The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1943-04-10
By RAYMOND CLaPPER

WASHINGTON-It is a healthy
sign. and not the contrary, that
the British and American govern
ments have each made public de-
tailed suggestions concerning in
ternstional machinery for stabiliz-
ing currency and exchange after
the war
Naturally. discussion Will be
concerned with the differences be-
tween the two plans. Neverthe-
less il should be kept in mind
that fundamentally the two gov
ernments are working toward COM
mon ends and. on the whole, with
common methods The objectives
and the approach are very much
the same in the Morgenthsu plan
and the Keynes plan.
Each government has put
forth its outline tentatively,
as basis for discussion.
Neither government Is COM
mitted TO its own suggestions.
Both outlines have been laid
before all other united ma
tions and are now laid before
the public. The cards are all
out on the table face up.
That in itself is an enormous
gain.
Furthermore. there is abundant
common ground between the two
plans. 1t should not be too diff
cult to bring about a meeting of
minds in the course of discussion.
There is every reason to believe,
in view of the like purposes and
the openmindedness on both sides,
that the result will be an ar
rangement which will promise to
prevent an enormous amount of
trade chaos after the war.
The British propose what they
call an international clearing
union. The Americans propose
what they call an international
sterilization fund. The British
wish to keep the accounts in
bookkeeping unit called "Bancor."
The Americans suggest a book
keeping unit called "Unitas."
In offering their proposals the
British are governed by several
principles to which we subscribe
on this side. There should be the
least possible interference with
internal national policies. The
technique of the plan must be
capable of application irrespective
of the type and principle of gov
eminent in the prospective men,
Der state The right TO withdraw
from the arrangement must be
preserved. And, most important,
the plan must operate not only
to the general advantage, but also
to the individual advantage of
the participants. II must not re-
quire a special economic or finan-
cial sacrifice from certain coun-
tries.
No participant must be
asked TO do or offer anything
which is not to his own long
term interests. Those prin-
eiples noted in the British
document are implicit in our
own thinking here.
One big difference between us
is that the British plan requires
no assets and no contributions. 1t
is purely a clearing house, much
in the sense of a bank clearing
house. On the other hand, the
American plan requires hard as
sets-at least $4,000, 900, 900 in
gold which member countries
would subscribe TO constitute the
sterilization fund
The quota of international ex-
change allowed each country out
Of the sterilization fund would
be based on a combination of such
factors as its holdings of gold and
foreign exchange, its national in
come. and changes in its balance
of-payments position. In other
words, the needs of member coun-
tries for foreign exchange would
be met on a basis Of assets
Under the British plan there
would be virtual ALLEGATION of
trade quotas. determined by the
size of a members international
trade relative to total world
trade. Adjustments Of quotas
would be made from time TO time
so that the plan would not suffer
from inflexibility as conditions
changed.
AS can be seen from this. the
American plan does. as the Brit
ish point out. assign a greater
role to gold. The British plan IN
turn assigns larger role TO world
trade and places less emphasis on
gold assets.
One important difference IN
principle also concerns the power
Of veto. The British say that the
management Of the institution
must be generally international.
with no country or group having
preponderant power Of veto or
Of enforcement. In the American
plan important decisions require a
four-fifths vote
But it Is possible for one gov
eminent TO have 25 per cent Of
the vote-and the United States
and one or two other countries
r-s0hs houa strlh d.. 49,. ...LsL