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Show Wallace's Job Program ' , . Packs Political TNI r a-; Reorganization of Commerce Department ,? S ' First Step Forward in Formulation . Of Full Employment Policy. , ; j By BAUKIIAGE News AnaLytt and Commentator. WNU Service, 1618 Eye Street, N.W. Washington, O. C. The recent operating and organization or-ganization program for the department depart-ment of commerce created very little lit-tle excitement in Washington or elsewhere else-where when It was released. I think It made page 15 of the New York Times. The Times gave much more prominence recently to another document doc-ument from the pen of Henry Aga.-d Wallace his new book, "Sixty Million Mil-lion Jobs," of which I shall speak later. Congress may slumber on the reorganization re-organization report for yet a little, but when Washington wakes to the real significance of this 10-page, mimeographed document it will find between the lines much upon which to ponder. (Maybe that is why it was double-spaced.) To me, this Is a three-in-one Instrument In-strument just as its author, Henry Wallace, revealed himself as a three-in-one personality when I called on him just before the publication pub-lication of his program, his first approach ap-proach to the governmental limelight lime-light since the change in administration. adminis-tration. The report on what Mr. Wallace in his capacity as secretary of commerce com-merce hopes will mean the revitalizing revitaliz-ing and expanding of his department, depart-ment, envisions the metamorphosis of that somewhat turgid and impotent impo-tent institution into a vigorous and human organization which will reach out and touch millions of individuals just as the government's most virile department, agriculture, does. Secretary Sec-retary Wallace said frankly at his press conference and also in more detail privately to me, that he thought that the department of commerce com-merce should do for the business man, big and little, what the department de-partment of agriculture does for the farmer, big and little. And it will, if he has his way. Active Department Secretary's Goal Wipe out of your mind, if you will, that one-time problem child of the New Deal, the agricultural adjustment adjust-ment administration. Now weigh the testimony of observers, inducing induc-ing anti-Wallaceites, and I think you will learn that as secretary of agriculture, agri-culture, the author of "Sixty Million Mil-lion Jobs" did a good job in revitalizing re-vitalizing his department. How much it will cost to do as much for commerce, we couldn't get him to. estimate, but he finally told us that it would be less than one-sixth one-sixth of the cost of one day's war at V-E Day. By a series of calculations calcula-tions we arrived at the figure of 40 million dollars. Since the commerce department spent about 121 million dollars last year, Mr. Wallace's changes would make a total cost for his revitalized department of 161 million dollars. Those who cry economy will ehudder at that figure but they will hear this answer: If business, big and little, wants help similar to that which agriculture demands and gets It will cost something. The depart- j ment of agriculture cost approximately approxi-mately 769 million dollars to run last year, and the farmers wouldn't want it to do less. There will also be another explanation explan-ation of the figures which will attempt at-tempt to show that part of the expansion ex-pansion of the reorganized department depart-ment is really contraction, and that brings us to the second integer of the three-in-one composition of Mr. Wallace's plan. The plan is more than a blueprint for changes in a single governmental institution. It is definitely a part of President Truman's Tru-man's reorganization plan which it is fair to assume would bring back under the commerce rooftree the horde of agencies and commissions which have to do with industry and business. And now we come to part three of the tri-partible function of the Wallace Wal-lace program. It is by his own implication, a part of his recipe for full employment included in his book. "Sixty Million Jobs," and mention men-tion of that brings me to an examination ex-amination of Mr. Wallace himself. I said that like the program of reorganization re-organization for his department, Mr. Wallace seemed tripartitent to me. When I called upon him, he came down the great, eavenous room which Herbert Hoover planned for his successor and we sat in chairs about a little table that made a hos pitable oasis in the midst of the desert vastness of high walls and lofty ceiling. A Presidential Ghost Emerges I had really come to see Henry Wallace, the author of "Sixty Million Mil-lion Jobs," which had just been reported re-ported a best seller in two New York stores. We discoursed at some length on that opus and gradually I found myself also talking to Henry Wallace, secretary of commerce, for, as I suggested earlier, many a strand from "Sixty Million Jobs" may be discovered in the warp and woof of the department reorganization reorganiza-tion plan. As the conversation moved from book to report and back to book again, never getting far from the theme of full employment, I thought I could make out an ectoplasmic form arising from what had been up until then my two-part, author-secretary author-secretary host. The third being, although al-though not yet completely materialized, mate-rialized, little by little became translucently visible to the naked eye. This party of the third part I thought I recognized as Henry Wallace, Wal-lace, presidential candidate (1948 or at least 1952). Perhaps I would not have believed my eyes if It bad not been for a statement which a stout supporter of Mr. Wallace had made to me: " 'Sixty Million Jobs' comes pretty near to being just about the best political platform the Democratic party can run on in the next election." elec-tion." In one place, Author Wallace says: "There are a few, of course, who think that any government servant who uses the phrase 'full employment' employ-ment' is engaged in some deep dark plot. But they are the exceptions that prove the people's sanity and soundness as a whole." Senator McCleLlan might be considered con-sidered one of the exceptions from his remarks in the debate on the full employment bill. He said that the measure "says a great deal and actually means nothing except to create an erroneous impression in the minds of the people." He later described it as "soft soap." 'Sixty Million Jobs' Draws Commendations Whatever the lawmakers think, the reviewers certainly are full of praise for Wallace's book. The New York Times calls it "a thoughtful and thought - provoking discussion of American political economy," and the Saturday Review of Literature, agreeing with the Times, adds that, "more than any recent work on economics or politics, it can serve as a moral testament and intellectual intel-lectual guide in the eventful, difficult diffi-cult days ahead." The work appeared first In a business-letter-sheet size with paper cover; it followed in orthodox book form. Later the author hopes, he told me, that it will be printed in a cheap, pocket-size edition. When Mr. Wallace said that I thought I caught his ectoplasmic triplet nodding emphatic approval while ghostly hps formed the words, "for every voter's pocket." Much water will pass beneath the Potomac bridges between now and 1948 or 1952. We have with us at present a conservative congress and the political veterans say that no matter which way the wind may blow abroad, it is blowing to the right on Capitol hill and, they add hopefully, perhaps not too leftward at the other end of Pennsylvania avenue. Secretary - author - candidate Wallace's Wal-lace's full employment program requires re-quires much more legislation than the full employment bilL That is only the first step. The expansion and re-orientation of his and other departments will be required. Then there will be special taxation; there will be at least the blue-printing of public works; there will have to be a settled policy providing for foreign loans the Bretton Woods program and other stimulants of world trade and tourist traffic. If a too conservative congress did not grant the minimum legislative implementation, the "Sixty Million Jobs" plan could not be carried out. That, however, Mr. Wallace's supporters sup-porters Insist, will simply make 60 million people who want jobs, plus their families, vote for the man who believes they can be produced. BARBS . . . by Baukhage Two hundred thousand of Berlin's three million population are members mem-bers of trade unions. But what have they got to trade? If anyboay asks you: "Don't you know there's a war on?" the answer an-swer is "yes" and whether you like it or not it will be tor six niontns after a formal declaration of per" ivhirh isn't even n sight vet. The White House had its first real paint job since the war began and looks like a new place. The scaffolds were up before J-surrender day. I wonder if the painters had a tip? We have 20 million less horses and mules to feed than we once had in this country. But the land used to raise food for them is now feeding human beings. |