Evening star., 1949-11-20
Not Sturry-Eyed

For the urSL Time III q lOIlS tlIIle, Gllc
General Assembly Of the United Nations
has achieved a completely unanimous vote.
With no abstentions whatever, and with
the Soviet Union and its satellites staging
rare show of agreeableness, all members
have joined together in affirming measures
to launch an international program for
the economic development Of the worlds
backward areas.
In effect, by indirection at least, the
Soviet Union thus has extended formal
support to the Point Four iGea first enun-
ciated by President Truman in his in
augural address last January. That idea
which for time suffered the slings and
arrows of Moscow's propagandists-
slowly but surely established itself as being
sound and promising enough to make op-
position to its basic principles seem thor
oughly unwarranted. Hence the unaninity
of the U. N. vote is not surprising.
What the vote means is that all the
members have now committed themselves
operate to improve underdeveloped econo-
mics in every part Of the globe. To that
end, in the initial years, the U. N. will
spend between SIS 5000, 900 and $4,000, 900
on technical assistance. AS the prime
mover in the undertaking, and as the
country best equipped to give the lead to
1t, the United States will play special
role, though not lavish or spectacular one.
Actually, the projected program does not
involve grandiose schemes aimed at per-
forming overnight miracles. AS far as
the United States is concerned, the Presi-
dent is expected to ask the next session Of
Congress for no more than $35 900 to
finance the first phase of American partici-
patton in the operation. The plan, In
other words, does not envision heavy
expenditures by us. Instead, depending
largely on private capital and initiative,
it calls for such things as the export of
our technical "know-how" and the appli-
cation of free-enterprise effort and in
vestment.
lf-evidently, both as regards our own
role and the role Of the United Nations
in general this is a program whose time
table is meant to stretch out over period
of decades. Only modest, experimental,
step-by-step beginning can be made at
this stage. It is beginning, however,
that needs to be carried out with the
utmost vigor, to the end that real and
measurable progress will be attained, from
year to year, in making the best possible
use Of the vast untapped or poorly ex-
plotted agricultural and industrial poten-
tialities of the underdeveloped regions.
All this adds up to something much more
than an enterprise dreamed up by aca-
demic-minded or starry y-eyed "do-gooders"
There is an element Of genuine urgency
involved in tan urgency inherent In the
fact that the population Of the world is
growing at the rate of 200, 100000 every
decade at period in history when pro-
ducing conditions in many areas-in both
industry and agriculture-are altogether
inadequate to protect vast segments Of
humanity from recurrent starvation and
the corrosive effects of being unable to
earn a decent living.
Accordingly, unless there is far-reaching
international corrective action, it is pre-
dictable that have" and "have-not"
frictions will grow progressively more
dangerous as time goes on, playing into
the hands Of the totalitarians and steadily
intensifying conditions that make for war.
Clearly, along with the Presidents Point
-Four program, the measures just approved
by the U. N. constitute an essential part
OF mankind's striving for peace As such,
they deserve universal support, in practice
as well as theory.