European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 17, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday. December 17, 1985 William f. Buckley tree Economy in t to blame for Beggs affair in Voli think or. A cps is guilts1. The chances arc you do. And indeed he May be. True we a in the Tulc that Etc non is innocent until convicted. Most people theoretical subscribe in that Doc Trine and in Llie matter of Lames Hepps. There is the most a full Tricky question Tif whether this particular expense was run up b general  in the course of pick one i design in. 2 or manufacturing our  York anti aircraft Pun. It Bip Gesl  in bus since the Tucker automobile the forgot to put in a reverse Pear. You see. In is in Mosi eases illegal to charge the government inc Cost of designing Soine Lhing  is pulling together to compete for a manufacturing bid but it is of Lei charge designated coms of manufacturing according to Aulhorn cd sophisticated schedule. Or. Beggs you a h v. , said to the press hut i it Orneys Tell n that what he did was of. Corporate crime is under modern circumstances very often an elusive question. You Don t need to Call up your priest to ask whether it was wrong to rape Ihal girl. But in much of modern Busi Ness accounting As in modern tax Law you can find equally trained lawyers inc accountants who will tvs conflicting positions. By t  us suppose that or. Beggs out and out cheated the government of Over s3 million. We then Kidd a Tittle to our gloomy View of corporate perfidy by recalling that Beggs in t even a typical businessman lie b a graduate of the naval Academy at Annapolis who went into submarine work attained the rank of lieutenant commander left to go to the Harvard business school and then Oscil lated Between business roles and govern ment roles or is now the head of inc National aeronautics and space administration. What arc we to Gener tie from his putative guilt it is Ever so important in a free social. Carl Rowan which is increasingly tied by a Century s experience with a free Economy to remind ourselves that we should be disappointed but never surprised when we Are confronted with evidence of White Collar crime. The larger trouble derives not from the crime but from easy conclusion drawn from thai crime by polemicist for socialism. You can bet sour last Dollar that before the Sun set on the Day in which Beggs indictment was front Page news. Professor John Kenneth Galbraith uttered or wrote one More Wisecrack Abou the free Economy probably both and almost certainly throwing in something about the military . Although in is True that some cultures put a Premium on personal honesty and that this is re fleeced in the Low incidence of e.g., theft in is never the Case that a society has so comprehensively developed an ethos i hut disdains theft to the Point of making theft disappear. Man is an acquisitive creature. And nature stimulates his acquisitive tendencies because men tend to desire More than what they have. This is True of the pauper and of the billionaire. The extent to which they bind themselves by the rules of inc game suggests the health in that society of the ethos. In most latin american countries a govern ment official who won t accept a bribe is thought to be ill but it never suggests that Basic arrangements should be altered Basic arrangements in America being a let the free Economy develop the producer b let inc government slay out of production. Auctioning its needs to the Townsl bid Der and c keep the government accountants Busy poring Over the financial reports in search of Mickey mouse expense accounts. If we Taki a  look at the great socialist capitalist debate of this Cen Tury we Are re instructed in what we should always have borne in mind namely that Lar Enous inclinations run right through classes of people irrespective of what in is that Lac Are engaged in. The idea then is to diminish the leverage of those who Are Larcelous and since the government is the Only uncontested monopoly in the slate thai is the Agency on which to keep one s eyes. It is in anticipation of this truth that by. Johnson remarked some time after the hounding fathers stitched together the ninth and 10th amendments to he Constitution reserving o the people All Powers not specifically relegated by the Constitution to the government that Man is Seldom so innocently engaged us when in Pursuit of wealth. So in the Imler of Beggs ocl us Hope for his Sake and for ours that he is inno cent. But if he is not. Don t take it out on the tree Economy Don t make it an anti Freedom Point. Military arms Industry share a tragic Romance i am extremely sensitive to the agony that must envelop the families of Nasa administrator James m. Beggs and three other former executives of Gen eral dynamics corp. As they face charges that they tried to defraud the Federal government during the development of an army antiaircraft gun that did t work. I know that Hoggs especially who has Given a lift to a Wing sick space program must be asking Why. In his a s of i Mph. A Federal grand jury in los an Geles would accuse him of being a corporate thief. Let me say loudly that we ought to assume initially that Beggs and he other three general dynamics executives arc innocent of criminal wrongdoing. We ought to give them inc Benefit of an As sumption thai Rand Jur to the Coni Warthey committed no crime greater than becoming ardent lovers in thai increasingly tragic Romance Between the Federal government and a Worris Mely greedy military Industrial Complex. Having said this let me shout that i am glad he indictments were handed Down nol just because of what we May learn about general dynamics and the four individuals indicted but because of what we May learn about the ways in which american arms builders keep alive u crazy arms race that May soon destroy the soviets you and me and the arms paddlers themselves. Ii won t Shock me a bit if a jury even Lully decides Hal general dynamics put its hand a Yard deep into Uncle Sam s pocket raked in $7.5 million in Over charges on a $40 million contract then produced a sol. York gun thai was so useless Hal defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger had to cancel the contract last August. So Many cases arc around of arms suppliers looking Uncle Sam that that \ j not news anymore. Someone once asked inc notorious Willie Sutton Why he robbed Banks. Because that s where inc Money is he replied. Why has the military Industrial com plex and just about every other business in America been bilking the Pentagon in the last five years1. Because that s where the Money is thanks to a Reagan commit ment of some trillion dollars that s $1,000.000.000,000 Over five years to convince the soviets that they can never in an arms race with us. The in agcy of this kind of mindless commitment loan arms race is that the arms builders snarl to feel thai they arc at worst an appendage of the Pentagon in particular and inc . Government in general. If general dynamics is pan of the Pentagon How can general dynamics be accused of defrauding the Pentagon mow do you steal from your own Wallet a lot of defense contractors other than general dynamics have embraced this  which is Why $1 out of every $5 of defense spending has been a Ripoff of your and my Bank accounts. And that is Why Public support for on going huge increases in defense spending has vanished. The average intelligent american is fed up with general dynamics general Lucetric and All the other generals who arc living the Good life at the expense of the Buck privates corporals and sergeants of America the taxpayers. That in is Noi Man that Beggs and the others at general dynamics engaged in any special crookedness and arc deserving of he crushing misery that now overwhelms their families. In docs mean that Hal  Angeles grand jury hat Given us one More Chance to do something about a dangerous and destructive relationship Between our government and the people who make nuclear bombs and the missiles planes and submarines will which to deliver i Host bombs to enemies. We will learn More about inc people whose financial health depends on their companies making such weapons next year and into Infinity stealing a few Mil lion Here and a few million there. 1c Newi America Syndicate