Brick Foxholes

As soon as it became evident that the Government of the U.S. might vanish in one cloudy instant if an A-bomb landed in downtown Washington, the idea struck Government planners: Why not move the tempting targets and save the city? Last week President Truman asked Congress for $139,800,000 to begin a dispersal of key agencies and key men.

The plan called for construction of permanent Government buildings, complete with bomb shelters, in four spots in Maryland and Virginia. All were to be no closer than twelve miles, but no farther than 50 miles, from the White House. One building would be large enough to seat Congress. Even so, there were Congressmen who didn't like the idea.

Missouri's gnarled, antique Democrat Clarence Cannon cried that there was no danger of attack and that, if there were, Government agencies should be moved to places like Chicago, Houston or Denver. Nebraska's G.O.P. Congressman A. L. Miller characterized the plan as a boondoggle cooked up to save the necks of 40,000 "Washington waffle-bottoms." This moved Maryland's Republican Edward T. Miller to a counterproposal: simply fire the 40,000 and use their wages to build a radar fence around the U.S.

Seeing all the uproar, congressional leaders decided to consider the idea some other time, maybe next year.

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