◆ SpookStack

1 THE ARMS RACE Oo” OF A DEEP human desire for security both the East and the West are building their arms establishments to un- precedented heights. Military budgets, and taxes to support them, have reached staggering proportions. Figures showing the trend in the United States and among her European allies are given in the graphs printed on the inside front and back covers. Impressive as these figures may be, the graphs fail to tell the full story. On the manpower side, the figures do not show the greatly expanded use of civilian manpower in pre- paredness programs and defense industries. On the expenditure side, they do not reveal the cost of foreign economic aid, of war-related programs like aid to veterans, of the cost of stimuli to production, nor of the cost of price control. Nor do they show the cost of inflation, the added cost of carrying an increas- ingly hesvy national debt, and the economic waste inherent in rearmament. The full permanent consequences ia terms of high taxes, national debt, depletion of resources, neglected welfare programs, and corrosion of human and spiritual values are immeasurable, If military might alone can give us a sense of security, certainly in 1952 the United States should feel secure. We have the most favored, most easily protected geographical position of any nation in the world, We have the miost highly developed industrial strength, the largest navy, the greatest stockpile of atomic weapons. Yet, the feeling of insecurity is more epidemic among us since the end of World War II than at any time within memory, Can it be that we are victims of our own policy? Can it be thar rearmament, adopted in the interest of security, is itself contributing to our insecurity and to the insecurity of the world? One thing is clear: rearmament seems only to Jead to the rearmamene of those we most fear. Each new measure 7