Evening star., 1949-07-10

q states government lLSell, along
foundations and especially private
schools and experiment stations.
not to mention raising wages and
the standard of living in vast sec
tions of these countries where
they operate.
Improved Health
The sceurge of yellow fever.
which often laid waste the popu-
lations of great cities, was con-
quered by the discoveries, expert
ments and programs Of such men
as Walter Reed. Gen. Gorgas and
scores of other United States
scientists and physicians.
Today the Institute of Inter-
American Affairs, a small agency
under the jurisdiction of the State
Department, with a modest ap-
preparation of s5,ooo,0oo a year.
is cooperating with govern
ments in the maintenance Of hos.
pitals. institutions for the train
ing of doctors and nurses, SANTA
ton experts, school teachers and
innumerable other activities in 16
of these countries.
The new Point Four" program
can only extend such activities. It
can hardly improve upon the
methods and the efficiency al
ready being displayed 80 success
fully. But privately supported
foundations and scientific organi-
cations, as well as private industry
and enterprise In these nations.
have spent 10 times as much rs
the Government and, In many
ways, have accomplished even
more.
The Rockefeller Foundation is
not Government agency. Yet.
this organization alone has
joined with various Latin Ameri-
can governments over long Pc
riod of years in keeping such
cities as Santos. Rio and Baia.
Brazil; Guayaquil, Ecuador, and
others free OF typhus, smallpox,
yellow fever and other dread dis
eases.
Some Contributions
The contributions of some Of
our largest industries like Gen.
eral Electric. Du Pont, the United
Fruit and dozens Of others have
supplied technical experts as well
as many Of their own inventions
and discoveries to the welfare Of
most Of the southern nations.
But these are among the smallest
contributions such enterprises
have made. They have built In
dustries, introduced new crops,
employed and trained the natives
themselves to carry on practically
all of these activities.
Except in agriculture and kin
dred fields the great industrial
techniques which the Truman
program is designed to supply to
the "underdeveloped areas will
have to come and have been COM
ing from such organizations.
They have had the millions to
spend on great laboratories and
experiments. As one industrial
scientist expressed it, The Gov
is planning and promis-
ing to supply to the balance Of the
world techniques and know-how
which only private industry
possesses.
Probably one Of the most strik-
ing examples in all the world Of
what a purely private commercial
organization can do to transform
what were formerly some Of the
most backward areas ever known
Is the work done by the United
Fruit and other such companies
over the past half century. Yet
for years the United Fruit Com
pany has been and still is con-
demned and pilloried by small
time politicians. professional anti
and now Communist
propaganda, Doth here and
Latin America.
This company started out 80
years ago with nothing but vast
of sodden, uninhabited.
disease-ridden jungle country on
the coasts OF Middle America, Co.
lumbia, Ecuador. Panama and
elsewhere. It spent hundreds Of
millions Of dollars-dollar%put up
by doctors, school teachers and
stockholders little and big from
nearly every State in the Union
clearing and draining these waste
lands and developing crops and
industries that supply a large por-
ton, and in some cases the greater
portion, of the income to govern
ments and have been the eco.
nomic salvation of large numbers
of the peoples in II OF the coun'
tries and islands.
Raised Standards
It has not only given whole
new industries to the countries in
which it operates, but has raised
the standard of living and paid
the highest wages ever received
by a native in most Of them. 1t
has built schools; hospitals, roads.
even railroads, where none existed
before or ever would have existed.
It not only built new industries
and furnished a new life to the
peoples of the countries them
selves but made and maintained a
priceless market for their prod
lcts in the United States.
It has furnished the techniques.
the know-how and the expert as
sistance to the natives in building
up and operating enterprises Of
their own. =
There can be no more striking
or bold new" program for con-
tributing to the economic i'm
provement Of the peoples OF our
sister nations than those already