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need to import and to finance their equipment needs from more normal sources of investment.

Today in Geneva our negotiators are meeting with representatives of 17 other countries in an effort to negotiate a mutual reduction in trade barriers and an agreement upon fair rules to govern international trade. This is one of the ways in which we are attempting to face up to the realities of international life. The Geneva conference must succeed. The International Trade Organization must be established.

The Geneva conference must succeed not only because of the emergency supply and financial situation that exists today, but also because our position as the world's greatest producer and creditor nation demands that for a long period to come we accept an ever larger volume of imports. When the process of reconversion at home is completed, we are going to find ourselves far more dependent upon exports than before the war to maintain levels of business activity to which our economy has become accustomed.

The facts of international life also mean that the United States is going to have to undertake further emergency financing of foreign purchases if foreign countries are to continue to buy in 1948 and 1949 the commodities which they need to sustain life and at the same time rebuild their economies. Requests for further United States aid may reach us through the International Bank, or through the Export-Import Bank, or they may be of a type which existing national and interna-tional institutions are not equipped to handle and! therefore may be made directly through diplomatic channels. But we know now that further financing, beyond existing authorizations, is going to be needed. No other country is able to bridge the gap in commodities or dollars.

This leads directly to a third imperative for our foreign policy. Since world demand exceeds our ability to supply, we are going to have to concentrate our emergency assistance in areas where it will be most effective in building world political and economic stability, in promoting human free

eral trading policies, and in strengthening the authority of the United Nations.

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This is merely common sense and sound practice. It is in keeping with the policy announced by President Truman in his special message to Congress on March 12 on aid to Greece and Turkey. Free peoples who are seeking to preserve their independence and democratic institutions and human freedoms against totalitarian pressures, either internal or external, will receive top priority for American reconstruction aid. This is no more than frank recognition, as President Truman said, "that totalitarian regimes imposed on free peoples, by direct or indirect aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States." The fourth thing we must do in the present situation is to push ahead with the reconstruction of those two great workshops of Europe and AsiaGermany and Japan-upon which the ultimate recovery of the two continents so largely depends. This is what Secretary Marshall meant when he reported to the nation on April 28 that action on behalf of European recovery cannot await "compromise through exhaustion", and that we must take whatever action is possible immediately, even without full Four Power agreement, to effect a larger measure of European, including German, recovery. European recovery cannot be complete until the various parts of Europe's economy are working together in a harmonious whole. And the achievement of a coordinated European economy remains a fundamental objective of our foreign policy.

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also needed

Finally, in order to carry out an economical and effective policy of relief and reconstruction along the foregoing lines, your Government is going to need the extension by Congress of certain executive powers over the domestic sale, transportation, and exportation of a limited list of commodities. Such controls have been in effect during the war and are still in effect under the President's war powers, but are due to expire June 30th of this

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year. It is vitally important that these controls
be renewed. It is commodities that are needed in
critical areas abroad, not just money. It is wheat
and coal and steel that are urgently required to
stave off economic collapse, not just dollar credits.

Your Government must therefore be able to in-
sure equitable distribution of supplies as between
the domestic economy and the export demand.
This requires the extension of allocation powers
with respect to a limited list of commodities certi-
fied by the Secretary of State and the Secretary of
Commerce as critical to the foreign economic
policy of the United States. Powers to assign
priorities directly to producing firms will be nec-
essary for a still more restricted list of items. At
the same time, a continuation of export controls is
required in order to direct exports where we want
them to go and to cut down unnecessary and un-
desirable foreign buying in the domestic market.

Power to assign priorities on transportation is also needed. This power is needed in order to insure the efficient use of transportation facilities, particularly freight cars. Without such authority it will be difficult to move bulky export commodities such as coal and grain in the required quantities.

Finally, certain legislation which would enable the Maritime Commission to insure maximum availability and efficient use of shipping is required in order to insure the success of our export programs with respect to bulky items such as coal and grain.

Legislative proposals of this nature have been presented to Congress, or will be presented in the near future. It is of the greatest importance to the foreign economic policy of this country, and thus to the security and well-being of the nation, that these powers be granted.

There is a story going the rounds about a man who, after listening to an extended lecture on the grave financial and economic difficulties of northern Europe and Great Britain, remarked, "And, just think, all the trouble was caused by a blizzard". I think we will all agree that something more

than a blizzard has caused Europe's current difficulties. But last winter's blizzard did show up the extremely narrow margins of human and national subsistence which prevail in the world today, margins so narrow that a blizzard can threaten populations with starvation and nations with bankruptcy and loss of independence.

Not only do human beings and nations exist in narrow economic margins, but also human dignity, human freedom, and democratic institutions.

It is one of the principal aims of our foreign policy today to use our economic and financial resources to widen these margins. It is necessary if we are to preserve our own freedoms and our own democratic institutions. It is necessary for our national security. And it is our duty and our privilege as human beings.

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