Evening star., 1952-01-15
Revolution in the Mokino

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer has made a
great and historic contribution to the Western
world with his superlative craftsmanship in
rallying his country behind the six-nation
Schuman Plan for merging the coal and steel
industries of free Europe. Economically, DO
ltically and otherwise, his achievement in that
respect promises to have bright consequences
OF the most significant kind This is true not
only in terms of Germanys long-range future
but also in terms of promoting concrete progress
toward creating vast continental community
fully capable Of supporting itself and playing
key role in safeguarding the peace everywhere.
In any event, now that the Bundestag- West
Germany's lower house of Parliament-has re-
soundingly ratified the 50-year treaty tofeffec-
tuate the Schuman Plan, potentially revolu-
tionary new era has been opened up for free
Europe With the ratification process completed
earlier by the Netherlands and France, and with
Luxembourg, Belgium and Italy expected to act
favorably In the near future, six nations with
population equal to our own are about ready
to embark upon far-reaching enterprise with
out precedent in history. In this enterprise they
will be solemnly committed for the next five
decades to surrender large measure Of their
sovereignty to a supranational High Authority
under which they will pool their coal and steel
resources-the bone and sinew Of all modern
economies-nto single cooperative producing
and marketing operation.
It obviously will not be easy to translate all
this into a full-grown reality task Of such
magnitude cannot be completed overnight. It
will require lot of pioneering, lot Of trial.
and-error measures, lot of adjustments and
readjustments that may continue for some years
to come before the undertaking can be made
to function smoothly Meanwhile, however, the
mere fact that six separate nations have firmly
committed themselves to it can hardly fail to
yield good fruit. As far as Germany itself is
concerned, If the plan is pushed forward with
vigor, the West Germans are likely to thrive
so well that the Kremlin- controlled East Ger
mans will feel a constantly increasing urge to
throw of the Red shackles and unite with them
Further, with ancient enmities assuaged by a
new habit of mutually enriching cooperation
the promise is that Franco German relations
will be improved to point guaranteeing per-
manent peace between the two old foes. AS for
free Europe as whole, the coal-and-steel merg-
er, given effective administration, will open the
way to great gains in productivity, general
rise in living standards and steady step-by-step
advance toward more and more economic and
political unity.
Beyond that in an even larger sense, what
is implicit in this prospect is that the European
balance of power vis-a-vis Russia will in time
be righted in such fundamental and enduring
way that the stability and peace of the entire
world will be immensely strengthened. France,
the initiator and prime mover of the schuman
Plan, has good reason to be proud of itself, and
the same holds true for the Adenauer govern
ment at Bonn and all the other participants.
Certainly, if their enterprise succeeds as it can
and should, they will share a great common
glory in history.