Evening star., 1954-05-24
McCorthy VS.. Stossen on Trade

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cations in name calling match between SEN
ator Mccarthy and Director Stassen Of the
Foreign Operations Administration. AS the
Senator said last week in a speech challenging
East-West trade practices and the FOAs toler
ant attitude toward them, any criticism by him
is interpreted as an attack upon the Eisenhower
administration. Likewise, Director Stassen's
sharp rejoinder about the Senator's sIegion of
false statements" can be interpreted as sign
that the White House has agreed to hitting back
at the Wisconsin Senator.
This view of the latest outbreak of McCar-
thy-Stassen feuding. however, does not con-
tribute to any resolution of the basic argument.
t,@a Senator Mccarthy contends, in brief, that
for our allieS-the Western nations-to engage
in any trade in any kind Of goods with the Com
munist bloc means contributing to "the sinews
of economic and military strength" of an enemy
He contends further that our allies are aiding
the enemy through allowing ships under their
flags to participate in commerce advantageous
to the Communist bloc He suggests that Ameri
can foreign aid funds be denied to any of our
allies who engage in either of these practices
Earlier this year Mr.. Stassen participated in
conferences in London on the subject of East
West trade controls. The decision of the Arneri-
can-British- French meeting was to enforce more
strictly the embargo on strategic goods while
allowing greater freedom for trade in greater
number of goods considered non-strategic
There is little doubt that the Big Three realize
they are taking calculated risk in moving
toward any relaxation of controls over trade
with the Communist bloc. But there are valid
arguments for taking this risk-within limits
President Eisenhower has mentioned the
"broad historic pattern of trade between East
RYNr "a H. LI-4-
is that Western Europe needs markets for its
Industrial production and sources for it's raw
materials. The East, much of it now within the
Communist bloc, can help to provide both of
these. Relatively speaking, our economic aid to
our allies has been decreasing sharply They are
anxious to put their national economies on
more solid basis than one dependent upon
American largesse. With their industries re-
stored trade is their answer and it is unlikely
that threat of withholding American funds
would force them to abandon completely the
historic pattern" of East-West exchange It
might, in fact result in even less control
Mr.. Stassen, incidentally, has presented an
Affirmative statement of his attitude toward
the EaSt-WeSt trade problem in his recent report
which actually showed steady decline in
this commerce over the past three years. "The
free world" Mr.. Stassen said, with its enormous
production, can benefit from trade The free
nations are stronger economically than they
have ever been far stronger than the Soviet
bloc. They possess tremendous resources. On
the whole they have solid and healthy competi-
tive systems. Their businessmen have behind
them centuries of experience in bargaining,
merchandising and servicing the free-world
nations should be able to take advantage of the
needs Of the Soviet bloc and :. gain benefits
from EaSt-WeSt trade"