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Show A Smoke Screen forWlial? By JURLEY L. LUTZ Professor of Public Finance, Princeton University The President's message on defense was received with relief by those who feared that he would ask for much more, and with regret by those who had bought air- F ""' " 1 plane stocks in rf&jfcx -; the hope thatthe fif? ' amount would S;m be much larger t ft than it was. J The amount t r s we are justified fA ' y A in spanding on t jj defense, and the more technical " 'f aspects of the j matter, such as I ,f1 the most efTec-i efTec-i '4 i 4 tive apportion- K 1 meat of this ex- k ' h penditure to the a. fc army, the navy and the air force, are alike perplexing to the layman. lay-man. The experts themselves do not wholly agree, except when so much is appropriated that each branch can get all that it wants. Yet it is an important im-portant subject, for there is no clearer case of pure wastft than unnecessary spending on defense. The diversion of resources into war materials in excess of actual need does not produce even a transient addition to the national wealth. The emphasis on foreign complications complica-tions and on defense sprnding was forecast weeks ago by the Washington commentators. It h9s been an obvious feature of the administration's doeket since the election. Playing up foreign dangers is a familiar device for diverting di-verting public attention from embarrassing embar-rassing conditions at home. It has been used over and over in the dictator dic-tator countries. The danger or foreign attack to which the United States is exposed can be easily exaggerated. Our immediate im-mediate neighbors, Canada and Mexico, Mex-ico, can be ruled out at once. The one has no disposition, the other nn resources, re-sources, for attack against us. If the danger is supposed to be in the Pacific, it can be removed by the simple and inexpensive move of an embargo against Japan, for that country could not make war against China or any one else except with the war materials bought here, and with the financial support of American purchases of Japanese products. If the danger is supposed to be across the Atlantic, this means Germany or Italy, or both together. We are certainly in no danger dan-ger of attack from England or France. I So far as concerns the continental i United States, it is ridiculous to imply that there is any danger of attack from Germany or Italy, or from these powers in combination, The Panama Canal is vulnerable, and Is likely to remain so despite all of the spending, for a "suicide squadron" of airplanei could wreck the locks in a surprise attack, notwithstanding the defensive preparations. A "suicide ship" could do it under the noses of the defenders by exploding a cargo of bombs in the locks. Granted the need of some further precautionary defense at the Canal, nothing is gained by building huge fleets of planes that will soon Ire obsolete, just to protect that waterway. water-way. The President t?lks of "enemy attack," at-tack," of the young men who may have to "take the fir-Id wilh antiqimted ; weapons," of the importance of pro-! pro-! viding the "critical items of cquip-1 cquip-1 ment which mi.trht be needed for immediate im-mediate use." These expressions ai : too vague to support the -spending of huge sums. Attack by what enemy? On what battlefield mut the young men appear? What is meant by immediate im-mediate use? Research to improve military equipment should go on; officer training is Important; and various bases for air and naval opem-tions opem-tions aie probably required. But th accumulation of great stores of equipment equip-ment cannot be justified unlers ttirr. is greater certainty of an early attnrfc than the people have been told about. As a matter of fact, the danger of attack on the United States is about as serious as would be a Hitler proposal pro-posal for "Anschluss" with eastern Pennsylvania, to bring back into the Fatherland the Amrricnns vhose German ancestors settled in that section sec-tion more than 200 years ago. Much of this sudden concern over national defense is a rmoke screen for some other troubles, closer home than Germany Ger-many or Japan. x |