Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-11-01
British Experts Take
Lead in PLANNING
Postwar Economy
Cooperative Controls
And Pooling With
U. S. Proposed
BY FRANK MacMILLEN,
Associated Press Business Writer.

U. S. Proposed
BY FRANK MacMILLEN,
Associated Press Business Writer.
NEW YORK, Oct. 31.-Has Great
Britain outstripped the United States
in figuring out what kind of a post
war economic world it wants and
how it intends to go about getting
it?
There is considerable evidence
that it has; that both its generaliza-
tons and its specific plans have
reached more searchingly into the
future and commanded wider public
interest than corresponding discus
sion in this country.
Britain's stabs into the future
have shown something far from
unanimity in economic thinking
the democratic ferment is definitely
at work.
And Americas thinking along
postwar economic lines has been
active, though largely unofficial and
somewhat scattered.
In this country Stuart Chase,
working on a six-volume report on
the economic world after the war
of which a single volume has SO far
been published-Alvin H. Hansen of
Harvard and others are setting up
blueprints for years ahead.
In Government, the guideposts
here have been the Atlantic Charter
of President Roosevelt and Prime
Minister Churchill, with its broad
generalizations of better economic
world for tomorrow, and the more
specific Century of the Common
Man speech of Vice President Wal
lace.
British More Specific.
But no study here is as specific,
or enjoys the standing of the report
of the Royal Institute of Inter-
national Affairs.
Ona K. D. Ringwood and H. P.
Whidden. jr., summarize this report
for the Foreign Policy Association:
There is a growing consensus in
Britain that postwar Europe Will
present a grim picture OF malnutrl-
ton, disease and starvation.
THE task (of solving these prob
lems) will have to be co-opera-
tive effort with the United States'
with available supplies and services
pooled and allotted according to
need"
The report of the institute sug-
gests six major steps by Great
Britain to get ready for postwar
tasks.
l. Establishment of department
of economic welfare in Britain and
a reconstruction and supply author
ity for all the United Nations to
supply the machinery for planning
and execution of postwar rehabill-
tation
2. Formation of corporation by
British, American and other Allied
capital to own all bulk commodities,
such as wheat, fodder and coal.
Such a centralized control. the in
stitue says, will be dictated by the
necessity for assigning supplies and
shipping.
3. Creation of medical relief
organization for the whole world.
Transport Gar Favored.
4. Creation of a director general
of transport, to control both ship
ping and inland transportation, to
act in concert with the overall re-
construction and supply authority.
5. Collection of information as
soon as possible and arrangement
for transport of foreign labor and
prisoners.
6. Continuance of the lend-lease
principle after the war, because
there can be no immediate prospect
of a return to a free economy in
European countries. The success
of such a move. the report con-
cludes, will depend ultimately on
the post financial arrangements
made between the United States and
Great Britain.
In addition to the RingWood-
Whidden report, Whidden alone,
working under a grant from the
Carnegie Corp to the Foreign Policy
Association. has made one Of the
most comprehensive studies pub
lished in this country on British
ideas of the post-conf1ict world
His compilation shows the widest
divergence of views on what our new
world should be like.
Attitudes Differ.
These three, chosen from many,
give his conclusion as to the atti-
tude of important groups:
The British government-'Mem-
bers of the government have
indicated the general principles on
which they expect to proceed. Oliver
Lyttleton, minister of production,
declared n " the essence OF democ-
racy should be balance between the
organizing power of the state and
the driving power of the individual
British industrialists and business
men were tod by Mr.. Bevin Ernest
Bevin, minister of labor that the
extent of state control after the war
would depend in large measure on
whether moral force proved strong
enough to bring about the high
standards of life and freedom re-
quired by common opinion.
These government opinions were
followed by Sir William Beverages
blunt warning (Beveridge is not a
member of the government that
private control Of the means of pro-
duction whatever might be said
for or against it on other grounds,
could not be described as an essen
tial liberty of the British people, and
that the state must be prepared to
use it's powers to whatever extent
proves necessary in maintaining full
employment after the war;
Churches Offer Program.
The churches-"The Commission
of the Churches for International
Friendship and Social Responsibility
has proposed the following charter
for a world economy:
Every nation and community
should be safeguarded against forms
of trading which involve their eco
nomic exploitation.
No nation or community should