Ten for the Show

Last week the Democratic Digest, monthly publication of the Democratic National Committee, had a try at defining the "ten top issues'' on which it believes a Democratic President should be elected next year. The Digest's ten:

P: "Falling farm income . . . Since the G.O.P. took office, farm income is down 17%, farm prices are down 18%, the parity ratio is down 18%. In the face of these hard facts, the G.O.P. 'farm program' consists of lower price supports, less farm credit, less funds for REA."

P: "Tax favoritism for the rich . . . The Republican 'trickle-down' tax philosophy of Andrew Mellon and the 19205 was resurrected in the 1954 G.O.P. tax bill recommended by the Eisenhower Administration and passed by the G.O.P. 83rd Congress. For every dollar of tax relief to stockholders, the Eisenhower Administration felt we could only 'afford' to give less than a nickel to working mothers, a little over a penny to families with foster children, less than a dime to families with heavy medical expense."

P: "The public-power giveaway . . . Virtually all progress in the power program has stopped because the Administration has not asked Congress for funds for a single major new public-power start, and has said it will refuse to spend funds provided by the Democratic 84th Congress for 107 new projects. . ."

P: "Favoritism to big business . . . Government agencies have been put in the hands of businessmen. The Federal Power Commission includes two men who formerly represented private utilities; the National Labor Relations Board includes two lawyers who formerly represented management in cases before the NLRB as well as a former Taft assistant who helped push the Taft-Hartley law through Congress; the Securities and Exchange Commission includes two former stockbrokers, a former investment banker, and two lawyers whose firms represent major brokerage houses; the Federal Trade Commission's first G.O.P. chairman formerly represented companies in price-discrimination brought by the FTC."

P: "Misconduct in government." G.O.P. National Chairman Wes Roberts, Air Force Secretary Harold Talbott and Public Buildings Service Commissioner Peter Strobel were allowed to resign voluntarily, with honor, after they were involved in "three notable instances of misconduct."

P: "The rising cost of living . . . The cost of many key items in the family budget has continued to rise under the G.O.P. Despite the drastic drop in farm prices (37% since the G.O.P. took over), food prices have remained at virtually the same level they were when the Republicans took office. At the same time, food processors' profits have risen 37% under the G.O.P."

P: "Small-business failures." While profits and returns of big business have gone up, more small businesses have been going under. "One of the first acts of the G.O.P. was to scrap the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which had lent money to small businesses at 5% interest, and substitute a tightfisted Small Business Administration, which lent money at a minimum of 6%--often 7% and 8%."

P: "G.O.P. antilabor policy . . . The most overt evidence of antilabor feeling within the Eisenhower Administration came from Interior Secretary McKay, whose automobile agency in Salem, Ore. has been under strike by the International Association of Machinists. McKay crossed the picket lines to inspect the company's books, commented with reference to the members of the striking union: 'I don't happen to go along with some of the goons they've got running things.' "

P: "The school crisis . . . Although advertised as a '$7 billion program,' the Eisenhower school bill provides only $66 million a year in direct aid--despite the fact that official Government figures show that school needs that cannot be met by the states totaled $4.7 billion in 1952."

P: "The growth of monopolies ... In 1954 there were three times as many business mergers as occurred in 1949. one-third more than in 1953. Bank mergers are at an alltime high, so that today, only 1% of U.S. banks hold nearly half of all U.S. banking assets."

Absent from the Democratic Digest's list were many topics that historically and logically are regarded by many observers as the top questions facing the U.S. Notably missing: foreign policy, national defense, world economic policy and racial desegregation.

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