WASHINGTON AND THE NATION
Washington and the Nation Truman and the Fair Deal By Jonathan Stout WASHINGTON, D. C — There'll have to be more revisions of opinion about this man HarryTruman ... November did not end...
...One revision—as the past few days have made plain—will have to be on what a year ago was considered fumbling aimlessness...
...On that score, he has been both as wrong and as right as most of the nation has been...
...So, after two years, Dean Acheson has made the grade...
...Truman has given it a word...
...And that's an item which should be noted by labor, as .well as by the Republicans and the Dixiecrats...
...The fact of the matter is that this week Washington is slightly dared by the rapid succession of three important Presidential documents: the State of the Union message, the Economic Report and the breath-taking Budgetplus the resignation of Secretary Marshall, and the appointment of Dean Acheson as Secretary of State...
...Certainly nobody in Washington thinks today that Harty Truman is aimless...
...This is said on the assumption that the Senate will confirm Acheson's appointment, despite some rumblings of discontent...
...It is instructive to note that President Truman stressed in his message to Congress that none of this program is new—that, in fact, it is merely a continuation of a national policy established by the Social Security Act fourteen years ago...
...Higher part-lime earnings for recipients of pensions should be permitted...
...As President Truman said in his budget message, "action is long overdue...
...And almost nobody thinks he is fumbling...
...Vengefulness, however, can be a two-way street - It usually is...
...Whether these rumblings of discontent peter out into nothingness, or slowly grow into a storm of hurricane proportions, may depend very largely on Acheson himself...
...It will depend on how wisely Acheson now will deal with those individuals who had the insight and the courage to be right when Acheson was wrong during the period of our appeasement policy towards Russia...
...His next objective probably will be the Supreme Court...
...Why, Mr...
...t. Disability insurance should be provided to protect against loss of earnings during illness and other temporary disability, and to assure continuing annuities to workers who become permanently disabled and unable to earn a livelihood...
...And he said that additional payroll taxes should be imposed to pay for medical care and disability insurance...
...If Acheson is to be forgiven for the time when he was wrong, Acheson in turn will have to forgive those who bitterly opposed him when he was wrong...
...There are some unrelenting persons who believe the church door should be shut to penitents...
...Acheson himself has been on both sides of that policy...
...The three Presidential messages give the nation a pretty good idea what b» expect from Harry Truman—for the next year, at least...
...The nation has moved dynamically from being wrong to being rigid...
...The scale of benefits should be sharply raised...
...It's wonderful what one good election can do for a guy's morale...
...As a result, Harry Truman is not going to be "labor's president...
...And to carry all this out, President Truman asked Congress to advance from January, 1950, to July, 1949, the increase in payroll taxes which are slated to ^o from 1 to H4 percent...
...IN HIS FIRST MESSAGE, President Truman provided the keynote of his Administration...
...He has been both pro-appeasement and anti-appeasement...
...I, A comprehensive national health program should be established, centering in a national system of medical care insurance, plus improved services and facilities for public health and medical care...
...It will be "fairness...
...Whether he really makes the grade—not just for a few months— may ultimately depend on whether he can wipe out the memories of past fights, and can be really big enough now to bring together in a common cooperative effort all those who are on the right side today...
...To achieve this, he recommended these three principal steps: 1. Old-age and survivors insurance should be extended to nearly all the 24 million gainfully employed not now covered...
...And so far as anyone can see now, he isn't going to be anybody's president but his own If he accomplishes what he has charted out in his three presidential messages, "Harry Truman can be his own president without any serious argument from the American people » • • A SIGNIFICANT PORTION of the President's budget message is his program of social welfare, health and security legislation...
...THE APPOINTMENT of Dean Acheson to succeed Secretary Marshall came as a great surprise to everybody, ea> cept those resderi of The New Leader with memories long enough to remember our report on January 4, 1947, which stated: "There is an obviously unconftrmable suspicion in certain highly placed circles here that what Acheson wants is...
...It was that the "Fair Deal" has succeeded the "New Deal...
...November did not end that...
...But such a church door obtains few converts...
...It contemplates that in some States the level of benefits will be raised and their duration extended...
...But while the President does not intend to establish new social patterns, he has served notice in his Economic Report and in his Budget that he intends to make the established patterns work better than they have done since the war years...
...If President Truman's social security program goes through, it will establish this branch of governmental activity as one of the major items in the national budget...
...Nevertheless, despite such generalizations of theory and principle, tha fact remains that the nation's social security program, as innovated under Roosevelt, has been at a standstill for over ten years...
...Rathei, j Harry Truman's approach to our national problems will remain basically conservative...
...In advancing his social security program now, President Truman is causing a resumption of the progress which was initiated in 1935 and which came to a halt by 1939...
...The President asked Congress for action "to achieve an integrated, comprehensive system of social insurance," as was originally contemplated by the pioneers of the Social Security Act...
...Harry Truman Intends to be "fair" to all elements of the population/ And that seems to explain why he deliberately avoided use of the words New Deal and deliberately stressed the words Fair Deal...
...And that, I suspect, will be the real test for Acheson...
...In another section of his message, the President said: "My proposal to strengthen the unemployment compensation system contemplates that coverage will be extended to workers in small establishments, Federal employes, and other workers not now insured...
...Benefits should be provided for women at an earlier age...
...That is to say, Harry Truman does not see himself as an innovator or a pioneer in the patterns of our society, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt was...
...to step into the position of his ultimate goal—Secretary of State...
...And what will be the criteria as to what should or should not be done...
...Acheson appears to have kept step with that dynamic course...
Vol. 32 • January 1949 • No. 3
