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Show iiaMuiinronmiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinn I $eliind tlie JJeadiined I 3 S3 flUllllUIIMI!Hn!tlinilll!IIIIH!!llll!!IIH1t!linilllW country at large was glad to have for the big task confronting confront-ing us all when you were appointed ap-pointed by President Eisenhower. Eisen-hower. And if there's some way everyone can help, please say so. But don't seem to blame us for doing everything that is wrong. If anything has gone wrong in our space and missiles program, pro-gram, the Senate and House inquiries in-quiries are seeking to find out. But in the meantime all the experts ex-perts seem to be doing in Washington Wash-ington these days is adding to the confusion everyone wanted done a,way with first of all. But right now it seems to the columnist col-umnist in this corner that confusion con-fusion is what's being done best and is in mass production. said we should have more funds. Dr. T. Keith Glennan, administrator adminis-trator of the National Aeronautics Aeronau-tics and Space Administration, has put it most forcefully by declaring de-claring that if the United States does not "move fast," then we might just as well begin buying telescopes to watch the Russians land first on the moon." When asked whether this meant he advocated more funds than the president, Dr. Glennan went on to say that no, "it was not the administration, but the people of the United States who have not done all they should be doing to win the race for space." He called on the country at large every man, woman and child in the U. S. to as he put it, "roll up the sleeves and get to work." The Congressmen were stunned. stun-ned. Since then, the roof has fallen in on Dr. Glennan. He has been asked if his testimony did not make it appear that he's asking ask-ing the country at large to do a job he was hired for and paid There is only one really big issue in Washington these days and that is the question: Who is .ahead in the missiles race? At the same moment Soviet dictator Premier Krushchev was proclaiming Communist missiles supremacy before the closing session of the 21st Soviet Communist Com-munist Party Congress, our own Congress was busy searching for j some answers. Over in the Senate, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson is leading lead-ing the effort of the Senate Space Committee and Senate Preparedness Prepared-ness subcommittee to learn who is ahead in the missiles race. In the House, the House Committee on Science and Astronautics is seeking the answer to the same question. President Eisenhower himself has complained that House and Senate ought to get together and conduct a single inquiry, since, he said recently, the multiplicity of Congressional inquiries into our space and missiles programs some $25,000 a year to get done? Dr. Glennan has replied that he is impatient. He says that he "juts wants the American people to get going," as he puts it. When Dr. Glennan asks the "people" to roll up their sleeves j and get going, just what does he mean? Does he want us all to come to Washington, or Cape Canaveral and help? This columnist col-umnist has a few tools at home and a friend who would let us borrow his lathe. But frankly, the two of us together wouldn't know where to begin tooling up, which button to push, how to plan an orbit and in any event wouldn't even be allowed near some of the "Top Secret" blueprints blue-prints they guard so jealously, which are supposed to have all the answers. But don't get me wrong. I'm willing and I'm sure every loyal American man, woman and child whom Dr. Glennan has called on is just as willing and able to help if Expert Glennan now has to call on the country at large for help in doing his job. And isn't that just what he is admitting? President Eisenhower said only recently in his State of the Union address that he's asking all the money he feels we need to narrow nar-row the space-missile gap. Dr. Glennan, our top of the heap space expert, didn't differ with the President on that. All he demands de-mands is that the American people peo-ple had better get going. Come now, Dr. Glennan. Tell us, specifically. Since the country coun-try at large has, in effect, been scolded, shouldn't it ask where it has failed? You're the man the is taking all of our top people away from their jobs too often. It has been suggested that there is another reason for combining com-bining investigations, although both the House and Senate have gone too far in their respective inquiries this session for that to come about. But the big reason many hope combined, or Joint House and Senate space and missiles mis-siles inquiries will come about is that it may help minimize the confusion abounding in Wash-i ington over who's ahead in the missiles and space race. j Already, every witness who has i appeared before either the House or Senate space and missiles inquiries in-quiries have given different, conflicting estimates on who is ahead in the race for space-missiles supremacy. And even worse the same witnesses have given different testimony on occasion before the different House and Senate committees. If the public is confused about who is ahead in the space-missiles race, so is Washington. Defense Secretary Neil McEl-roy, McEl-roy, for example, didn't help matters when he told the Senate that we didn't intend to even try matching the Soviet missile-for-missile, and then told the House that we'd catch up to them by December in all the missiles that count. McElroy's testimony has also been the only testimony given before either space committee which flatly supports President Eisenhower's $77 billion budget and the some $41 billions sought for defense. Every military witness has, even while backing the budget, |