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Show yHINGTQNjIj To Be Combed For Expense-Cuts The "combing" of government publicity programs will start soon alter Congress convenes, declares ' Representative John Taber, of New York, who is ex-J pected to become chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Com-mittee, He intends to cut expcn-J ditures by government depart-1 ments and agencies for publicity. There is little reason to doubt that while much of the work is legitimate, there is much that is unnecessary. Opinions will vary as to what part of the government's govern-ment's educational and informational informa-tional program is worthy of continuance con-tinuance and what part should be promptly discontinued. Representative Taber takes the position that the money cost of supporting the small army of public relations men is not of first importance and puts the social cost ahead. This bears out the observation of Geoffrey Bourne, who says that 'the supreme su-preme task of propaganda" is that it is a "threat of death to reason."- Undoubtedly propaganda propagan-da campaigns, whether conducted conduct-ed by the government, by economic eco-nomic or other associations, appeal ap-peal to mass emotions and ignorance, ig-norance, usually presenting half-truths half-truths that fit in with the purpose pur-pose in mind. The chances are that the in terests of the people of this country coun-try will be served by putting the axe to some promotional techniques tech-niques that have been employed by government officials. At the same time, ,we hope that care will be exercised to preserve the activities that are strictly and fairly educational and informational. informa-tional. There is need for the government gov-ernment to possess the means of giving the people the facts and it is not desirable for the people to have to depend upon a small group of press and radio news agencies for information .about their government. We rpally see no reason why the Congress, cannot make some provision for the fair end Impartial Impar-tial presentation and distribution distribu-tion of salient facts in connection connec-tion with governmental policies. The idea behind such a service should not be to persuade, but to inform, and. the net result should be to give to the public the facts. upon which intelligent opinions can be formulated. One-Sided Disarmament Will Not Produce Lasting Peace Senator Elbert D. Thomas, of Utah, chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, warns that one-sided disarmament disarma-ment will fail in the future, as in the past, to produce either peace or security. What the Senator has in mind is that while the American people peo-ple want peace, they have refused re-fused to support a military establishment es-tablishment capable of deterring aggression and that while they want to have a voice in, ' he settlement set-tlement of international problems, prob-lems, ' they depend upon words almost exclusively, giving copious cop-ious advice but "declining tQ assume as-sume responsibility, These statements should be read in relation "to. the conclusions conclu-sions reached by the Fortune Magazine,, which asserts that it will be two year before the U. S. armed forces regain the balanced-strength that they have lost since V-J Day. The magazine maga-zine terms American demobilization demobili-zation "the greatest rout in military mili-tary history," Pointing to the disastrous effect ef-fect of the "rout," the magazine says that it came at a peculiar time. "Discharged service' men, their welcoming families, friends and congressmen seemed to see nothing strange in the fact that demobilization was most rapid at the very time we were beginning begin-ning to demand a firm hand in foreign policy. We urged our government to get tough, while we easily bled away its strength." Naturally the size of the Army, Navy and Air Force of the. United Unit-ed States depends upon public opinion and the votes of Congress. Con-gress. The High Command may be able to plan an intelligent course to guarantee the security of this country and to support an international organization in its effort to establish world peace, but, unless the people of the nation na-tion support the military policy, it will not amount to much. It should be remembered in this connection that the .failure of the United States to be ade- quately prepared, which required requir-ed legislation in the Twenties and Thirties, left the United Stales without power to restrain or bar Hitler's plans for conquest. It "also may be recalled that our military weakness has never kept this country out of war, nor has it prevented a war from breaking out in Europe. Moreover, More-over, the reckless dismantling of our armed services, almost immediately im-mediately upon the cessation of hostilities and the failure of (Congress and the people to support sup-port adequate military preparedness prepar-edness have convinced the leaders lead-ers of other countries that we are still tinged with the Weakness Weak-ness that comes from misguided pacifism. The United States has joined, apparently wholeheartedly, in international in-ternational commitments that call for the existence of an international in-ternational power-force, able to restrain aggression. This policy has the .enthusiastic support of the people of the country and secured the backing of Congress, Con-gress, but it amounts to nothing unless the policy is implemented by the means of mqking it effective. ef-fective. Whether we remain militarily mil-itarily ineffective, through carelessness care-lessness or design, is immaterial; the important thing is that our unpreparedness will make effective ef-fective international action for peace practically impossible. |