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IT’S YOUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
★
By ROBERT L. JOHNSON
President, Temple University and Chairman of
The Citizens Committee for the Hoover Report
Folks You Know
Editor’s Note: To inform its readers about the widely discussed Hoover plan for
reorganization — one of the most important issues confronting the American
people today — the Mill Whistle presents another in a series of articles covering
the findings of the Hoover Commission.
No. 1—THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM
The defense of freedom costs money
— and lives. We’ve got to save money
to save lives.
In these days of crisis you and your
family have a bigger stake than ever in
the success of the bipartisan Hoover
Commission’s report for “better govern
ment at a better price.”
You remember that the six Demo
crats and six Republicans of the Hoover
Commission told us two big things after
more than a year of the closest study
of our government ever made:
(1) Even in peace time the federal
budget of over $40 billions a year comes
to $1,000 per American family per year,
and, (2) one dollar in ten (about 4
billions a year or $100 per family per
year) could be saved by better organi
zation and more efficient management
— by eliminating duplication, overlap-
Ding and waste in government opera
tion.
Now Russia has handed us a bill for
$10 billions — that’s what it amounts to
■—and before we get through with this
international mess we may be faced
with a debt of many billions more.
Citizens Pay It
Don’t forget that it is you and I who
will have to squeeze this money some
how out of our earnings. The govern
ment spends it, yes. But we citizens
nav it, directly and indirectly in taxes
that determine the cost of everything
we buy, eat, wear, and use.
And don’t forget, also, that the pres
ent government debt of about $270
billions already constitutes an obliga
tion of $7,000 by the average American
family. A mortgage, really. A mortgage
that is not likely to be actually fore
closed, although such an event would
be a great delight to our enemies. This
may well be part of their plan. The
Hoover Commission’s task force on
National security suggested, in fact, that
one of the aims of the Kremlin is “vic
tory by bankruptcy.”
Don’t think for a moment that I am
opposed to these expenditures. My point
is that our present defense needs are
the strongest kind of argument for sav
ing the $4 billions or mere, annually
that would result from the enactment
of the Hoover Commission’s full pro
gram of reorganization. It has even been
MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1950
pointed out that the cost of the war
could be borne, or greatly reduced by
the savings possible in this way.
So far I have talked only of dollars.
They’re important but there is some
thing much more important — human
life. The defense of freedom is going
to require the sacrifice of lives, how
many no one knows.
This we do know, however. The
Hoover Commission’s Report has already
repaid the Nation a thousandfold in
terms, not only of dollars, but of lives.
The Commission’s recommendations on
military efficiency were put into effect
by Congress last year through the Tyd-
ings Act, which the Citizens Committee
endorsed.
Armed Services Unified
The result is more real unification,
more real teamwork among the Army.
Navy and Air Force than ever existed
before. The unification act nut an end
to the squabbling and bickering that
post so many lives at Pearl Harbor.
Today, as General MacArthur has said,
the three armed services are working
together as never before.
In the propess, the wastefulness and
folly of unnlanned, comnetitive bTiving
has been cut down by at least $1 billion
a year, probably much more. We’ve
cr>me a long wav since the days of the
first World War when the Army began
its war effort (this was IPHl by buying
18 million square .yards of mosquito
netting for fear the Navy would get it
first. Less waste means more fighting
effectiveness. And that, too, will save
lives. If the armed services can be
.streamlined, why not the whole govern
ment?
In this struggle, whose end no man
can see, we need, as never before, a
well-organized, efficient government
machine in whipfi there is no wasted
action and in which every wheel and
cog will do its full part in a coordinated
whole.
Such a machine is envisioned in the
Hoover Renort and is possible through
the enactment of the full reorganiza
tion program. You nan do much toward
achieving this result bv writing to your
Congre-sman, telling him how you feel
about it. Remember: every dollar we
waste is a gift to the enemies of free
dom.
In subsequent reports I shall de-
ir
mm
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Picture above shows Katherine S.
Cox, cloth examiner, second shift, at the
Rayon Mill. She is a native of Spray
and before her marriage was Miss
Katherine Spink. Her" mother, Flora
Spink, .works in the Parking Dept, at
Central Warehouse.
Katherine is married to Glenn Cox,
who is associated with his father in
the operation cf Cox Food Store. They
live on Fisher Street in Spray.
New Gift Packages
(Continued from Page Three)
This year’s packages are not only
beautiful, but very practical as well.
They are planned for all-year-around
sale — and all the usual holly and
Christmas motifs have been avoided so
that stores can sell them for gifts at
any season. Each box is individually
wrapped in cellophane permitting stores
to take off the lids and display the con
tents so the customers can see what is
inside, yet protecting the towels from
dust and handling.
“Gift packaging of towels is an im
portant phase of selling today” said
T. H. Ducey, who heads sales of the
towel department. “People hesitate to
give practical gifts like towels unless
the goods are attractively wrapped. We
know that a handsome package out
sells a dull, uninteresting package by
three to one. Our own packaging this
year is the most ambitious program we
have attempted and will result in con
siderably more gift set sales than ever
before.”
Some cf the package sets sell for as
little as $2 in stores — others are priced
about $3, $4, $5, and $7 — depending
on the quality of towels and the num
ber of pieces included. Only regular
Fieldcrest quality towels are used so
the customer knows she’s getting qual
ity as well as a handsome package.
scribe how the Hoover Report vitally
effects the ways in which we use our
resources, our dollars and, above all,
our lives.