A CALL TO ACTIVISM
(Look to the Truman Committee)
By madis senner
With the nation in crisis and waging a war of global proportions all Americans have asked themselves what they can do for our country. . What sacrifices or efforts can we undertake as civilians? In this vein many activists have taken to the sidelines since September 11th. However valid the reasons for holding back – and there are a wide range, from not wishing to appear disloyal to not trusting in law enforcement’s ability to distinguish a terrorism suspect from a member of the loyal opposition exercising freedom of speech – the resulting inaction is being equated with approval. Yet if history is any example, such inaction is the wrong response. Today our country needs activism more than ever; the fight for justice, particularly the fight against special interests and corporations must be waged in earnest and even more aggressively
For this leadership, inspiration and direction we need only look to our 33rd President Harry S. Truman who led our country triumphantly out of WWII, and whose Truman Committee saved this nation from itself. He is a figure many in the progressive community might find hard to embrace--but that is precisely why he should be looked to: he legitimizes the effort to stop the looting of our national coffers. How could anyone call him a bleeding heart liberal or soft: He ordered atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ushered in the Marshall plan and backed the United Nations to ensure that the mistakes of post WWI would not be repeated. Arguably, he paved the way for the 50-plus years of peace the world has known up to now. Winston Churchill claimed that it was Truman’s Four Point Plan that saved western civilization. But the little known Truman Committee demonstrates; the impact one person can have in the war against tyranny.
While many have compared the September 11th attacks to Pearl Harbor, few have talked about the similarities between the United States of America back then and the way it is today. President Truman’s Memoirs (Memoirs by Harry S. Truman. Volume One Year of Decisions, Double Day & Co, Garden City, 1955) show us what we must do if we are to defeat terrorism.
As Truman notes the USA as it is today was unprepared to face the challenges and dangers it was confronting:
"When I was sworn in for the second time as senator on January 3, 1941, this country was preparing for war. We had suddenly realized that we were unprepared to face the dangers the confronted us and had begun a frantic attempt to remedy that situation. We had decided to build a two-ocean navy and to train and arm a million men a year for a period of five years. We had begun to spend money by the billion to accomplish those two purposes. We had proposed to give all-out aid to Great Britain, Greece and China and were getting ready to spend more billions to do it."
Our national defense machinery, which had never been quite adequate, suddenly had to be expanded to enormous proportions. Contracts for construction, for supplies, and for ammunitions were negotiated in desperate haste. Washington was full of people seeking contracts, most of them sincerely desiring to be of help to the government, some seeking only their own selfish interests."(Page 164)
Truman rightfully was concerned that the country was about to incur huge debts and expenditures and it was critical that country not be taken advantage of and be overwhelmed by red ink. What he saw distressed him:
"I was concerned about charges that the huge contracts and the immense purchases that resulted from these appropriations were be handled through favoritism. There were rumors that some of the plants had been located on a basis of friendship. I feared that many of the safeguards usually observed in government transactions were being thrown aside and overlooked, although these safeguards in no way have slowed up the program. I knew too, that certain lobbyists were seeking the inside track on purchases, contracts, and plant locations. There were rumors of enormous fees being paid to these gentlemen and of purchases having been concentrated among a few manufacturers of supplies."
I saw cliques in labor and in capital, each greedy for gain, whole small production plants by the hundreds were being pushed aside and kept inactive by big business. The big fellows, in the name of the government, were putting thousands of small concerns out of business that should have been producing for the total war effort,"(Page 165)
Truman was so concerned about what he saw and the risks it posed to the country that he set upon a trip to see first hand what was going on. Like the king in Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, he did so without telling anyone he visited who he was. He drove a giant loop from Maryland to Florida to Texas and north to Oklahoma and Wisconsin and Michigan visiting war camps and defense plants. He called the trip an ‘eye-opener’ and on February 10, 1941 submitted a resolution to create a special committee to investigate the national defense effort. A week later with a meager budget of $15,000 the special committee was authorized.
It became clear to Truman that while much of the country was sacrificing and patriotically doing all that it could for the war effort, special interests-- whether it be labor or big business-- was taking advantage of the country’s vulnerability and need. Compounding the problem was the inefficiency of government and the employment for $1 a year of yes men from big business that were nothing more than corporate pawns.
"Long before the committee had completed its investigation of the camp-construction program it became clear to me that part of the blame for the waste and confusion lay with the labor unions."(Page 172)
"In addition to these Reynolds plants there were four major producers of aluminum in the United States—the Aluminum Company of America, the Dow Chemical Company, the American Magnesium Corporation, and I. G. Farben, a German corporation. The representatives of these four industries were interrogated by the committee in order to determine what had to be done to get more aluminum for the defense effort. In the course of these hearings it became apparent that undue control was being exercised over the sources of magnesium and of bauxite—the claylike ore used in the production of aluminum—and that preference was being given in the allocation of aluminum priorities by the committee set up by the Office of Production Management for that purpose." (Page 175)
"'It looks very much to me,' I said at one of the hearings, 'as if the member of the priority committee represent du Pont, General Motors, and people who are most interested in these priorities, I can’t se that that is good for the welfare and benefit of the country. I don’t believe that is good public policy. The fellow who is most vitally interested makes the decision for his own welfare and benefit. They have their own business at heart.'" (Page 176)
"In my first report to senate I condemned the action of lobbyists, whose attempts to buy and sell influence were weakening the public confidence in the integrity of government officials."(Page 177)
"The most spectacular portion of the first annual report to the Senate was on the bungling of the Office of Production Management and its unwillingness to use the facilities at its disposal. I pointed out that the OPM’s record has not been impressive and that it had make mistakes of commission and omission which were inexcusable. Too often it did nothing seeking to avoid problems by refusing to admit that they existed.
The committee had found that some of the so-called dollar-a-year men and those working WOC (without Compensation), who had flocked to Washington from industry and business to offer their services in the defense effort, were continuing to receive pay from their companies. This was not wrong in itself. But we had discovered that between June 1, 1940 and April 30, 1941, the Army and Navy had given contracts totaling almost three billion dollars to sixty-six firms whose officials had served the government at a dollar a year." (Page 179)
"As the committee’s investigation proceeded into 1942, the evidence of waste and confusion became more shocking than ever. I saw that the war effort was bogging down because of red tape and bureaucratic waste…"(page 181)
"The committee was responsible for savings not only in dollars and precious time but also in actual lives. We found that the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, located at Lockland, Ohio near Cincinnati, was turning out engines which were not in accordance with specifications." (Page 184)
It is hard to fathom that such things could have happened in the United States during WWII. Movies and pundits have us marvel at the WWII generation’s sacrifices. We conjure up images of soldiers dying for our country on foreign shores and belt-tightening deprivations on the homefront. Meanwhile aluminum prices were being manipulated! What affect did manipulating aluminum prices have on the war? Did it prevent proper and rapid armament? Did it prolong the war? President Truman noted that the squeeze on aluminum initially led to the manufacture of comparably inferior airplanes and armaments. These are only a few of the painful questions we must ask ourselves about the effect special interests had on WWII. It is sad and sick, but do it we must; it is part of the Truman Committee’s legacy left to us--it serves to show the sharp contrast of sacrifice versus greed and exploitation. Similarly the progressive and activist communities need to realize that the current climate in the USA serves as opportune time to demonstrate the evil of corporate and special interests that are eating away our country. Look at the wrath heaped on the Red Cross for attempting to divert money to computer systems instead victims. That lone voice that has been crying in the wilderness for too long is ready to be heard--the Truman Committee shows us how justice can prevail during adversity.
The success of the Truman Committee in helping win the war without falling prey to exploitation was remarkable. President Truman noted that the Truman Committee saved over 15 billion dollars for the government.
"A number of suggestions in the committee reports were enacted into legislation by Congress, but the influence of the committee was beginning to make itself felt through other than legislative channels. In many cases the mere knowledge that we were interested in a particular subject was enough to cause everyone concerned, whether manufacturers, government officials, or labor, to clear up the problems themselves before the committee could get to them…The net result was more concerted effort toward winning the war, a tightening of efficiency between civilian and military programs, and the reduction of losses in materials, time and manpower."(Page 174. Emphasis added)
But the impact of the Truman Committee went far beyond that. Gene F. Schmidtlein ("The Man From Missouri’, The Truman Presidential, adapted from "Truman the Senator") noted how newspapers such as the New York Times which were initially lukewarm about the committee and President Truman sang a different song towards the wars end:
"But three years later the Times extended unqualified acclaim to the Committee and to Truman. The list of newspapers who praised Truman’s work would be a long one. By 1944, the reporters agreed that, excepting Roosevelt, Truman, had contributed more to winning the war than any other civilian in Washington."
Because there has been no Harry Truman to stop the pillaging of the government by special interests we have seen acceleration in the looting of our country. The airline industry got a $15 billion Bailout and other industries such as steel, insurance and healthcare continue to press politicians. While firefighters and rescue workers were rushing to ground zero to help immediately after the attacks the Wall Street Journal (October 3, 2001) noted that in Washington another rush was going on as 'Lobbyists Hustle to Shape the Stimulus Package." .The house republicans continue to put forth what Robert S. McIntyre of Citizens for Tax justice calls a 'corporate giveaway scheme'. Then there is the affront of our civilian liberties going on with attorney general Ashcroft with military tribunals. The list goes on.
We must seize this moment to show to our fellow Americans how democracy has been hijacked in our country. The government works for those that butter its bread--special interests and corporations. And although there may be traditional advocates, they really aren't friends. Consider the airline bailout: According to Wall Street Journal ('Bailout Showed the Weight of a Mighty, and Fast-Acting Lobby', October 3, 2001) Linda Daschle, wife of Senate majority Tom Daschle lobbied hard. Although this may well be an arms length agreement—it sure looks fishy from here. As the Green party has pointed our there is no difference between the two parties--we have Republicrats.
A unique opportunity has presented itself to showcase what is going on in our country. Now is the time to show how corporations and special interests are robbing us blind while children break piggy banks to help victims and others risk their lives. Not only is this an injustice – it also puts our country at risk. The lessons and leadership of President Truman are clear. Civilians must take up the campaign against special interests.
We are all activists now!!!http://www.jubileeinitiative.org/Meek.htm
PS: The 'Giv'em Hell Harry' slogan did not come to exist until the 1948 Presidential Election. Based upon telephone interviews it was assumed that the Republican candidate Dewey, was going to win in a landslide victory. However, that was not the case because the survey of people owning phones was skewed to the more well to do Republican voters--in other words it was unrepresentative of the voters. We could argue the same today as the wealthy and powerful have seized the day to their advantage and say they have the best interest of the bulk of Americans--their interests are just as unrepresentative of what most Americans want as were the 1948 elction projection polls.