The sub., 1945-08-02

Senate of the United StateS.)
 MT. President, seldom in the his- tory of this Republic has the Sem ate been confronted with an issue more significant for the Nation and for the world than the strength ening of the Trade Agreements Act.
 We must not be deceived into thinking that this question can be argued as it has been for the last 75 years. The question is no long, CT a matter of protection versus free trade; it Is matter of re- sponsible participation in the world economy versus economic 1sola- t1onism.
 It is now, we must decide wheth- CT our Government is to be equipped with the tools necessary for building sound and thriving world commerce.
 Much has been said to persuade us that nothing is required at this moment but simple extension of the old trade agreements author ity. What that argument means, as everyone knows, is that nothing is required at all, for simple re- newal of the nearly exhausted au- thority in the present act would be an empty gesture. It would be notice to the world that this Nation to which all mankind looks for leadership is content to mark time on one of the most pressing prob- lems which faces us.
 If through ignorance or fear or partisanship we adopt the course of inaction-let there be no mistake we shall have taken the first fa- tai step in retracting the ruinous path we followed in the 1920's and which brought disaster in the 193O's.
 After the last war we had a chance to give the world the po- litical, economic, and moral lead ership that the common peoples of the world were crying for and which they so desperately needed.
 The need for political and moral leadership that existed in 1920 is multiplied tenfold today. The Europe of 1920 was ticking like a well-oiled watch compared with thechaotic conditions of devasta- tion, misery and despair of today. So today the world has even a greater need for our leadership. We shall suffer an even greater disaster if we fail this time as we did before.
 The world has never been so be- set with social, economic and polit- ica1 problems of the magnitude of those which crowd upon us today with memorable demands for their solution.
 To meet and solve them we must recognize their interrelationship. Unless we do we cannot realize that the social, economic, and po- litica1 questions are but elements of one great problem of maintain ing the indivisible fabric of world peace and world stability and pros perity.
 Every one of us earnest prays for the success of the San Francisco Conference. But no sensible man supposes or believes that San Francisco is more than a frame work of our hopes. For years to come we shall have to work stead- fly and boldly to build the flesh without which San Francisco will become a meaningless skeleton What we do in our economic pol icy domestical1y and international ly will vitally affect our ultimate success.
 There has never been a time in the history of the United States when a thriving foreign trade was so essential to the maintenance of domestic prosperity. To under stand what foreign trade means to us today, let us view in some per- Spective the economic conditions in which we find ourselves. It is difficult to visualize the drastic economic upheaval that this coun- trp has experienced since 1899.
 In 1929 our total production of goods and services was nearly