History

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REM.ARKS BY THE SECN$TARY OF STATE

AT HARVARD UNIVERsTTY ON JUNE 5, t947

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r need not te1l you gentrennen that the world

sltuatlon ls very serlous. That must be apparent to

all lntelllgent people. r think one dlfflculty is

that the problen ls one of sueh enormous conplexlty

that the very mass of facts presented to the pub11c

by press and radlo nake it exeeedlngly dlfflcult for

the man 1n the street to reach a clear appralsement

of the sltuatlon. Furthernore, the peopl_e of thls

country are dlstant from the troubled areas of the

earth and 1t ls hard for them to eornprehend the plight

and consequent reactlons of the long-sufferlng peoples,

and the effect of those reactions on their governments

1n conneatlon with our efforts to prornote peaee in the

w o r l d .

fn conslderlng the requlrements for the

rehabllltation of Europe the physlcal loss of llfe, the

v l s l b l e d e s t r u c t l o n o f c l t i e s , f a c t o r i e s , m i n e s a n d

r a l l r o a d s w a s e o r r e c t l y e s t l n a t e d , b u t i t h a s b e e o n e

obvlous durlng recent nonths that thls vislble destructlon

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w a s p r o b a b l y l e s s s e r l o u s t h a n t h e d i s l o c a t l o n o f t h e

entlre fabric of Europeen economy, For the past ten

years condltlons have been highly abnormal. rhe feverish

preparatlon for war and the more feverlsh maintenance of

the war effort engulfed alL aspects of nattonal econonies.

M a c h l n e r y h a s f a l l e n i n t c d l s r e p a i r o r i s e n t i r e l y

obsolete. under the arbitrary and destructive Nazl rule,

v i r t u a l l y e v e r y p o s s l b l e e n t e r p r i _ s e w a s g e a r e d l n t o t h e

Gernan war machine. Long-standlng eommerci.al tles,

prlvate lnstltutlons, banks, lnsurance compa.nles and

shlpplng conpanles dlsappeared, through loss of capltal,

absorptlon through natl-onalization or by simple

destruetlon. In many eountries, confldence in the loca1

eurrency has been severely shaken. The breakdown of

the buslness structure of Europe during the war was

conplete. Recovery has been serlously retard,ecl by the

f a e t t h a t t v r o y e a r s a f t e r t h e e l o s e o f h o s t i l i t i e s a

peace settlement wlth Germa.ny and Austri-a has not been

agreed. upon. But even given a nore pronopt solutlon of

t h e s e d l f f i c u l t p r o b l e m s , t h e r e h a b l l i t a - t i o n o f t h e

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eeonomlc structure of Europe qulte evidently w111

requi.re a much longer tine and greater effort than

had been foreseen.

There ls a phase of thls matter whlch ls both

lnteresttng and seriousr The farner has always , -.'

produced the foodstuffs to exchange with the clty

dwe].ler for the other neeessities of l-lfe. Thls

dlvtslon of labor ls the basis of nodern clvlllzation.

At the present time lt is threatened with breakdown.

The town and city industrles a.re not produclng

ad.equate goods to exchange with the food-produclng

farmer. Raw materials and firel are ln short supply.

ldaehlnery ls .laeklng or worn out. The farmer or the

peasant cannot flnd the goods for sale whicb he

deslres to purch?.s€r So the sale of hls farn produce

for money whlcb he cannot use seems to hlm an

unprofltable transactlon. IIer therefore, has withdrawn

many flelds flom crop cultlvatlon and. is uslng then

for grazlng. IIe feeds nore graln to stock and flnds

for hlnself and hls famlly an anple supply of foodt

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however short he may be on clothing and the other

ordlnary gadgets of clviLlzatlon. Meanwhlle people

1n the cities are short of food and fuelo So the

governments are forced to use their forelgn noney

and credLts to procure these necessltles abroad.

Thts process exhausts funds whlch are urgently needed

for reconstructlon. Thus a very serlous sltuatlon ls

rapldly developing whlch bodes no good for the wor1d..

The nodern system of the dlvlslon of labor upon whlch

the excbange of products is based ls ln danger of

breaklng down.

The truth of the matter ls that Europefs requlre-

ments for the next three or four years of foreign food

and. other essentlal products--prlncipally from Amerlca--

are so mueh greater than her present ablllty to pay

that she must have substantlaL addltlonal belpr or

face econonlcr soelal and polltlcal deterloratlon of

a very grave charactel.

?he remedy lles ln breaklng the vlcLous circle and

restorlng the onfldence of the European people tn the

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economlc future of thelr own countrles and of Europe

as a whole. The nanufacturer and the farner

throughout wlde areas rnust be able and wllllng to

exchange thelr products for currencles the contlnulng

value of whlch ls not open to questlon.

Aslde from the demorallzIng effect on the world

at large and the posslbilltles of dlsturbances arlsing

a s a r e s u l t o f t h e d e s p e r a t l o n o f t h e p e o p l e c o n c e r n e d ,

the eonsequences to the econony of the United States

shouLd. be apparent to all. 11 ls logicaL that the

Unlted States should do whatever lt ls able to do

to assist ln the return of normal econonle health

ln the world, wlthout which there can be no po1ltlca1

s t a b l L l t y a n d n o a s s u r e d p e a c e . O u r p o l l c y l s d i r e c t e d

not agalnst any eountry or doctrlne but agalnst hunger,

poverty, d.esperatlon a.nd- ehaos. fts purpose shou,ld be

the revlval of a rcrking economy ln the world so as to

perrnit the ernergenc.e of pol1tlcal and soclal condltlons

l n w h l c h f r e e l n s t i t u t i o n s c a n e x l s t . S u c h a s s l s t a n c e t

I an eonvlneed, must not be cn a plece-raeal be.sls as

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v a r i o u s c r l s e s d e v e l o p . A n y a s s l s t a n c e t h a t t h l s

Governnent may render ln the future should provlde a

cure rather than a mere palllatlve. Any governnent

that ls wllllng to assist ln the task of reeovery w111

flnd fuLl cooperatlon, I am surer or the part of the

United States Government. Any grrernment whlch

rganeuvers to block the recovery of otber eountrles

cannot expect heLp from us. F\rrthermorer goverrunentSt

polltlcaL partles or groups whlch seek to perpetuate

human nlseyy |n order to proflt therefrom poLltlca11y

or oth,erwlse wllL encounter the opposltlon of the

U n t t e d S t a t e s .

It is already evldent that, before the Unlted

states Goverrunent ean proeeed nuch fwther in lts

efforts to allevlate the situatlon and help start the

European worl-d on lts way to recoveryr there must be

some agreement anong the countrles of Europe as to

the reoulrenents of the sltqatlon ard the part those

eountrles thenselves w111 take ln order to glve proper

effect to whatever actlon nlght be undertaken by thls

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Government. ft would be neither fitting nor

efflcaelous for thls Governrnent to undertake to

draw up unllaterally a program d.esigned to place

Europe on its feet economleally. This is the buslness

of the Europeans. The lnlttatlve, I thlnk, must come

from Europe. The role of thls country should conslst

of frlendly aid in the drafting of a European prcgram

and of later support of such a program so far as it

may be praetlcal for us to do soo The program should

be a jolnt one, agreed to by a number, if not all

European natlons.

An essentLal part of any successful aetton on

the part of the unlted $tates is an und,erstanding on

the part of the people of Anerlca of the character of

t h e p r o b l e m a n d t h e r e m e d i e s t o b e a p p l i e d . F o l i t l c a r

passlon and prejudlee shor-rld have no part. Ttr1th

f o r e s l g h t , a n d a w l l l l n g n e s s o n t h e p a r t o f o u r p e o p l e

t o f a c e u p t o t h e v a s t r e s p o n s l b i l i t y w h l c h h i s t o r y h a s

clearly placed upon our country, the Cifficulti es I have

outllned can and lrrill be overcome.

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