UTAT, MONDAYEVENING, DECTIRER & 4, 1961 - ae Re Se eee ¢ : ay ee Pat aa gt ere? vf15s erg £ —E D I T O R A L S. The Cruel 1 Fok on Freedom me = What would life be like for us today if fense abuse “minimum” levels— ‘suitable in a peaceful world. From that point until the middle “there had never been a cold war, if Rus- -_ outlays - sia and Red China were governed by men ‘bent on living at peace within their own of 1962, we will have spent $270 billion more M _ . borders? than the proper minimum. We know, ‘of course, we ania not be — _ That $270 billion is the sthaeoring t price Ss “wholly free of international disputes. The we, as the principal guardian of the free — world, have had to pay to buy security in © controversies that embroil the Western al‘ lies even when they confront joint peril a world imperiled by marauding Commu- | offer sufficient proof of that. nist tyrants. That is the fabulous insurance premium We know, too, that we would still be engulfed in a tide of great problems, not - the least of them the tremendous burst of world and national population. | | that has helped us to stem their aggressions, not only against the industrial West but against the weak, underdeveloped and > _ Without that shield they would not | Nevertheless, we would have saved in- pitifully timid “neutrals” who, standing be- _ hind our shield, indulge the luxury of at- credible sums of money that have been _ lavished on our defense establishment, and | tacking us as “warlike.” ao ee hat of our friends and allies abroad, whol- — | 4 hs p 1 ‘iy peaks Aas 7 a PH + Ne oe akhcv)g a oh eo Oey Pak “ vipiee 0 iG , cause of the existence of i a ‘the age vasa re ; threat from ce - Peiping.. Bo War » | Before 3 A thoroughly modern high school “wien a LO| full: facilities for 2,500 students can cost — Moscow N and = = a World ly IL : long. be either independent. or vocal. in ‘Gia: 1936- 40 _ $7 million today. That extra $270 billion — span, we averaged a yearly outlay of $1, _ in defense cost could build enough schools 350,000,000 for defense. to house 100 million such students. Ac- | ‘In the first postwar years, the figure a tually, we only have 46 million students Ae ranged from $12 billion to $15 billion, what with higher prices, more elaborate and costlier equipment, enlarged popula- tion and bigger notions of a “safe” defense. | ce - today at all levels.) ae Builders and housing officials think of a $20,000 house as a good deal better than minimum accommodations. For $270 bil- If we arbitrarily add another $5 billion to cover additional changes in these directions, we have a figure of $20 billion. It might be regarded as a reasonable annual defense charge covering require- lion, we could have built 13,500,000 houses ments for internal security, plus our share world, we measure the cruel tax Moscow and Peiping have levied upon free humanity as it seeks to ward off their depredations, done aay in humanity’ S very name. in any conceivable world policing effort. Take 1950, at the outbreak of the Ko- rean War, as the point where Communist aggression really began to force our de- at that price, enough to replace one in ev- ery four dwelling units in this country. In the houses, schools, hospitals and roads unbuilt, here and elsewhere in the _