Two Slaps

The Allied High Commission for Germany last week gave two sharp slaps to Western Germany's Bonn government: HICOM vetoed two laws, one on civil service and one on income tax, which had been adopted by Bonn's Parliament. The veto on civil service seemed to make more sense than the other.

Since the days of the Kaisers, German civil servants (Beamten) have been a privileged caste. "The Beamte doesn't have much," the saying went, "but he has it for life." The civil service was notably honest and efficient, but it looked upon itself as the masters of the people, not as their servants. Wrote one angry German critic in 1909: "The sergeant-types, who properly belong on the drill field, have gradually penetrated to the highest ranks of public administration." The authoritarian civil service survived the Weimar Republic, was made to order for Hitler.

Early this year the Bonn government shoved through a law restoring the old caste system, its provisions guaranteed to keep the snug, smug bureaucrat happy. Samples: civil servants may not be dismissed for incompetence; vacancies need not be made public and opened to competition. The Allied High Commissioners, in vetoing the new law, reminded Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of his promise last November "to liberalize the structure of government and to exclude authoritarianism," insisted that he produce a more democratic civil service law.

The Allies also turned down a law providing income tax cuts for middle and upper-income groups in Germany. The Germans argued that lower taxes would bring a higher percentage of honest returns. U.S. experts insisted that this was "like bribing a man to be honest." The U.S. experts also condemned as unsound a tax exemption for profits plowed back into business expansion; they were afraid this might result in expansion of what they considered the wrong industries.

In vetoing the income tax law, HICOM seemed to be breaking its own promises to give the Germans economic freedom. Asked one angry German politician: "What have taxes got to do with Allied security, or the elimination of Naziism and militarism?" Whether the Americans or the Germans were right about the economic effects of the tax law, it seemed to be the Germans' right to make the decision.

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