St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1951-07-27

people live in conditions of abJcCt
poverty. This mas always been 30,
but recently it has become the
subject of urgent international
discussion. Rightly or wrongly,
this poverty is seen as a menace
to world peace The minds Of the
poor have become the battle
ground for conflicting ways of
life The wealthy nations of the
world have started to wonder
whether their own safety does not
depend on rapid elimination of
poverty in other parts Of the
world.
Self Help
This is why five economists
were summoned to New York in
the middle of February from the
corners of the earth. From
Britain, Lebanon, India, Chile and
the United States we assembled,
at the request of the United Ma
tons, and debated for ten weeks
the problems of economic devel-
opment. Our report, a slim one
hundred page colume. was pub
lished in May, and will be consid-
cred by the Economic and Social
Council of the United Nations
this month.
The first part Of the Report
deals with the ways in which poor
countries can help themselves.
There is nothing new to say on
this subject, which has been de-
bated extensively for four CEN
turtles. The Report discusses the
social and political prerequisites
of economic development, savings
institutions, and son on.
To persons familiar with de-
velopment problems, this part of
the Report Ii no more than a
collection Of platitudes.
Lack Of Skill
The Report comes to life when
II reaches external aid. Some
Governments do not promote de-
velopment because they are bad;
others, because they do not know
what to do: but the majority,
simply because they do not have
the money. Money is not the only
thing required-most of the Re-
port deals with other matters
but money is the sine qua non.
We came 10 the conclusion that,
II the peoples of these poor con
tinents were 10 begin 20 increase
their standard Of living by two
ped cent per annum (Which Is less
than the rate In Europe and North
America) they would need n sub
stantial annual import Of capital
much more than ten billion dol
lars a year. The present inflow Is
less than one and half billion
dollars a year.
We were told by potential in
vestors that these continents can
not absorb much more capital
than they are getting now. even IL
it were available on very easy
terms. This is largely a deficiency
of human resources. If an invest
ment is to be made there must be
people who can prepare the pro-
ject competently, and people to
run it. Underdeveloped countries
are sadly lacking in skilled people,
administrators, scientists, me-
chanics, artisans, or what you will
Social capital Is also deficient.
Governments do not have the
money to spend on education, on
public health, and on other public
services; and they cannot borrow
money for these "unproductive"
purposes.
This Is a bottleneck. The only
way to break IL is to make grants
to poor countries to enable them
to expand their public services.
These grants are not a substitute
for loans or private investment.
On the contrary. they win prime
the pump.
Accordingly the Report recon-
mends that grants should be made
to the under-developed countries
for certain specific purposes, such
as agricultural extension services,
research, public health, technical