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APPEAL BY U.S. PRESIDENT
FOR NATIONAL UNITY
In Defence Effort of United States
WASHINGTON, May 17 (A.A.P.).-President Truman
to-day made a strong appeal for national unity in the defence ef-
fort of the United States. In an address to the National Confer-
ence on Citizenship, the President urged Americans to bring
pressure on their representatives in Congress to support the Gov-
ernment's defence production programmes and anti-inflation
measures.
He criticised Congress for delaying the enactment of legis-
lation to extend price, wage and rent controls beyond June 30,
when they are due to expire. "If we are going to control prices
Congress has got to say, and in no uncertain terms, that it wants
prices controlled," President Truman said. "Every special inter-
est in the country is down here in Washington, or on its way,
to lobby for a little exception for itself, and most of them can
make out a pretty good case for themselves.
"CANNOT HAVE LOT OF EXCEPTIONS"
It -would be nice if we
Id give them exceptions,
-e cannot bave a lot of
.ons and still have ef
price controls. ..If we
\*r?* all the exceptions
that ut?' sed for, price con-
trol*^ be like a sieve,
and uu> tide of inflation
-would pour through it
"We ar« not going to be able
to hold the cost of living against
the tremendous inflationary pres-
sure ahead unless we have a
>ood. strong price control law,
=md a good, strong rent control
aw. Special interests, and the
nen in the lobbies, will wreck
'his stabilisation programme as
ire as you are born, unless tLe
vin body of citizens of this
untry get busy and do some
?ing about it Bight now it will
ike everything we can do to
Ad prices down.
If we can hold them down until
we get over the hump of our de
ence programme we will be past
he danger point If we cannot,
fie cost of living will go through
tie roof, and that will mean ruin
ir our defence programme and
^ur strength as a nation."
COHN TEY ABOVE POLITICS
-President Truman said the de
.is&iöc-that Congress and he
"ould bave to make soon should
,a above politics, because the
.elfare of the country depended
them. ""There is a lot of dis
-ion nowadays about military
egy," the President said.
is all right Military
egy is important, and
¡body ought to be con-
td about it; but there are
.f other problems of defence
duction, taxes and stabilis-
ier example-and unless we
those problems we will not
able to have any military
¿egy at all. Our country
is tile danger of war from an
ressive and imperialistic
aign Power, and in meeting
danger it is all important
, we should all stand to
ier."
CUTS NOT POSSIBLE
President Truman said that
. recent suggestion by Sen
ator Bobert Tait (Republican,
Ohio) that the United States
should cut down the goal for
the armed forces by half a
million men was "very fool-
ish." He added: "Slashing
the size of onr armed forces
would not be an economy. It
would be an invitation to
war."
President Truman said that the
American defence programme
had two parts; one was the build-
ing up of the American armed
forces and the national strength,
and the other was helping Am-
erica's alliés to build up their
strength so that they could do
their share in preventing war
and stopping aggression.
"Both these parts of our de-
fence programme are vital to
our security," he claimed. "Un-
less we help our allies, we might
have to face the world danger
alone. Unless our allies are
strong the Kremlin might take
them over, and the danger of war
would increase. Without allies
our defence would be more dif-
ficult and mora costly in dollars
and in lives. There is no econ-
omy in slashing our foreign aid
programme. Penny - pinching
now may mean throwing away
the lives of our soldiers later on."
ENORMOUS EXPENDITURE .
The President said that by
June 30 the United States would
have spent about 19,000 million
dollars (£A8,482,142,849) on de-
fence since the Korean war be-
gan. He added that in the year
beginning July 1 next American
defence spending probably would
increase to about 40,000 million
dollars (£A17,857,142,S40>.
Departing from his prepared
speech, President Truman said:
"We must have friends in this
troubled world. Some Senators
and some other people would
have us 'go it alone.'" Defend-
ing his defence Budget of 60,000
million dollars (£A26,785,714,285),
the President said: "One week of
all-out war would cost from 10
to 20 times that." Reporters who
questioned President Truman
later were told he meant an all
out war would cost from 10 to
20 times as much a week as the
present programme was costing.
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