The Wilmington morning star., 1947-09-15
One Hurdle Cleared
BY ARTHUR KROCK

WASHINGTON,-The confused and OBJ
stacle-strewn prospect that stretches Pc
for the program of econor.lc renel 1or
Europe has at least been cleared at one
dangerous point. By the test OF wnaI mem
| hers of Congress returning rom europe,
departing thereto or travelling on the Con-
tinent are quoted as saying, the leg1s-
lative arm Of the government agrees with
The executive. that Europe is CONFRONTED
with social-economic collapse and this
nation must soon decide what we can and
will do about 1t.
So far as the American people have
given any indication, they have reached
the same conclusion, although in a re-
| cent tour of the Northeast this correspon-
dent got the impression that the problem
does not trouble them nearly so much as
it does those they have commissioned to
conduct their affairs. Since it is difficult
to recall a period in which the American
press has been so continuously crowded
with similar bodeful tidings, and with
warnings and exhortations that the United
States must take the lead in trying to re-
pair Europe's plight, this apparent attl-
tude is difficult to explain.
It may be the consequence OF too many
consecutive prophecies of doom, uttered
too shrilly. It may reflect a belief that It
our recent loan of nearly 81, 1000, 600, 900 to
the British had so little effect, there is no
| solution in dollar credits. Or perhaps the
show of non-anxiety comes from a deep,
unvoiced meditation that the economy OF
nations which subordinate to political
ideologies the basic recoyery instruments
of labor and production, when communism,
cold and famine are cycling them from
around the corner, cannot be. saved by
another, however willing and strong.
Some of these views, or course, are re-
Elected in Congress and will be expressed
when it takes up a plan that is based on
the response of sixteen European nations
to the proposal made by Secretary of State
Marshall at Harvard last June. But the
important point is that Congress seems
certain to assemble with an acute reliza-
ton of the problem and its perils to the
United States. And this should assure that,
whatever comes of any long-range Mar
shall Plan Congress, probably in special
session will authorize sufficient aid in the
form of grants for food and fuel to prevent
widespread suffering and wholesale death
in the coming European winter.
But it appears to be equally certain that
the following ideas will be stronly urged in
Congress, some with consider able support
in the executive arm:
1. Nations whose basic economic re-
covery is to be assisted by the United
States must, during that period, suspend
political experimentation with systems
proclaimed to be hostile to our own and-or
advocated as a means to overthrow 1t in a
world struggle.
2. These nations must cease living be-
yond their means and neglecting their full
capacities for production.
3. No risks must be taken Of extending
assistance in a degree that conceivably
could undermine the fundamental econo-
mic and military strength of the United
States, and all doubts must be thus re-
solved.
l.. In any Marshall Plan its benefici-
aries abroad must pool their wv fiscal
reseryes and other resource to the limit,
including the large holdings of foreign
governments and their nationals in the
Western Hemisphere, still largely intact.
5. No assistance must be given to any
nation whose blueprint for an orderly and
peaceful world is basically in conflict with
our own.
6. In former enemy areas where the
United States undertakes to assume the
bulk of the administr alive costs, or all of
them, until they regain autonomy, this
government must control the ,administra-
ton.
Z. Some form of supervision of the use
of our economic assistance abroad must
be a part of any Marshall Plan, and it
must be as nonpartisan as bipartisan con-
troll can make it.
Not only is it indicated that these pro-
visos will be strongly urged in Congress;
the probability is that most of them will
prevail. But there are other obstacles in
the path of action, many of them so dimly
visible at this distance that their size and
shape can only be estimated. The outlines
of one, however, are already plain, and
they are formidable.
This obstacle is the product of the I'M
lucky fact that the Marshall Plan will be
debated by Congress in the atmosphere OF
a Presidential campaign. Any year would
produce it's hazards, but these are the
greatest known to American political &C.
ton.
Large exports must be the found alton
of any program of successful rehabiita-
tion Of Europe. and that will require ex-
port controls. On their details deep di-
visions are likely between the major par
ties and the factions within them. Also,
large exports will lave an accelerating eff
feet on domestic prices. particularly. for
farm products and construction units, and
this may evoke a new battle over pro-
posals for domestic rationing and other
forms of RECOMMENDATION in which the poll
ticians will never for a moment forget the
stakes of 1943.
They will not forget it because each
major party is blaming the other for cur
rent prices and general in~flationary con-
ditions; and each will 60 before the people
with these accusations and formulate to
bring prices down. Through this danger
Gus era any economic foreign program
must somehow make it's way. New York
Times.
). Quotations
Our government is not an end in itself.