Evening star., 1944-06-04
Views of Nation Sought
Concerning Postwar Issue
State Department Prepares for Peace Planning by
Obtaining All Advance Opinion and
Facts Possible
By Joseph H. Baird

For the nrSt tlme II the hlStOIy oA
nations, the United States Is trying to-
day in q scientific manner to mobilize
the brains of its whole people-from the
professor in Yale to the plumber in De-
troit-in sculpting the shape Of things
to come.
In the massive State Department
Building across from the White House.
q group Of research workers sit day IN
and day out studying what the Amer
ican people are saying and thinking.
Across their desks come letters from the
Detroit plumber to his local editor say
ing Russia should be barred from all
gains in Poland; erudite studies of the
tariff question by the Yale professor,
and hundreds of newspaper clippings,
magazine articles, pamphlets, radio
speeches and resolutions of Rotary
Club and others.
All are grist for their mill. All are
helping to shape the policies which will
guide the administration when It's dele
gates make the peace and later when
they negotiate to juggle postwar bound
aries and shape up the bread-and-
butter economic policies that will affect
the lives Of people throughout the globe.
This material viii give American ne
gotiators treasure house Of facts when
the preliminary four-power parley on
postwar security organization called by
Secretary of State Hull early this week
meets in Washington, as 1t is expected
to do this summer.
DR.. Pasvoisky in Charge.
DR.. Leo Pasvolsky, well-known econ
omist who served for many years on the
staff Of the Brookings Institution. is
Secretary Hull's principal adviser in
the tremendous task OF shaping
Americas postwar policies. His title is
executive director OF the Committee on
Postwar Programs. He took time out
from his work the other day to give the
writer glimpse at what his organiza-
ton is doing.
But, first, retrospect on the need
for it.
When Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemen-
ceau and Orlando gathered at Versailles
in 1859 to make peace and shape up q
new world they had stock Of sonorous
phrases and idealistic ambitions. They
had. too, = score Of snarling eiain3nts
for territory. They had, further. 4 host
Of economic problems arising out Of
severed trade arteries, broken down
currencies and war paralysis.
The one thing they lacked was stock
Of well-considered. carefully catalogued
facts.
THE general situation made a de-
mand on the delegates for special
knowledge Dr. f. J. Dillon recalls In
his Inside Story Of the Peace Confer
ence, whereas the Premiers and Pres
idents, although specialists IN nothing,
had to act as specialists In everything.
The figures cut by the delegates
of the great powers were pathetic"
One delegate, he recalls, spoke of hav-
ing to get Italy's permission to make a
certain shipment to Danzig. Another
confused the Turks with the Kurds.
Another proved by a stupid question
that he had never heard of Silesia.
Took Hundreds Of Experts.
President Wilson took with him to
Paris hastily gathered stan of several
hundred experts on politics, geography
and economies. Some of them were
brilliant men. But they had had little
time to prepare. More, their informa-
ton was woefully inchoate.
At the very outset of this war, Presi
dent Roosevelt made up his mind that
America would be prepared for the COM
ing peace with an arsenal of exhaustive,
well-co-ordinated facts.
That is the background of the State
Departments work, which started late
in 1899 in 4 single small ONCE headed
by Mr.. Pasvolsky. Today it draws on
the services of more than 100 eminent
American pecialists-colege professors,
economists, students of political science,
practical business men and others-in
addition to the part-time work of the
State Departments regular staff who
can be called on when needed.
The work has proceeded in great
secrecy. But it is possible today to
give a few facts about it.
At the top sits the Committee on
Postwar Programs, with Secretary Hull
as chairman and Mr.. PaSyolSky as his
executive Until recently, its work was
apportioned between division of politi-
cal study and division of economic
study Lately, however, the program
has progressed to a point where it has
been found more efficient to assign all
the economists to the regular economic