Priority: Defense

In formal speeches and offhand comments, the Administration's spokesmen have well telegraphed the direction of federal spending for fiscal 1959. The direction: up. The big item: $39 billion to $40 billion for defense, a $2 billion or so increase from fiscal 1958. Last week the Administration also telegraphed its overall policy for fiscal 1959: defense needs will shape the size of the budget, not vice versa.

Said Treasury Secretary Robert B. Anderson in an unmistakable turnabout from his predecessor George Humphrey: "Maintaining a balanced budget is of great importance to our national welfare and so also is keeping our expenditures within reasonable and prudent limits. But we cannot adhere to absolute rigidity . . . And I want to make it quite clear that we at the Treasury are never going to take any positions which are inimical to the defense of our country."

Said Vice President Richard Nixon to the budget-centered National Association of Manufacturers in Manhattan: "The lowest taxes, the highest profits, the best wages in history won't make any difference if we're not around to enjoy them. This means that substantial amounts will have to be added to our defense budget. We must spend whatever is necessary. And the strongest military establishment in the world will not save America's freedom if we fail to meet the threat which the Communists present in nonmilitary areas.

"If we in the U.S. take a worm's-eye view of the world conflict and cut foreign aid, hamstring reciprocal trade and emasculate our information program, I can tell you that the billions we spend for missiles and submarines and aircraft will be going right down a rathole. And mark my words, if the Communists gain control of the people and resources of the uncommitted nations of the world, they will hold the whip hand."

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