The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1945-12-07
Relief Work May be
Test Of Cooperation

nation can afford not to 90 along.
Another thing that the congression-
al voter knows when he votes on
UNRRA Is that IL is far from per-
feet He knows that the personnel.
the efficiency, the standing Of the or
ganization have improved tremen-
dously In the last few months since
II has been able TO get the person.
mel It required. which II couldn't get
before because OF the manpower and
brainpower shortage due 10 the war.
But he knows II is still hampered
BY its polyglot nature and he has to
have faith enough In its purpose 70
make him feel that the risk OF fail
ure is worth taking. Because
UNRRA. like any international or.
ganization. Is everybody's baby. II
can easily become nobody's baby.
Each nation has been only too ready
TO criticize II. always excluding their
own representatives functions. Of
course. UNRRA has suffered great
ly from poor press because the
task II faced was well nigh impossi-
BILE in wartime.
The bad news. therefore, overbal-
anced the good news as far as re-
ports OF progress on the part OF the
active, contributing countries were
concerned. From the passive. recipi-
ent countries naturally there were
plenty of complaints. These sins OF
omission" were ballyhooed. The
other side Of the story was not. II
was the sad and familiar tale Of
priorities, a story many a business
man can tell. Even when UNRRA
had money In hand for food re-
quired although some Of the con-
tributing members are very slow
TO pay. the United States still owes
a little less than half Of its allot-
ment and authorization, II was I'M
possible to get the combined food
board. which decided who got what,
to allot any to UNRRA until the
armed forces. the domestic market.
the lend-lease, and the liberated
countries who had money to buy.
got theirs. And even II the food was
available. frequently there were no
ships in which to transport II.
That situation has changed. Food
Is now being delivered TO Europe.
BY Christmas Il will be moving at
the rate OF half a million tons a
month. But the memory Of past de-
fciencies fingers and doubt as TO
future performance could easily be
used as an excuse to defeat the
measure unless one Is really con-
WINGED that UNRRA's Job is so i'm
portant It must succeed And there
we get down TO the nub Of the whole
argument For TO agree with the
thesis that UNRRA's objective Is de-
slrable Is TO agree that the good OF
one is the good OF all and the good
Of the other fellow Is the good Of the
us-'us" standing for the United
States.
It Is easy 10 show that millions In
Europe will starve this winter unless
they get food from outside their own
borders. II Is easy to prove that in
those countries which are UNRRA5
concern the ones which were In
eaded and which cannot pay for
food - starvation will lead to dis
ease, riots. revolt-and death. And
we know that under such conditions,
nations turn to totalitarianism and
when that fails. 70 chaos. We also
know that unless we help tide these
people over, we cannot expect
to sell them our SURPRISES because
you can't do business with
graveyard" Nevertheless the isola-
ZIONIST would respond, what Of 1t?
Let's stay in our own backyard.
Therefore, the voter. weighing
UNRRA's past errors with It's fu-
ture potentalities. will vote for 1t