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Show . Jvo Comment !J . By James W. Douthat WASHINGTON The shadow of Sputnik Is certain to hover over practically every Washington development for the foreseeable future. Well-informed persons In the nation's capital know, however, that the situation will be considered realistically. They applaud President Eisenhower's refusal to accept the many "panic" suggestions that were forthcoming just is soon as Suutnik's "beep-beep" , became audible throughout the world. Some of these suggestions would . have thrown wide open the doors of the Treasury to meet limitless spending demands re. gardlpss of need or the ability to use additional funds In any worthwhile way. President Eisenhower calmly explained that already the government gov-ernment was spending $5,200,000-000 $5,200,000-000 a year on armed military research re-search and development alone. Now that, he added, Isn't any weak, pusillanimous effort; that is a lot of money. Then he made another sngnifi-cant sngnifi-cant statement which should not be overlooked. "1 have had every group that I know anything about," he said, "to ask them is there anything more we can do in the development of our rocket program any better than Is being done. And, except for certain min-or min-or Items, or, you might say, almost al-most involving administration, there has been little said." Obviously, the nation's entire defense program will continue to be constantly re-examined by the administration. That Is basic procedure. There also may be one or more Injuries by Congressional Congression-al committees to ascertain whether wheth-er everything that should be done is being done to protect the nation's safety. Economy advocates hope that, if it should be decided to speed up the missile development program, pro-gram, any additional government govern-ment spending that might be involved in-volved would be subtracted from other programs deemed less urgent. ur-gent. They are convinced that this procedure Is entirely feasible with respect to a $72 billion spending program contemplated by the Administration particularly partic-ularly when the Defense Depart-ment Depart-ment has a backlog of unobligated unobli-gated funds amounting to $8 to $10 billion. This course also wo'.ild permit per-mit the enactment of tax-cutting legislation by the next session of Congress. This is how it could be done: The surplus for the present fiscal year (ending next June 30) Is expected to be $1.5 billion. If spending next year is held to this year's figure, the nation's normal economic growth (provided (pro-vided present prospeilty continues) contin-ues) wuuiu provide enough additional ad-ditional tax revenue to justify the enactment of a tax-reduction program. This is the basis of legislation introduced by Reps. Sadlak (R-Conn.) (R-Conn.) and Herlong (D-Fla.) to bring personal and corporation Income tax rates down to a maximum max-imum of 42r by a series of annual an-nual reductions spread over five years. Tax-reduction advocates like every other patriotic American Ameri-can put the nation's defense first, but many are convinced that, even after ample defense funds are provided, tax redur-tlon redur-tlon is possible and should be voted as an essential Investment In the nation's future. CORDINER REPORT There Is no doubt that the Soviet development de-velopment of Sputnik has stimu- lated Interest In Washington In the recommendations of a special spe-cial committee headed by Ralph Cordiner, president of General Electric, that military and civilian civil-ian government employees be paid on the basis of ability as well as rank. The Advisory Committee on Military Manpower, appointed by President Eisenhower, thought this change Is essential to interest inter-est competent scientists and other oth-er skilled personnel remaining in government service. One of the Important questions in any speed-up of the missile program is, of course, whether the additional scientists and skilled technicians that would be required are available. Little atention was given the Cordiner report by the recent session ses-sion of Congress. A brief hearing hear-ing was held by the Senate Armed Arm-ed Services Commitee Just before adjournment too late for any action. Indications now are that it will receive serious consideration when Congress reconvenes. I . . |