The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-03-26
Peace Aims
BY CARLYLE MORGAN

BY CARLYLE MORGAN
While the pro- and opponents of the Breton
Woods plans for an International Monetary
Fund were being quzzed by the House Bank
ing and Currency Committee one day thi:
week, I found myself also at the center of
quiz on Breton Woods. I suspected that ir
the group around me-and at me-Were 6
number of persons who knew more about the
subject than I do I sensed that one or two
were professors, and that another one or two
might be fnanciers But you don't call a mar
a thing like that in public, so I just went
on trying to answer their questions as if they
really didn't know the answers. Then I hiked
home to reflect on the experience. The fol
lowing is the result
The American Bankers Association report
on the Monetary Fund has evidently found
mark among some thoughtful persons. The
main point of objection seems to me to be
the A. B. A. experts, convinced that the None
tary Fund is in effect lending agency, de-
mand that it be guided by sound lending
principles. To this end they would merge the
Fund with the Bank. Then the Fund would
have the same Board of Governors and Ex-
ecutive Directors. 1t is obvious the banking
experts count on the appointment of Bank Of
ficers reasonably conservative and thoroughly
experienced in banking practice. But because
the Fund appears as something under
the sun, they cannot be sure the Administra-
ton will have to name the type of men to head
the Fund whom bankers would feel they could
rely on.
And SO the case stood while questions to left
OF me, questions to right of me volleyed and
numbered Now, however, the Committee for
Economic Development has issued a proposal
which may bridge the misty chasm between
the opposing bankers and proponents of the
Fund. That proposal Is discussed elsewhere on
this page today.
Meanwhile, to return to our reflections:
The repeated efforts of some financial groups
to detour around the international Monetary
Fund would seem to ignore the part which
Sterilization funds have already played in in
ternatlonal currency affairs. They are relative
~ new devices, to be sure. But they grew up in
many countries during the years between the
wars
Some of the funds exist today Unless thew
are co-ordinated by some such overall agency
as the Fund proposed at Breton Woods, they
may tend once more to operate as they did
IN the financially chaotic inter-war period
Each fund in those days was devoted to de-
tense OF its own national currency. They were
all part of a world complex which was fur
Their complicated by imposition of mutually
antagonistic foreign exchange controls
This financial world war had its trade coun-
terpart in import and export quotas in the
blocked balances SO ruthlessly exploited by the
Nazls and in about every other imagina BILE
hurdle which men could raise against the
goods-and the good will-of their neighbors
Though not all vestiges of this trade war
can be removed automatically by adoption
OF the Monetary Fund the need for one-sided
defense mechanisms can be greatly reduced
under its operation. 1t is a stated purpose
OF the membership of the Fund to work to-
gether for their reduction
Progress toward freer trade may mean for
some members that they must risk temper
airy strain. They must know where they can
get currency to tide them over tight spots
before they can commit themselves to freer
competition in trade They want access to this
currency as a matter of right and at Breton
Woods they worked out plans for pool or
partnership, of currencies, with safeguards
both for the Fund and the self-respect of the
members, large and small.
That these safeguards are satisfactory to
some important American bankers is indient
ed in testimony by Edward E. Brown, presi-
dent of the First National Bank of Chicago,
before the House Banking and Currency Com
mttee MIR. Brown said that the A. B. A, re-
port did not 'by any manner of means repre-
sent unanimous opposition by bankers. If the
opposition lacks unanimity, however, it has
powerful organization and articulate EXPERT
ness. 1t will be spry Congressman who fol-
lows its intricate trails through Breton Woods.
Christian Science Monitor.