The Wilmington morning star., 1947-12-03
Foreign Aid

Foreign Aid
While both branches of Congress OBVIOUS
ly agree that something should be done 1o1
the relief of France, Italy and Austria, the
Senate and the House are not agreed upor
the amount of aid to be given. The Senate
bv an overwhelming majority, has votec
for 97OO0,000 On the other side OF the
Capitol, the House Foreign Affairs Com
mittee almost simultaneously approved leg
islation authorizing gross help IN the
amount of $590,000,000, seven millions less
than the Senate-and provided that $4,000
900 of the total should 60 to China.
Thus there is difference Of $67,o0o,0o(
in the approved Senate measure and the
proposed House bill $67,000,000 less than
the administration set as the goal for Eu-
ropean relief. Obviously there will have te
be some quick adjustments If the Congress
is to extend aid to Europe when it can
do the most good. (The administration had
not contemplated temporary aid for Chlna)
Whether the House figure is calculated
to meet the pressing needs of the countries
in question, including China, or the Senate
bill more nearly represents the require
ments is for the Congress to determine. Ger
tainIy the lay view is not important.
But former Under-Secretary OF State
Dean Acheson recently addressed the Com
monwealth club in San Francisco on the
general subject of foreign aid and set forth
views that will deserve public and, reason
ably, congressional consideration.
While in the State Department Mr..
Acheson was the chief voice of the ad-
ministration's aid program, and probably
was as we'll acquainted with the actual
situation anybody this side of the At
lantic.
In his San Francisco address he contend
ed:
That the United States is able without
injury to it's own resources and economy
to furnish the aid sought.
That the danger today is of cutting aid
so fine that there is no allowance for set
backs.
That the error to date in aiding Europe
has not been spending too many billions,
but too few.
That the United States must not count
too heavily on the contributions other West
ern Hemisphere countries and the world
bank can make to Europe's recovery.
That it simply is not fact that Europe
is laying down on the job, waiting for Uncle
Sam to support it.
He had in mind two questions which have
often been heard: Was there faulty United
States planning in the past, and are Eu-
ropean peoples laying down on the job? 1t
is difficult, he said, for one who was ''deep-
ly involved" in the decisions (of the State
Department. to give wholly objective
answer" But, he added, "if there was an
error, it was in concentration upon the
long, factors of recovery and the in
adequate allowance for unpredictable haz-
ards of the short-run."
"If there is lesson to be learned, it
is that the errors to be avoided are the
errors Of cutting the reserves for contin-
|gencies too close. In spite of our care and
foresight, it is clear now that we did not
those that have occurred adverse weather,
the withdrawal of eastern Europe supplies
the sharp rise in our own price levels" :"
AS for Europe's peoples refusing to work
in their own behalf, Mr.. Acheson said:
1T is certainly strange way to 60
about such purpose to ask for materials
which are of use only to work with or on.
Furthermore, it simply is not and cannot
be the fact that the people of Britain raised
their production above pre-war levels with
out working, or that the people of north
western Europe raised theirs to IS to 95
per cent of prewar without working, un-
less OF course, we assume that before the
war they produced without working. ..
In fact, the wonder is that, at the present
time with worn-out machinery run to the
limit by allies and enemies alike for 10
lyears they could do so much"
Naturally this leads to the question
whether, as long as we are determined to
do something for Europeans (and Chinese,
lit necessary, we can whittle the amount
of our appropriation below the actual level
of need Senator Vandenberg answered this
|question when, in addressing the Senate
1.-THE other day, he said, in effect, that it
would be folly to throw a fifteen-foot rope
to man drowning twenty feet away.
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