Targets of Economy

Twoscore Army posts throughout the land last week found themselves on the defensive, fighting for their political lives. Anxious to economize for deficit reasons, President Hoover had picked the Army as his first big target (TIME, May 18). He knew he could not reduce the fighting force below its 118,000 men without encountering violent public objections. He did not want to retrench on river & harbor improvements and flood control because they were essentials of his Unemployment relief program. Therefore he selected as the most likely bull's-eye for economy some of the Army's 340 forts, garrisons, depots, camps, hospitals, flying fields and arsenals. To the country he issued a statement: "The [General] Staff has insisted for great numbers of years that the Army must be more largely concentrated. . . . We have actually abandoned 13 posts during the last two years.* The Staff probably will report between 20 and 30 more posts that should be abandoned ... if we are to accomplish some very considerable economies. ... I have appointed a committee to study these proposed abandonments and see which of them could be used by other departments of the Government. . . . There are some of these posts that might be of very great value to the States for institutional purposes. It would relieve the feeling of deprivation of the local communities if these posts could be adapted to some other public purposes. We are endeavoring ... to create as little hardship as possible and will effect economies in many direction.,." Well aware was President Hoover of the political battles his proposal invited. The War Department was swamped with inquiries from anxious and excited Congressmen as to whether this or that Army post was to go. A garrison, no matter how old or useless, in his district is a great feather in the political cap of any Representative. Supplies are bought in his community. Soldiers spend their pay among his constituents. Troops are on hand for all local celebrations. So tenaciously have Senators and Representatives fought for their Army posts that, as a group, they have succeeded in blocking practically all of the War Department's elimination proposals. Despite President Hoover's earnest effort to economize, War Department realists expected little to result. The upkeep of all Army posts is only $20,695,990 and the abandonment of 40 of them, even if Congress consented, would save only about $2,000,000, a small drop out of a billion-dollar bucket. Coast artillery posts may be chopped but the War Department has up its sleeve as a defense substitute a $100,000,000 program for 14-in. railroad guns firing from 100 shorepoints. Cavalry stations may go but the cost of mechanizing that service with $75,000 "combat cars" instead of horses will wipe out any saving.

* Of these nine were abandoned, four made inactive. Of the abandoned stations five were flying fields and two outside the continental U. S.

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