Senator MALONEY. I do not know I would touch it, Senator. Senator JOHNSON. This Military Affairs Committee has been making a study of that problem for a week. We proceeded by calling folks from the Army and the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, and the other armed services, and then we expect to go ahead and call in the Secretary of Agriculture, and folks directing the industrial program of this country, and then the Manpower Commissioner; we are going to bring them all in one at a time and have them testify and answer questions. Senator MALONEY. Certainly, if I were a member of such a joint committee as here proposed, I would not do anything about manpower while that subject was being considered by the Military Affairs Committee. Senator JOHNSON. Then we read the Appropriations Committee is planning on another hearing on that same problem. A moment ago, in defining the fine line of demarkation between military strategy and what you term problems connected with the war, you mentioned the manpower problem and the size of the Army. Senator MALONEY. I mentioned those as possibilities. Senator JOHNSON. I understood you to indicate that that was one of the serious problems that Congress ought to settle and I agree with you on that. How would you approach the size of the Army problem? Senator MALONEY. In view of the fact it is now being studied by the regular committees, I would not do anything. My thought is this committee might serve as a sort of advisory committee to Senate committees having information which is not readily available to all Senate committees. Senator JOHNSON. It has already been indicated by Senator Hillnot with this approach-but we have the three branches of the Government, and the Constitution separates and defines them and keeps them separate. As I understand Senator Vandenberg's proposal, he would bring two branches of the Government together, the executive and the legislative. Senator VANDENBERG. No. I would not bring them together, but I would at least put them in communication with each other. Senator JOHNSON. I do not know that it is so much a matter of communication as it would be a matter of getting the job done, after all. Well, anyway, it is a very interesting presentation of the problem, I am very pleased that I was privileged to hear you men. It is thought-provoking and I know I want to give it considerable study. It is my present plan now to hear from the Truman committee as to the field they are covering outside of our standing committees. They have a rather wide scope. Senator MALONEY. That is strictly an investigating committee and how you would measure the difference between that and the one I have in mind, I do not know. But this would not be a committee which would hold hearings, or conduct an investigation; it would be a committee to consult with another branch of the Government, as representatives of the Congress and the people. Senator JOHNSON. In other words, your committee would receive confidential reports from the administration on the problems growing out of the war; is that the function you have in mind? Senator MALONEY. Let me say it this way: A large part of the burden of the war falls on Congress, and on the people, and Congress is not, to put it coldly and boldly, at the conference table. Senator GURNEY. Mr. Chairman, may I say something? I would just as soon have our reporter take it down, but the newspapers' representatives might hold their pencils. As I see it, we are all doing our doggonedest to get a quick victory, and the problems that come up, such as labor and manpower, sort of pull the people apart, so they are not a unit and not sure that everything is going along just as it should in the conduct of the war. In bringing this group together this afternoon, is it not definite notice in writing, because we have the newspapers here-that there is another problem of noncommunication between both ends of the Avenue that the people do not know about, because the newspapermen are here, in addition to the synthetic rubber problem, and the manpower problem; what they now have this other problem to figure out as to why the President and Congress are not getting along? Senator MALONEY. We are getting along all right, but we are trying to make a contribution as one of the three important branches of the Government, and I believe we can make a better contribution if we are better informed. me. Senator GURNEY. I realize that, but you did not quite understand Senator MALONEY. I am sorry. Senator GURNEY. My point is that I felt that we were going to go over this matter in a round-table discussion, but I find here the newspapers, which immediately presents another problem to me. Senator JOHNSON. The newspaper people-I thought I made it clear to all members of the committe, if they did not want this to be a nonexecutive session, that they say so, and if they wanted it executice, the newspaer people would retire. Senator GURNEY. The fact of the matter is they have not retired and we did invite them here. The point I make is, because they are here, you have presented to the people another problem, and that problem is that there is not good liaison between the President and Congress. Senator VANDENBERG. I think you have your chronology wrong. I think the people have been notified repeatedly that that is the fact. It has been discussed by columnists at great length, and if this is any notification at all, it is that a constructive and sympathetic effort is trying to be made to do something about it. Senator GURNEY. All right, but I know there are quite a few parts of the country that do not read what the columnists have to say. Senator MALONEY. The subject has been discussed by many others than columnists. Senator LODGE. I understand thoroughly one of the purposes of this committee, the liaison with the executive being informed of what is happening, and making such discret use of that information as seems desirable to promote the general good; to steer people kindly away from things that they should not be wasting time on, and to give the public the satisfaction of knowing the representatives of the people know what is going on and what is being done. I am clear on that purpose, the liaison feature. I am still not clear on the problems phase of it, the rubber problem, for instance. Senator MALONEY. Do not emphasize that. I did not intend to. Senator VANDENBERG. That is why I objected to the title. Senator MALONEY. I would like to ask Senator Vandenberg if he feels he and I are apart in our feelings on this thing? Senator VANDENBERG. No, I do not think so, Senator, unless there can be read into your statements today about rubber, manpower, and so on, a suggestion that this liaison committee is in no way going to under take primary jurisdiction in trying to settle some of these things which are in process of settlement elsewhere. My feeling is that is a long way from the function of the committee, and I would expect a thing like the manpower problem, let us say, for the sake of argument, if you-if it has gone 2 or 3 months in a deadlock and there does not seem to be any answer and no report on what has been going on, I think if the President sat down for one evening with a committee of this character, between them they would have something to say by morning which would end the stale mate. Senator MALONEY. That expresses the feeling I have better than I was able to express it. Senator JOHNSON. I find myself in a great deal of sympathy with someone here in Congress having the ear of the administration and the administration having the ear of Congress, but I had supposed that was being done through our leaders, and I think that is the place for it instead of setting up a super committee. For the life of me, I cannot see why the majority and minority leaders in the House and their assistants or whips, or whatever they call them, both House and Senate, why they cannot serve the function that you folks are describing here without having a committee do it. Thank you both, Senators. (Whereupon, at 3:55 p. m., the meeting was closed.) X U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943 82754 HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON CIVILIAN NOMINATIONS UNDER THE WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION JANUARY 29, 1943 Printed for the use of the Committee on Military Affairs UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1943 |