"Seduction by Subsidy"

PUBLIC POLICY

U.S. Chamber of Commerce presidents are expected to speak out against big government and careless spending, but Delaware Banker Edwin P. Neilan, 57, who took office last May for a one-year term, is turning out to be more outspoken--and articulate--than most. At the National Press Club in Washington last month, Neilan said that the U.S. has its own scandal to match Britain's Christine Keeler case: a "se duction by subsidy" in which more and more Congressmen are turning into bagmen for constituents, bringing home pork barrel programs and federal handouts in return for votes.

Stimulated by the congratulations and complaints (from Capitol Hill) that the speech drew, Neilan last week took off on a national tour to keep up his attack. The General Services Administration, he said, is erecting a $6,500,000 federal building in Billings, Mont., although the city's 1,000 Government employees are "reasonably happy" in rented offices and Billings suffers from an oversupply of rentable office space. In Cleveland, said Neilan, the Urban Renewal Administration approved $43 million in grants and loans for a rebuilding program in which 60 of 84 buildings to be torn down are still structurally sound. Neilan saved his severest criticism for the Area Redevelopment Administration, whose agents, said he, are "combing the country in search of communities which will accept such tokens of ARA generosity as a ski lift or waterworks or a sewer line at the expense of every taxpayer." Notable ARA projects so far:

>In New Albany, Ind., because three paint sprayers and three wood finishers were needed for seasonal work in a plywood plant, ARA decided to start a $30,000 training course for such workers. The company's employment office protested that the course was unnecessary, only to be told by someone from ARA: "You will have a training program whether you like it or not." The project bogged down when no teachers could be found.

> In Wheeling, W. Va., the ARA granted a $272,000 loan to build a rifle plant after the Small Business Administration refused to give the loan. The company failed to get a contract, and the plant stands empty.

"The overwhelming majority of Americans," said Neilan in Seattle last week, "simply have been indifferent to this scandal because they have not realized how deeply it affects them. I think it is time all of us stopped laughing over the antics of politicians and woke up to the fact that the business of government is our business. When we tolerate a pickpocket philosophy in politics, we defraud ourselves."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.