progress in this field. The genius and the outstanding importance of point 4 is the attempt to mobilize all the resources of technical assistance, national and international, governmental and private, toward helping mankind realize its great potential of a decent, satisfying life for all of its inhabitants. It is this concept which calls for the bold approach, an approach which should be carried out, for the most part, through the UN. Such an approach would put into proper perspective the joint efforts of many nations and would provide the UN with much-needed prestige and status at a time when its fortunes are at a low ebb. COST OF POINT 4 I should like at this point to say a word about the cost of the point 4 program. This program, which in its very essence would enable the peoples of underdeveloped areas to develop their economic resources, will cost $45,000,000 for the first year, as contrasted with the approximately $5,000,000,000 for the first year of the Marshall plan. As I understand it, it is not a grant or a supply program. Part of this fund would go toward continuing already-existing programs such as those now being conducted in South America. The balance would be available for use in conjunction with other members of the United Nations under the UN. What a comparatively insignificant sum in the light of the many benefits which can accrue to us as a nation. What a small price to pay as an additional guaranty for securing to ourselves and the rest of the world the democratic way of life. Furthermore, the cost of such a program could easily be returned to us many times over. Expanded markets for our products, increased and new sources for materials and goods which we require, and expanded world trade will undoubtedly result from the passage of such legislation. It is our firm conviction that this committee should grant the full $45,000,000 requested and should stand firmly against any cut such as was unfortunately made by the House. It is our firm belief that such action by this committee will go a long way to reassure the peoples of the world that we see and acknowledge clearly our social and moral obligation in the light of a better world for all men. It will guarantee to the people of South America our continued interest in their struggle against tremendous economic and health hazards. It will spell out for the whole world to see that our relationship with the UN as the sole hope for peace will be given added significance. To obtain so much for so little is certainly enlightened national policy. Our way of life, our very future, may well be bound up with the passage of such legislation. Approval by this committee and the full Senate will move the clock of progress forward in preserving the peace of the world. It will give added proof to the world that we have no ulterior or imperialistic motives in our dealings with nations. It may well mean for the two-third of the world, which constitute the underdeveloped areas, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," of which we have such an abundance. The CHAIRMAN. Very well. Thank you very much. Mrs. AGNES WATERS. At this point, Mr. Chairman, can I put in my statement? The CHAIRMAN. Please do not interrupt us now. Mrs. WATERS. When can I get in? The CHAIRMAN. Leave it here and we will look it over. Please have a seat, madam, Mrs. WATERS. I am asking to have my statements and exhibits placed in the record. The CHAIRMAN. I told you to file them and we would see about it. I will not promise to put them in until we see them. Mrs. WATERS. I am filing the back numbers of Common Sense magazine, a newspaper on women's affairs, and all the exhibits which I have gathered together over a period of 16 years. The CHAIRMAN. Please leave them with the committee, madam, and we will see what can be done. Mrs. WATERS. I object to this program The CHAIRMAN. Please return to your seat, madam. Our next witness is Mr. Wallace J. Campbell, representing the Cooperative League of the U. S. A. STATEMENT OF WALLACE J. CAMPBELL, WASHINGTON REPRESENTATIVE, COOPERATIVE LEAGUE OF THE U. S. A. Mr. CAMPBELL. My name is Wallace J. Campbell, and I am Washington representative of the Cooperative League of the U. S. A. The CHAIRMAN. What kind of cooperative league is that, cooperative on what? Mr. CAMPBELL. Cooperatives of the type you have in Texas, such as your rural co-ops, supplying petroleum, the cotton gins, the development of cooperatives such as you have in your constituency. The CHAIRMAN. You are a paid representative and full-time employee? Mr. CAMPBELL. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. All right, go ahead. Mr. CAMPBELL. I am also chairman of the executive committee of the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, which is popularly known as CARE. I served as chairman of the organizing committee of CARE and with representatives of the American Friends Service Committee and the National Catholic Welfare Conference raised the $750,000 initial capital with which CARE launched its present activities. The Cooperative League is a federation of purchasing, consumer, and service cooperatives with 1,500,000 dues-paying members, more than 75 percent of whom are farmers. The largest number of member organizations of the Cooperative League are in the fields of farmsupply purchasing, petroleum distribution, insurance, food-store operation, housing, and medical-care cooperatives. We also have a closeworking relationship with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Credit Union National Association, and the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, all of which have their own independent national organizations. My testimony here today is specifically in behalf of the Cooperative League itself in support of title II of H. R. 7797. SUPPORT FOR POINT 4 We have been greatly heartened and encouraged by the constructive approach to international relations outlined briefly in President Truman's inaugural address in January of last year and the subsequent development of the point 4 program. We look upon point 4 as a practical means through which the United States may assist the peoples of the underdeveloped countries of the world to help themselves. We feel that the techniques proposed can not only increase the standard of living in many of these underdeveloped countries, but can, through its application, create and strengthen the democratic forces in those countries as a practical counteracting force to the growing pressures of world communism. PATTERN FOR POINT 4 The most active member in behalf of the point-4 program for the Cooperative League and the International Cooperative Alliance has been Msgr. M. M. Coady of Nova Scotia, who has had several conferences at our request with officials of the State Department and who has presented testimony to the United Nations at Lake Success in behalf of the point 4 program. Monsignor Coady's institution, St. Francis Xavier University, at Antigonish, Nova Scotia, has in the last 20 years developed what we believe could be and should be the pattern for point 4. As a matter of fact, the Antigonish movement, which is named after the location of this Catholic university, has been described as “20 years of point 4 in operation." When the Maritime Provinces of Canada were most hard hit economically late in the 1920's, the extension department of St. Francis Xavier University, under Dr. Coady's direction, began a program of adult education and cooperative action which now involves more than a million people in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, Through this practical program of self-help the fishermen of the Martime Provinces have developed cooperative-marketing and processing associations which have increased fourfold the income of the cooperative members and have served as a yardstick to increase the income of all of the fishermen in that area. The Antigonish program introduced marketing and purchasing cooperatives for the farmers, poultrymen, and dairymen in that area which have cut the cost of agricultural supplies and equipment and increased the farmers' income. Credit unions or credit cooperatives, cooperative-housing associations, medical-care cooperatives, food stores, and other associations have given the members a stake in the economic welfare of that area. Their participation on boards of directors and management has created individuals with new ability and renewed hope, where earlier they had faced economic hopelessness. If the committee will permit, I would like to leave with it copies of a case study on the Antigonish movement and a booklet describing the accomplishments of this point 4 pattern. 1 1 BENEFITS OF PROPOSED PROGRAM The present legislation which is before you is an extremely practical first step in launching a program which can help people to help themselves in all parts of the world. We understand that you will have before you at a later time supplementary legislation to encourage private capital to make investments in the underdeveloped area which would facilitate the productivity of those areas. The point 4 program is not only an effective tool to combat communistic pressures but it is also an economically sound program which can, by increasing the standard of living in the underdeveloped countries, open up great new markets for American industry. A parallel may very well be drawn from the rural electric-cooperative program undertaken with the assistance of the Rural Electrification Administration here in the United States. Repayments on loans to cooperatives for electric-power lines are already way ahead of schedule, and at the present rate the Government will probably wind up that program with a small net margin. The program itself has made farm life in America more livable for 22 million farm families. It has increased productivity, which was particularly essential during the wartime period. It has also opened up a vast new market for private enterprise for electrical appliances-washing machines, radio sets, power tools, farm equipment, and household goods-which could not have been created without this program which has enabled American farmers to help themselves. In the underdeveloped countries of the world which would be encompassed in the point 4 program there are 50,000,000 people who have made a substantial beginning through cooperatives. It has been a heart-breaking struggle pitting meager resources against great odds, but these 50,000,000 people have increased their standard of living a small but tangible amount through their own efforts. We strongly urge that every effort be made to harness the energies of those who have already taken the initiative in helping themselves. Such program of cooperatives could cut the cost of rehabilitation and redevelopment because it places the burden of responsibility on the people of the world who can and will help themselves once they are given the know-how, the techniques, and access to loan capital which can open the road to greater productivity. We believe that much of this program can be undertaken on a selfliquidating basis because our own experience to date has indicated it can be. In India and Pakistan the people are now operating 2,500 cooperatives for the control of malaria. More than 100,000 credit cooperatives in those countries have cut interest rates to members by more than 50 percent and have helped millions of people to get out of debt. Marketing cooperatives in Hyderabad, cottage industries in the Punjab, land-use cooperatives in Pakistan, and irrigation cooperatives in many parts of the great subcontinent have brought substantial economic returns to the people. Most of you have in your home constituencies practical examples of how this self-help business works. You have rural electric cooperatives, farm marketing cooperatives, farm supply cooperatives, credit unions, or some other type of voluntary cooperation at work. If you are not fortunate enough to have close touch with these people, you may have had an opportunity to watch at a distance the practical results of the cooperatives in the Scandinavian countries. In Denmark a combination of adult education, land reforms, and cooperatives brought that country from economic despair in the 1860's to a model of world democracy today. The middle way in Sweden has been so well publicized that I need not take time to describe in detail about that program. MAXIMUM USE OF UNITED NATIONS We believe that the point 4 program should make the maximum possible use of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization, International Labor Organization, and International Bank and Monetary Fund. Incidentally, I might point out that the U. S. S. R. is not in any way one of the agencies which would be used under the point 4 program, so it would have no controlling power over the program itself. Using the United Nations would encourage the peoples of the world to take a substantial part of the responsibility for this program; it would help draw local labor capital and materials into the program thus cutting costs for the United States Government. It also would strengthen the United States established policy of working through a world organization devoted to international cooperation and world peace. While the United Nations has not accomplished as much as we had hoped, its specialized agencies have done an important job which gives us hope that once the world can achieve greater economic cooperation, political cooperation, and peace will follow. The answers to the questions of abundance and democracy will be found less in the pronouncements of governments than they will be in the way in which people in local communities all around the world work out methods of solving their economic, social, and political problems. I do not wish to leave the impression that the point 4 program as now drafted is just a cooperative program. The use of economic cooperation may very well be only a small part of the point 4 program as it develops from this legislation. Its growth will have to depend on the practical results that generate. We are, however, sincerely and enthusiastically in support of the complete program of technical assistance outlined in these proposals and would support them for their own merit even if nothing were contained in them which would effect cooperatives themselves. In other words, we are completely in favor of the technical assistance program, regardless of our own interest in it. We strongly urge that you give these proposals your serious consideration for we feel that point 4 can be one of the most constructive elements of American foreign policy. The CHAIRMAN. Very well. Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Senator GREEN. No questions. Mrs. WATERS. If I offer you copies The CHAIRMAN. If you do not keep quiet Mrs. WATERS. I want to leave them here, but I do not The CHAIRMAN. I do not want to be interrupted every time a witness is called. |