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Show Top U.S. Priority item DESERET NEWS SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Defense: Is High Cost Justified? IS. 4 , We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States As Having Been Divinely Inspired 12 A EDITORIAL PAGE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1969 By DONALD MAT - The United WASHINGTON (UPI) States spends more on its defense than it does on anything else including all education from kindergarten through the university level. And whetr uch a priority in national Why Social Security Should Be Reformed spending is jusified provides, and probably will continue to provide for year to come, one of the great debates of our times. There are powerful argument on both sides of the question, involving not only needs, but money and ethics. Hie U.S. Office of Education estmates outlays for education during the past academic year at $58.5 billion, including federal, state and local government funds, private grants and tuitions. By contrast, the Defense Department spent $78 billion. Adding other costs, each as military activities of the Atomic Energy Comn. sion, brings the total for national defens to an astronomical $81 billion or so.. Despite its many defects, Social Security is plainly here to stay, so it should be made as fair and workable as possible. Thats precisely what President Nixon is striving tr do with the reforms he proposed this week including an increase in Social Security benefits, tying benefits to the cost of living, and letting pensioners earn more from jo os witnout reducing their Social Security benefit. Since the Social Security system was inaugurated in 1935, Congress has increased the benefits or reduced eligibility . , requirements nine times. Not surprisingly, the system usually has been sweetened during election years. Thats be expected when those 65 and over account for 10 per cent of all Americans and 17 per cent of all eligible voters. Since citizens living on fixed incomes are hardest hit by inflation, its only right that Social Security benefits be increased occasionally to keep pace with the rising cost of poet-retireme- nt living.- - - a V. W5 i: Thus, tome 40 per cent of this years federal budget is earmarked for defense. The other 60 per cent must be spread among the multitude cf civilian programs ranging from research on how to stimulate the use of peanuts to multibillion dollar social and welfare programs. Who is the U.S. government sat down with a pencil to make this basic division of American resources? It is a question many Americans,' and not always without suspi- . -- WHERE IT U GOES... Avsfi?. E&UCATtS f MAJCX S3C1AI - But when those benefits are increased during election years as they were In 1950, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, and 1968 its hard to avoid the suspicion that Congress is concerned not so much with economic justice for pensioners as it is with winning votes. While the temptation to play politics with Social Security cant be entirely eliminated, certainly it should be reduced by raising benefits automatically as living costs go up. Thats what at least 16 other countries already do. The plight of many retired Americans also argues for more generous Social Security payments. A study recently prepared for the Special Senate Committee on Aging reports that low income is ths number one problem facing most of the 20 million Americans 65 years or older. Many of these aged people, the study adds, did not become poor until they became old. r As Congress considers the Nixon proposals, there can be . no denying that Social Security operates not as a insurance program as originally intended, but depends on general tax revenues for part of its support. But if there were no Social Security today, its estimated that e assistance rolls would be four times bigger than they are. cion, ask. Sen! William Proxmire, D Wis., suggests that it largely that maybe nobody did just happened. That decision to' never made. Proxmire told UPI in an interview. The question isnt even asked should we spend 40 pe; cent on military and 60 per cent on What really ought to bother Congress is that private pension systems provide a far greater retirement benefit for each dollar paid in than does Social Security. Moreover, unlike Social Security funds, money put into a bank or a private insurance plan can be drawn on in an emergency or bequeathed to ones children. As the Nixon administration strives to take Social Security out of politics and protect pensioners against inflation, it also should make sure that Social Security recipients get a dollars worth of benefits for each dollar paid into the system. e I Armstrong's Big Job Utah has become used to seeing its citizens advance to positions of high national importance and trust But the reported selection of Ellis Armstrong as the next U.S. Commissioner of Reclamation is a special source of satisfaction. Utahs future, growth is limited by the extent to which it develops its water resources, and the extent to which those resources can be developed depends greatly on just how much federal cooperation we can get. ' With Mr. Armstrong as U.S. Commissioner of Reclamation, Utah gains a respected voice in the highest councils of government, a man who is familiar with Utahs needs and ' the importance of reclamation here. Before becoming State Highway Director from 1954 to 1961, Ellis Armstrong worked 18 years with the Bureau of Reclamation on the design and construction of dams, including the Midview, Pine View, Moon Lake, and Deer Creek dams in Utah. Just how important such projects can be is shown by the Strawberry Valley Project, a Bureau of Reclamation undertaking. Built originally at a cost of $3.3 million, this project now returns to the economy each year a dollar value more than its original cost. With this in mind, we hope Mr. Armstrong will use his influence to help break the bottleneck that has been holding back the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project. Here is a project that would increase the gross income of Utah farm families by $15 million and induce them to increase their investments by $40 million. Yet it has been repeatedly starved for funds. In any event, Mr. Armstrong should know that Utah is proud of his success as an outstanding admit" str at or, and wishes him every success in his challenging new job. An Historic Vote The general elections that West Germany holds Sunday are perhaps the most important that country has held since the 1933 elections that led to the takeover by Adolf Hitler. Its not that anything as frightening as a resurgence of Naziism is expected to emerge in Germany this time. What makes the election so important is that theres an even chance Willy Brandts Social Democratic Party (SPD) may unseat the Christian Democrats (CDU) from the chancellorship, which they have held since the founding of the German Federal Republic in 1949. Such a change wouldnt make much difference in most of West Germanys domestic policies. But in foreign policy an SPD-le- d coalition is expected to mean that Bonn would: treaty, which the Sign the nuclear CDU has rejected as discriminatory. Seek closer relations with East European countries, granting at least de facto recognition to Communist East Germany. Seek entry into the United Nations simultaneously with a membership bid by East Germany. Revalue the deutsch mark upwards to reflect its strength in relation to other world currencies. With the Social Democrats leading in the latest poll, thsret a good chance that after Sunday West Germany wont he quits ths same again. u cf tJ CT 1 hap- pens to work Itself out . . . As chairman of a subcommittee of the House-Sena- e Joint Economic Committee, Proxmire recently held hearings on the division of available funds between military and civilian programs and how the decision should be made. These are among the many Issues national involved, in the often helter-skeltdebate over what has come to be known as the military - industrial complex. Perhaps because of .Vietnam, 'perhaps because of the seeming endlessness of the nuclear arms race or, perhaps in reaction to soaring costs, the defense establishment has come under new scrutiny. Criticism has focused on four main areas: . Concern that the country is spending too much on defense at the expense of such civilian goal as education, health, and solving the explosive problems ef . the the military budget is past spending on es- tablished programs, Proxmire said. The programs themselves rarely are subjected to the microscopic reexamination deemed necessary by critics for a sound but frugal defense posture. The ultimate decision en how to divide the nations available resources between military and civilian programs 1 made privately by 6ie White House and the Budget Bureau and is not made public until the President sends his budget message to Congress. The budget then Is reviewed by Con- -, gress, but again on a piecemeal basis. The armed services committees of the House er : : Federal budget dollar where it comes from and w here it goes is portrayed on this chart as estimated for the fiscal 1970 , year. Defense spending leads that for any other single category. .-' Thats something that just ng old-ag- TDT- - t Pentagon officials , award lucrative con- tracts and establish new plants and installations in the districts of influential members of Congress. missile (ABM) is an , The example of how economic as well as military factors enter into decisions on a big weapons system. One argument advanced by the Nixon Administration against a years delay c the ABM was that this would mean disbanding a team of some 15,000 defense workers. Officials argued it would take a year to rebuild this team if the ABM, subsequently got a Organized labor is said by some to be part of the alleged military industrial con- anti-ballist- ic Russia acquired far more nuclear than they needed to this manner: The increasing cost of technologv. An Fill fighter - bomber costs 10 to 20 times as much as a Korean war aircraft did. High speed attack submarines cost three times the price of the first nuclear subs - , " built in the 195D. , - - S 1 Perhaps most important, suggested Schultze, is a lack of meaningful public donate on U.S. defense commitments, on the size and makeup of U.S. military forces and on the possibility of 2 ware simultaneously. v ; I do not - ; ' 4 ing for many possible risks and the increasing slums. Concern that America has come to rely too heavily on military solutions to its world problems. Concern that the vastness ef the defense establishment and the degree to which it permeates the nation undermine the very democratic values It is supposed i cost of technology spiracy, be it conscious or unconscious. But one of the most impassioned pleas against high military spending heard by ' the Proxmire committee came from the president of toe Umted Auto Workers, Walter P. Reuthur. . - Another element of the complex is said to be the 2,122 retired colonels and above, who the Pentagon reports are working for the nations 100 top defense contractors. and Senate scrutinize the military ' figures. Other committees look at such civilian programs as housing, education, space and to protect Concern that the defense process has grown beyond the ability of the nation n welfare. Finally, the appropriations committees, really understand or control it that it has which have participated in none ef these become self perpetuating, a master rather recommend how ' much deliberations, than a tooL : money each program should get The defense process begins when the Ever since President Dwight D. EisenJoint Chiefs of Staff draw up their annual hower warned in 1961 against the acquisirequirements. tion of unwarranted influence, whether They look at U.S. foreign - policy a sought or unsought, by the military-industridefined by the White House and State Decomplex, many have looked to those words for an explanation of high defense partment They consider this countrys defense commitments to some 40 nations. spending. They look at possible threats to the United That statement by a former five-sta- r States and its allies. general, who led allied forces to victory in They take into account the broad conEurope in World War H, made it respectable to challenge the military. tingencies which have guided U.S. planning , the possibility of a through the 1960s chairSen. J. William Fulbright, major war in Europe, another major war in man of the Senate Foreign Relations ComAsia and a small conflict in the Western mittee, summed up the theory in a recent Hemisphere, all at the aame time. speech: . , Then they decide what forces they reed. With military expenditures providing The chiefs do not look at needs of the slums tiie livelihood of some 10 per cent of our or education; nor are they prone to underwork force; with 22,000 major corporate de-- . estimating what they say they must have. fense contractors and another 100,000 subIn recent years the result has been contractors; with defense plants or installarequests exceeding $100 billion annually. tions located in 363 of the 435 congressional The defense department itself then reviews districts; with the Department of Defense and cuts the service requests. But again the spending $7.5 billion on research and develreview is in terms of military means and opment this year, making it the largest con national priorities. ends, not over-e- ll sumer of research output In the nation w According to former Director Charles L. millions of Americans whose only interest is in making a decent living have acquired Schultze, the Budget Bureau itself sometimes fails to ask the right questions. He a vested interest in. an economy geared to war. said the bureau examined the cost effectiveness of different systems of defense These benefits, once obtained, are not against possible Soviet bomber programs easily parted with. Every new weapons without ever asking whether such a defense sytem or military installation soon acquires was even necessary! a process which is aided a constituency The principal benchmark in determining and abetted by the perspicacity with which . . " al . - . - believe that the program of military budgets is primarily attributable military-industrito the Schultze testified. "If defense complex, contractors were all as disinterested in enlarging sales asioeal transit magnates, if 'retired, military officers all wefit into selling soap and TV sets instead of missiles, if the Washington offices of defense contractors all were moved to the West Coast, if ail this happened and nothing else, then I do not believe the military budget would bo - sharply lower Jhan it now is.-- . . ' Robert, P. Mayo, President Nixone budget director,, argues that eves if waste is eliminated tram defense spending, considerably lower defense costs will be obtained only if we reduce our international commitments significantly. " : y Sen. Proxmire does not ontirey agree. "Im positive he said, that w ean reduce our military budget without weakening our national defense at all ; changing our strategic eoncepta. so-call- "High military spending is spurred by prepar- - - Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith aaid in a recent article: "It would be idle to suppose that presently serving officers those, for example, on assignment to never have their real in defense plants come improved by the wealthy contractors with whom they are working ... In rebuttal, the Pentagon say a most ef the active officers- - assigned to defense plants are Inspectors. Galbraith did not cite specifics in connection with his statement. ; Former budgeteer Schultze, now a professor of economics at the University ef Maryland, has suggested other factors which he believes are far more important causes of high military spending: - --.The military practice of preparing for many possible risks and hedging against the greater - than - expected threat . The impact of technology on the nuclear arms race, in which each side tends to react to the other, The United States began developing mul-- , tiple warhead missiles as a hedge against a possible Soviet ABBA It will prove unnecessary if the Soviet' abandons ABM. Because it takes years to develop such systems, they are started when the threat is only a possi- al 6uest cartoon f 4 H 5 - A s ' - wffly--- . ; .. - . ... Former Defense Secretary Robert . S. McNamara said both the United States and . X "Oka, now let's talk!" . Sirminewm Nvw Land T o Roam? T ry West's Scenic Open Spaces Copley News Servic The land WASHINGTON wanted. Thats what they used to eafi the arid deserts, mountains and inaccessible plateaus that pioneer Americans bypassed or ignored in their westward migration in search of new homesites. These regions became public domain lands, owned and administered by the federal government in the name of all the citizens of the United States. They totaled more than 450 million acres. Today their status is changing. Located mostly in the Western states and in Alaska, they have become resources of inestimable value. From dry deserts to arctic tundra, from great sweeps of grassy plains to gleaming glaciers, they are now recognized as a storehouse of riches. Many regions also are becoming popular playgrounds and the Interior Department has just recommended a series of fall and winter camping areas. The King Range Recreation Area in north round. The Bureau of Land Management has spread. Make aura your fire is completely ern California, for Instance, is particularly i overdeveloped a four-migravel road into Wil-- - cold before you leave. . acres over 1,700 are There attractive. mountain can where climb, you a dean )ow clean leave a Springs Keep camp; " looking the Pacific Ocean including both or explore unusual geologie camp. hike, picnic, mountain and beaches allowing plenty of ' formations. ' ! Be careful with firearms. , room to enjoy hiking.vfeanting and beachIn New Mexico north of Santa Fe, at Respect public and private property, combing. Surf fishing is expected to be Santa Cruz "Lake, one can boat, hike, swim, Be prepared. When you head into back t good here this season and toere are over 20 . fish and camp. Located 13 miles east of country, leave word where youre going! miles of developed hiking trails throughout Espanola via state Highways 76 and 4, this Take plenty of water, a good map, comthe area. Roads are narrow, though, and reservoir Is open through November. first aid kit, spare rations, and extra pass, trailer are not recommended. ' The Bureau of Land Management clothing. t , , Overlooking Canyonlands National Park Observe state fish and game laws-Sosuggests the following safety rules for those In southeastern Utah, is the Canyon Rims . who camp on public domain lands: of the wildlife on, public domaiii Recreation Area." Hiking and mountain vehicle on the road unless lands provide excellent hunting and fishing. Keep your forclimbing through fascinating geologic d However, game and fish are managed not the ground is firm enough to allow mations are available at Anticline and the federal government but by the indiwithout leaving ruts. Careless drivtravel by Hatch Needles overlooks, and camping at vidual states and rules about seasons and soil erosion. causes Point and Wndwhistle campgrounds. It is ing " licenses must be obeyed. find as and fences Leave you gates open through October. Few a complete list and description of all ,'V In Montana, near Yellowstone National them. the recreation areas available, oneCd4 is In Recreation Area Madison River range country, camp at least one write for ' the Bureau of Land ManagePark, the famous for its trout fishing. quarter of a mile from watering places; ments new publication, Room to Roam, for dont frlgnten livestock. sale by the Superintendent ef Documents, Primitive camping enthusiasts often try Be careful with fire. Build campfires U S. Government Printing Office, WashingWillow the Red Rock Canyon Complex D.C. The price i 75 cents. . Springs Area in southern Nevada, open year- - only in safe places where flames cant ton,' le , ' , off-roa- |