherwise, into one bill, and dumped the problem in the President’s lap. The aim was to make him accept the provisions concerning subversive activities as the price of getting the power to cope with sabotage. Particularly urgent is authority to prevent tampering with military installations.

But the President vetoed the bill on the ground that it would hinder, not help, us in meeting “the real dangers which Communism presents to our free society.” He pointed particularly to Section 5, which requires the Secretary of Defense to “proclaim" and “have published in the Federal Register" a list of defense plants, laboratories, and all other facilities vital to our national defense.

“I cannot imagine any document a hostile government would desire more,”said the President in his veto message. “It is inconceivable to me that a majority of the Congress could expect the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States to approve such a flagrant violation of proper security safeguards.”

Included in the comprehensive measure is an item providing for detentions in the event of war or insurrection, This is the concentration camp provision for undesirables. It got a surprising amount of backing from liberals, and the argument in favor of forehanded action seems to have been sound. If war breaks out, there will be a general roundup, with or without legal warrant. So the liberals argue that you might as well have authority and limitations defined beforehand.

The House voted immediately to override the President’s veto. In the Senate a small group including Humphrey of Minnesota, Douglas of Illinois, Kefauver of Tennessee, Graham of North Carolina, Lehman of New York, Murray of Montana, all Democrats, and Langer of North Dakota, Republican, talked for twentytwo hours in support of the veto. They did so on the instruction of the President, who wanted to extend the debate until the veto message had had a chance to sink in. Final vote: to override the veto, 57: to sustain, 10.

Mood of the Capital

The Republicans are pressing the “blunders” shown by the Korean reverses. With unreadiness, of course, goes the “blundering” diplomacy. The guide to Republicans issued by the National Committee, however, is a fairly respectable document, To be sure, it lists as a blot the failure to invite Chiang Kai-shek to Yalta, but it is fair to the Acheson policy. Most of those who oppose Acheson, for instance, misinterpret his National Press Club speech, wherein he defined the American defense perimeter as excluding Korea, but went on to put Korea among our general preoccupations. The Republican guide includes this reference.

It is a well-established political belief that primaries generally reflect no trend in a national sense. However, the high mortality of incumbent Senators is already creating wonderment on Capitol Hill, though no generalization is possible. Special reasons exist for every one of the upsets.

There is also the factor of age, for the young have a habit of displacing the old, especially if they have the vigor and reputation of a Mike Monroney, who cast Elmer Thomas into the limbo in Oklahoma. Moreover, as against the high mortality rate in the Senate, the House of Representatives seems to be pretty solid; very few members have lost their primaries.

At any rate, the forecasters are coy, except for Louis H. Bean, who prophesies Republican gains in both houses, but not Republican control. However, any prophecy hinges on the situation in Korea in November.