OCR Text |
Show GRASSROOTS Present Administration Certainly Has the Brass By Wright A. Patterson AT THE CLOSE of World War II we had in the uniform of our armed forces close to 12 million men, of which a little more than 300 were generals or admirals, in other words "top brass." Now with armed forces totaling only about one and a half million men we have over 3,000 generals or admirals. In the matter of "top brass" we are attempting to emulate the Mexican army, or the number of colonels on the staff of the governor gov-ernor of Kentucky. An Investigating committee of the senate Is attempting to find the "why" of such an Increase of high ranking officers, and what they are doing. That committee com-mittee has demanded of the defense de-fense department a statement showing their jobs-There jobs-There are more than 3,000 generals gen-erals and admirals, and it is the belief of members of that committee that they are but muddying the waters of the preparedness effort and adding materially to the cost of that preparedness. This large number of "top brass" has not only filled the mammoth Pentagon building, but has forced the government to rent outside offices of-fices to accommodate the generals and admirals, and the members of their staffs, and the several thou-' thou-' sands of civilian secretaries and clerks, the bureaucratic army over which they preside and command. Tb general public, mnd especially the Republican party, may not be able to evaluate tbe good these generals and admirals do for tbe nation, or i what they do to keep themselves busy, but they do know the why of the army of secretaries and clerks, the civilian bureaucrats. The foj-o-200,000 of these have important jobs. At the coming election they will vote for those who provide them with jobs-jobs jobs-jobs that pay them better salaries than they could earn elsewhere, and also keep them from the necessity of donning don-ning uniforms as privates in the armed forces, , Not only will these bureaucrats vote, but so will their relatives and friends, who are concerned with holding the jobs for the bureaucrats, a total of close to one million votes against the Republican candidates. The more generals and admirals, the more clerks they ' will employ and the more votes they and friends and relatives will cast. The votes represented by the army of bureaucrats employed by the defense department In the Pentagon Pen-tagon are but a part of the hurdle GOP candidates must be able to jump if they are to win. No group In the nation is so close to political conditions and sentiment in the grass root areas as the editors of the rural newspapers. Their guess as to the political sentiment sen-timent of the people of their communities com-munities are nearer correct than that of even the local politicians. The Publishers Auxiliary, a paper published for that group, some time ago took a poll of those rural editors. edi-tors. The Auxiliary asked each one of them to name his choice for a Republican candidate, and his guess as to who would be elected as the next President Their choice for a republican nominee was Elsenhower, by a wide margin, but they did not think that he, or any other Republican would be elected. A vast majority predicted that President Truman would be the Democratic nominee, and that he would be elected in the November election. Knowing hundreds of these editors personally and knowing how close they are to the people of their communities, I am convinced their prophesy as to the election of President Presi-dent Truman must be taken seriously. seri-ously. A large majority of the rural press are either Republican or independent in-dependent newspapers. Individually, Individual-ly, they do not represent any great political influence. Collectively, they are a power In the farming areas. As a class, they dislike being Ignored by the party organizations. They want to be invited to take a part In the national political campaign. When Invited most of them open their columns to the party or candidates can-didates of their choice, and they, collectively, exert a powerful Influence In-fluence In the farm areas. Political leaders would be wise not to overlook over-look them in planning their campaigns. cam-paigns. Chances are the rural press can make or break the candidates they support, especially so In the farm states. It has happened before, and It can happen again. In 1948 Herbert Brownell, the Dewey campaign manager, man-ager, ignored the rural newspapers, ' and lost the election. |