It is inevitable that we will have low periods of business activity, when the national income will again be so small that we cannot possibly create enough national wealth to even collect for current relief costs. Add up all Federal taxes collected between 1929 and 1939. Then add up the deficit and relief during that same 10 years. That compilation shows why we simply cannot pay new debts of the kind being heaped upon us, much less the old ones. Of course, we can have money inflation and pay off all debts with 1-cent dollars, as Germany did. We could repudiate or refuse to pay debts that would bankrupt our insurance companies and banks, whose vaults are stuffed with billions of Government bonds, or we could scrap the American system, scrap private enterprise and scrap individual reward for individual thrift and energy, and become a socialistic nation, a socialized state like Germany and Russia. We don't want any of those things to happen. Solvency of the American economy is the most important consideration of Congress today. There is no sense in building a national defense for a bankrupt nation. We are on the verge of following the identical national bankruptcy pattern which brought tyranny to three of Europe's greatest nations. Deliberate efforts to confuse, the high-handed fumbling, the deadly errors that are put into action, cannot go on forever. MIDDLE CLASS IN UNITED STATES The middle class, the great mass of American people who have made this system of government work in the past, are the ones who are destined to be wiped out. If Congress continues to give consent to little portions, each one of which leads us another step toward insolvency, the middle class is destined to extinction. Finally, let me emphasize that it is not encouraging to the American businessman to contemplate the abstract thinking and unwillingness to face realities displayed by those who advocate more and more spending on behalf of other countries. Abstract thinking is one of the chief factors which is leading this country into certain doom. The kaleidoscopic changes of the last few years have been so sudden and so revolutionary that no one man or small group of men can formulate solutions. That task rests with the common people. They have the practical, true sense of values that comes from working with their hands and with the sweat of the brow. They are without egotism and arrogance. They are seldom articular, and they cannot assert themselves except through Congress. These people make up our so-called middle class. They are both the employer and employee. It is their way of life which is being endangered. Is it not time to consult them? Is it not time to listen to the small businessman and the workingman-the rank and file. American-who is already feeling the effects of the present dislocations and who will be the one to suffer the consequences in years to come? Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, you gentlemen here in Congress are the true guardians of the people's welfare. Under our system of checks and balances, the Constitution curbs Executive power by giving to you the control of the Nation's purse. When the lend-lease law was originally introduced, one of the principal factors which led to its passage, and which gave some source of encourage→ ment even to those who opposed it, was the knowledge that Congress retained control of appropriations. We knew that whatever unusual powers that law placed in the hands of the Executive, he would still be compelled to come to the Halls of Congress for funds to put those powers into effect. Now you are asked to authorize a second lend-lease appropriation of some $6,000,000,000, a sum staggering in its size. Has not the time come to stop and consider whether this appropriation may not be the final straw-may not be the last step which marks the difference between solvency and bankruptcy? If it were clear that this money is necessary for the immediate needs of our defense, I would not be before you today. However, this appropriation deals not with our present needs but with the needs of the indeterminate future. Less than 3 percent of the first appropriation, or only 389 millions of the original 7 billions, has been spent, and less than half the original sum has even been appropriated by letting of contracts. The Constitution wisely provides that the appropriations for maintenance of our armed forces should be limited to 2 years. Yet here is an appropriation not for our own armed forces but for those of foreign powers, which projects itself ahead for a period which may far exceed 2 years. Happily, you gentlemen have time to study this proposal-to analyze its dire effect upon the way of life which we seek to defend. And even if you should later find that this expense is justifiable, is it not urgent to place upon appropriations the conditions and restrictions which will protect the jobs and security of Americans? As a representative of America's thousands of small businessmen, I urge that you disapprove this huge expenditure, for the reasons which I have outlined. (Subsequently the committee recessed to meet again at 10:30 a. m. Friday, October 17, 1941). SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL NATIONAL DEFENSE APPRO PRIATION BILL FOR 1942 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1941 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee reconvened at 10:30 a. m., Senator Alva B. Adams, chairman of the subcommittee, presiding. Present: Senators Adams, McKellar, Thomas, and Nye. WAR DEPARTMENT LEND-LEASE APPROPRIATION STATEMENT OF LT. COL. MATTHEW B. RIDGWAY, UNITED STATES ARMY AID TO SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS Senator NYE. Colonel Ridgway, I forget who it was representing the Navy Department who appeared and testified in connection with the activities of American joint committees with the South American republics. What was your relationship with such committees? Colonel RIDGWAY. I don't know what he testified about, Senator. Senator NYE. He was merely testifying about the joint Army and Navy committees of the South American republics. JOINT ADVISORY BOARD ON AMERICAN REPUBLICS Colonel RIDGWAY. Yes. The Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy appointed a so-called Joint Advisory Board on American Republics, to advise them with respect to the requests of the American republics for munitions of war, in carrying out their roles under the general hemisphere defense policy. Perhaps it is that to which you refer, sir. QUESTION AS TO ESTABLISHMENT OF BASES IN SOUTH AMERICA Senator NYE. Didn't the authorization go further and deeper than that? Did it not involve the possibility of establishing American bases in South America? Colonel RIDGWAY. Not specifically, Senator. These matters, of course, are confidential, Mr. Chairman. Senator NYE. Wouldn't we do better to make the record, and then he can take the record and expunge what he considers confidential. Senator ADAMS. Let us get this much, that the committee in order to act has to have information. There is a line to be drawn between that which is genuinely confidential. Yet, on the other hand, we have to justify ourselves to a certain extent, and there should not be excluded from our record matters which are not genuinely confidential. We were told a few days ago that some matters like quantities of eggs and food products were confidential and must be off the record, to find later that they were already in the House hearings. So let's not be too secretive about something the disclosure of which can do no harm. Colonel RIDGWAY. Yes, sir. Senator ADAMS. And so that we don't designate as confidential things which we ought to be able to state on the floor of the Senate as justification of our action. Senator MCKELLAR. But where you think something should not go into the record, but should be heard in strict confidence, I think you should say so and the stenographer won't take it down. Senator NYE. That is quite all right, except that I have observed during the hearings that once the hand is held up, the stenographer doesn't go to work again until someone calls attention to the fact that what is being said is intended to be in the record. Senator MCKELLAR. Of course, that is bound to happen. Senator NYE. I think it would be well to make the record and then let the witness expunge from it whatever he considers confidential. Colonel RIDGWAY. That would be satisfactory. Senator NYE. If that is agreeable to you, Mr. Chairman, then we can proceed. Senator ADAMS. That is not altogether agreeable to me, as chairman of the subcommittee, because I don't think the witness should have the exclusive right to determine. Senator MCKELLAR. I agree with the chairman on that. When it is confidential, you indicate it. CONVERSATIONS CARRIED ON WITH AMERICAN REPUBLICS Colonel RIDGWAY. There have been conversations carried on with the American republics for some time, sir, and they have been predicated on the idea that the defense of this hemisphere is a major factor in our strategy. A principal element, or I should say an objective, in that policy with respect to hemisphere defense, is to secure, as far as these American republics choose to give it, the most effective mutually defensive cooperation practicable. It was with that in view that they were first approached to see if, in the event of aggression by nonAmerican countries, they would cooperate fully to the limit of their resources, and specifically whether they were prepared to assist other American republics with their forces and to accept help from the forces of other American republics. Perhaps that is what you refer to, Senator. |