Evening star., 1943-09-05
Under One Roof

~b&St ~hS ENSSb
The effort row being made to set
up within the State Department an
agency for the coordination of all
international economic activities of
the Government. under a policy out
lined by the Secretary of State. may
be expected to encounter some re-
sistance from within some of the
agencies affected.
This is to be expected when it is
considered that under the arrange
ment contemplated, coordination
means at least partial surrender to
the State Department of the virtual
autonomy some of the individual
agencies have enjoyed in the foreign
field. Coordination in this case
goes beyond mere prevention of
overlapping and duplication and
means control, to the extent that
State Department policy must be-
controlling policy
No matter what the objections may
be from individual agencies or indi-
viduals within those agencies, how
ever, the plan will receive strong
support from the public. The de-
gree of autonomy enjoyed by so
many separate agencies, charged
with conducting economic operations
in foreign lands, has been source
of discomfort to many observers. 1t
doubtless has been a source of waste
as we'll as confusion. 1t is a charac-
teristic of each newly created agency
to pursue jealousy its own course,
independently of what other agen-
cies may be doing in the same field.
Any plan designed to put them under
one policy roof, so to speak, Is funda-
mentally sound.
The President began working to-
ward this arrangement some months
ago when he wrote to Secretary Hull
outlining the broad considerations
which should cover coordination of
agencies concerned with economic
operations in the liberated countries.
Later on, in his executive order
abolishing the Board of Economic
Warfare, the President charged Mr..
Byrnes, as director of the Office of
War Mobilization. with co-ordinating
the effort. under a foreign policy
laid down by the Secretary of State,
of all agencies concerned with
economic warfare abroad This is
the work now going forward. As
sistant Secretary Dean Acheson is
in charge of the State Department.
Office of Foreign Economic Co-ordi-
nation. with Thomas K. Finletter as
his deputy director. Whether this
Office. now charged with co-ordina-
ton for liberated areas. will be ex-
panded. or whether another office,
will be created to assume co-ordina-
ton over all other areas, is not clear.
The nature of the machinery to.
be established within the State De-
partment is of small immediate i'm
portance, however, compared with
the basic idea behind it. The diplo-
macy of the future will concern it.
self chiefly with economic questions.
Economic, rather than merely polit-
ical understandings, will form one
foundation for the sort of peace that
should follow this war. A gradual
absorption by the State Department
of the functions of some of the
agencies set up to deal with imme-
diate economic questions would be a
most logical development. A trend
in that direction can be seen in the
steps being taken now in the name
of coordination. This trend is far
more important than the objections
which may be voiced by few indi-
viduals within agencies which fear
the loss of the purely temporary in
dependence they have enjoyed.