Flanders Calls for Budget Cuts Through Disarmament Programs

Senator Ralph E. Flanders of Vermont last night asserted that reduction of President Eisenhower's budget is a "hopeless thing" until progress is made towards "the ending of national armaments."

Speaking before a small audience at the Geographical Institute, Flanders made three proposals which would ease defense expenditures. He suggested an agreement with Russia to ban tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles, supplemented by observation stations; the creation of an unarmed united Germany; and a limit on production of atomic bombs.

To support his proposals, Flanders charged that the American public was "fascinated with numbers," whereas "a dozen well-placed bombs would suffice" to cripple Russia. He called ICBM's "unnecessary," because of the effectiveness of intermediate missiles launched from West Europe. Opposing German rearmament, he said it "stopped dead" any possibility of German unity.

Flanders felt that the Soviet government was now "seriously inclined" to agree to arms reduction, because of the growing dissatisfaction of the Russian people with their "slow progress towards a better life." A second fear of the Russian rulers, he added was that the "stalemate of terror" produced by exclusive U.S. and Soviet possession of atomic weapons had ended, and that a smaller nation might get "trigger-happy."

If defense expenditures, which represented two-thirds of the budgets, were reduced, stated Flanders, he would be in favor of an immediate tax cut. This would be effected in excise taxes, which react upon individuals. Tax reductions for businesses, he commented, would be better "theoretically, economically, and in every way but politically."

Flanders came out against budget cuts at the expense of foreign aid. "If we can be of assistance anywhere at any time to nations in distress," he asserted, "$200 million is a small amount." He did feel, however, that the "people can get very much more for their money than they're getting."