HOW TO GET RICH IN WASHINGTON: Rich Man's Provision of the Welfare State

by Blair Bolles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 1952

The former head of the Policy Association with an expose of the graft and corruption in Washington that will be a Republican campaign document of no mean importance. The Roman carnival of privilege and corruption that has engulfed Washington since the fat years of the war is the concern of a muckraking investigation of over-all governmental irresponsibility. Easy money from the government comes in three forms:- simple gifts to the favored (as for instance those made by the military to industrialists in settlement of war contracts); protection given by government to vested interests; draining off of taxen into private pockets. Favoritism in granting of wartime contracts led to venal corruption in disposal of war surplus (the charge that American Red Cross plasma was sold to postwar Chinese profiteers who in turn retailed it at fantastic prices as a ""male restorative"" is a shocking example -- though open to further exploration). More recent examples are the overnubsidization of maritime interests, the scandals of the R.F.C. (covered in three long chapters); evasion of anti-trust laws and the squeezing out of small business, and (current news headlines) wholesale corruption of the tax collecting agencies. He names names and states cases, going far beyond the findings of the Kefauver and Fulbright and King committees; he tells stories that have their ""under cover"" fascination. He charts some curen:- new regulations governing the flow of tax money into- and out of- the Treasury; supervising the independent agencies; taking jobs in the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Bureau off the patronage lists; developing a new method of appointing U.S. district attorneys, U.S. marshals, tax collectors and their subordinates....A book that packs a wallop, but that may prove a boomerang. Publishers plan extensive backing, and the Harper (January issue) article by Bolles may start the ball rolling.

Pub Date: March 3, 1952

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1952

Categories: NONFICTION