The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-08
TODAY
and
TOMORROW

Otd1l-l Ql1OCl oGdlloS VC1y "~A &
difference between an interview
end a negotiation. An interview
for publication with any very high
parsonage is a privilege. 1t can
be refused. If the privilege is
granted, the parsonage can control
the terms and conditions OF the
interview.
The Generalissimo did just that
with Mr.. Stassen, allowing him 10
choose the topics of the interview,
and to ask him a leading ques-
ton on each, but not to pursue the
questioning. Mr.. Stassen had to re-
member that he was the guest,
and that if Stain chose to mis-
understand his questions and to
give unresponsive answers, he was
i'll no position to conduct a cross
examination.
Had he been in a position to do
that, had he been negotiating with
Stain as an American official in
stead of interviewing Stain as a
private citizen, it is quite evident
that Mr.. Stassen was as well
equipped as has been any Arneri:
can for a long time to talk a Ian
guage which Stain understands
But given the circumstances Of
the interview, Stain was able to
talk at the crucial questions with
out answering them.
MIR. Stassen had asked MIN as
an opening question whether the
''two economic systems can exist
together in the same modern
world in harmony with each
other?" Stain replied that they dc
exist together, that they have ex-
listed together, and that the u S.A.
and the U.S.S.R. didn't wage wal
against each other"
But Stain, of course, knew that
what MI. Stassen was about to
ask him was whether the Com.
munist party, which rules Russia
and influences and directs Com.
munist parties elsewhere, could
and would permit the non Com
munist countries to live "in har-
mony'' with the Soviet Union. This
was the question which Mr.. Stas-
sen was permitted only to allude
to. not to press home to a definite
conclusion.
This is not an economic" ques-
ton. 1t is a political question
There is no doubt whatever tina
an exchange of goods is possible
and may be mutually profitable
nc matter what are the laws O
property. Machine tools, food, Oil
coal, copper, rubber, tin r wha
they are whether they are pro
duced under free enterprise state
collectivism, feudalism, slavery
OF what not. They can be exchang
ed, and in that sense all economic
systems can, and do, exist to
gether.
But that. as Stain knows well
and of course Mr.. Stassen toe, il
not the problem which besets thu
modern world. The problem arises
out of the fact that the govern
ment OF Russia is in the hands O.
the hierarchy of the Communis
party, which controls all the in
struments of government, the vas
military potential of Russia, ane
also a network of political parties
in continental Europe and else
where.
The question is whether Stair
and his lieutenants in the Krem
lin will accept a settlement which
fixes the limits of the expansion
of the Soviet state, and outside
those limits no more power for the
local Communist parties than they
are able to achieve under thu
rules and customs of ordinary
democratic politics.
Stain wished to give the i'm
preston that he desires such a
settlement, but that he had some
doubt whether we desire it. But
his answers were quite unrespon.
sive, and indeed %evasive. MIR.
Stassen came near asking him,
but could not quite do it, why at
ter the destruction Of the two
countries which really threatened
the security of Russia, namely
Germany and Japan, the Soviet
state remains as rigidly totalitar
ian as it was when Russia was in
mortal danger. 1t cannot be be-
cause Stain regards Britain, even
Mr.. Churchill's Britain, as a seri-
Gus threat, or that he really be-
lieves that the United States is
acting on the advice of Messrs.
Bullitt and Durham and the like.
The fact is that though the
constitution of 1896 is a demo
cratic constitution, it has never