Making Haste Slowly

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31976, 1 May 1969, Page 14

Making Haste Slowly

In a message to Congress soon after his inauguration, President Nixon promised “ priority attention ” for the problem of poverty in the United States. He said also that there would be changes of emphasis in the Administration’s job-training programmes, particularly for youths who had dropped out of school In a field where so little was known, he suggested, failures had to be considered as carefully as successes to see what could be learned. Mr Nixon cannot be accused of precipitate action in the field of social welfare. Specific proposals now being drafted may not reach Congress before the middle of the year. However, the revised Budget for the 1970 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, cuts defence spending, apart from Vietnam, and increases the vote for education.

This may not be considered satisfactory or convincing evidence of the determination of the new Administration to make President Johnson’s war on poverty more effective. When introducing the Budget Mr Nixon said that progress would not come cheaply. “We must be prepared ”, he said, “to increase “substantially our dollar investment in America’s “ future as soon as the resources become available ”. Clearly he attaches some importance to an overhaul of the tax system as a source of additional revenue. He hopes to close the escape routes for tax evaders, and thus to ease the burden of taxation on persons in the lower income groups. This measured approach has pleased few of the critics. The “New York “ Times ”, commenting on President Nixon’s intention to postpone the more important tax reforms for a year or more, said that the Treasury could produce an acceptable programme for submission to Congress in a matter of months. The newspaper said that the right reforms would not only make the system more equitable, but would help to check the inflationary trends at present causing concern. No clear indication of the Administration’s attitude to the Negro problem has yet emerged, although Mr Nixon has shown himself aware of the dangers of even, more violent civil unrest-than in recent years. It may be significant that Republicans, particularly in the south, who had expected Federal activity in desegregating schools to be eased, have found instead that the existing laws are being firmly enforced. Perhaps the most important welfare move yet made by the Administration is the expansion of the programme for job training in industry. This scheme for getting so-called hard core unemployed into the factories was begun by the Johnson Administration and first tried by the Ford Motor Company. Employers receive subsidies on wages and the cost of training. The vulnerability of the scheme was made evident when some trainee labour was laid off during the recent recession in the car Industry; but the Administration is evidently determined to persist with this measure. Since taking office Mr Nixon has blamed the Johnson Government for making too many promises and raising too many false hopes. While the cost of the Vietnam war continues to rise most Americans will probably approve his resolve not to commit the nation to reform programmes which it cannot afford. It remains to be seen whether their country can afford to risk the consequences of postponing the long-heralded attack on poverty and Its consequent social evils.