FORMULAS FOR FRISCO
Formula For Frisco CONFIDENCE in the successful outcome of the San Francisco conference of the United Nations fluctuates daily with the arrival of each new bulletin, but the hope that something...
...One need not accept every clause in the proposed improvements to recognize them as an honest, constructive, and thoughtful attempt to make the proposed world organization something more than a Great Power alliance to dominate the world...
...Determined to "raise in these days a standard to which all men of good will can repair," the Committee advanced a series of basic improvements on the Dumbarton Oaks-Yalta agreements...
...Certain features of the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, the Committee declared, "are likely to jeopardize the heavy investment of human values that have gone into victory...
...It should have the over-all authority to review and revise any decisions made by the Peace Settlement...
...a great part of their purpose will have been accomplished...
...and the Assembly of all nations should be made the custodian of these essential liberties...
...T ALL COLONIAL PEOPLES, without consid-^* eration of color or race, who are animated by a consciousness of their nationality and desirous of national autonomy, should be assured of their right to independence within the framework of regional and world-wide federation, and it should be a function of the international organization to give them aid and guidance toward the attainment of this right...
...Truman Measures Up PRESIDENT TRUMAN has met a major test of his progressivism with flying colors...
...Many of the delegates at San Francisco have come to recognize the need for fundamental improvement in the Dumbarton Oaks-Yalta blueprint, but unhappily most of the organizations working for world organization, especially some of the more active women's clubs, are still seeking to mobilize public opinion in the communities behind the original scheme—basic weaknesses and all...
...It should be the strong foundation of the whole world system and should have power to lay down general rules for the conduct of international relations...
...Here are the suggested improvements: 1 THE ASSEMBLY of the Nations should be * open to all nations...
...If they can open TVA for patronage raids by Sen...
...McKellar wields great power in the Senate and he will have the support of group of die-hards who refuse to judge the issue on its merits...
...O THE ASSEMBLY should be more than merely * * an advisory body...
...It should be noted, however, that throughout the country many of the old line Republican papers which originally looked upon TVA as an "experiment in bolshevism" have praised its splendid record and have called for Lilienthal's reappointment, The U. S. Senate should take this as a measure of how solidly the country is behind Lilienthal...
...Powerful forces have joined in the drive to get Lilienthal...
...ft * * IN a statement released to the nation but almost totally ignored by the press, the Committee rightly pointed out that unless certain basic principles are written into the charter of world organization, "the hopes of all men for a lasting peace will rest on an uneasy alliance of 3 Great Powers...
...O THE CONSTITUTION of the world organiza-*¦'* tion should be subject to amendment by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Assembly and such amendment should not be subject to a veto right vested in a few G-^at Powers...
...Kenneth McKellar and his Tory colleagues, a great part of their purpose will have been accomplished...
...The Committee's final sentence is so fundamentally sound that it ought to be memorized by every American who wants San Francisco to succeed and peace to endure: "No plan for world organization, however perfectly conceived, can ensure ending peace if its purpose is to freeze the status quo, and perpetuate existing injustices and errors...
...There is danger that at this last moment we may forget the high resolves conceived in the dark night of war and the agony of the helpless and innocent...
...They know that TVA, under Lilien-thal's capable direction, has become the shining example of sound, intelligent, democratic planning...
...4NO NATION should be above the law, and no ? nation should be permitted to be judge, or to prevent judgment in its own case, whether in the Security Council or before an International Court...
...Mr...
...The American Committee for a Democratic World concludes its presentation of this constructive program of amendments with an eloquent warning that the original Dumbarton Oaks-Yalta plan, resting almost exclusively on the force of 3 Great Powers, would be "unable to withstand the conflicts of power politics and the crises they breed...
...Refusal to confirm him will be seen for what it is: power politics in the Senate...
...His reappointment of David E. Lilienthal as chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority is a courageous rebuff to the spoils-hungry elements within his own party who want to make TVA a pork barrel by ditching Lilienthal...
...The distinction between peace-loving nations and the rest should be abandoned as being unhistorical and divisive...
...This hope is so strong and universal that it has provided fertile ground, unfortunately, for those who are determined to ram the original Dumbarton Oaks plan through without the basic amendments which could alone make the proposed world organization a democratic instrument of enduring international cooperation...
...McKellar wields great power in the Senate and he will have the support of group of die-hards who refuse to judge the issue on its merits...
...C REGIONAL FEDERATION, economic and * political, should be encouraged, not discouraged...
...Fortunately some groups have taken the field with a more forthright and courageous approach— one of seeking to make the San Francisco conference succeed by having it recognize the weaknesses of the original plan and build on that understanding Such an organization is the American Committee for a Democratic World, whose sponsors include a number of distinguished American progressives representing church, labor, civic, and educational groups...
...no international police force can be safely set up in a world of competitively armed nations...
...There is danger that we may set up a mere power mechanism, without moral sinews, without cooperative purpose, without vision into the future, without the prophetic passion to stir the hearts of men...
...Refusal to confirm him will be seen for what it is: power politics in the Senate...
...Progressives in the Senate have a big job cut out for them...
...n ALL COUNTRIES should enter upon a pro-¦ * gram of general disarmament...
...Progressives in the Senate have a big job cut out for them...
...The voting formula agreed to at Yalta does not conform to this principle...
...O A BILL OF RIGHTS, setting forth the essen* tial liberties of men and groups and nations, should be incorporated in the charter of the world organization...
...The Great Powers should not place any barriers in the way of those nations which may desire to remove their disabilities or strengthen their economic position through a federal form of organization...
...Only so can there be the authority of law and not merely the sanction of power...
...Formula For Frisco CONFIDENCE in the successful outcome of the San Francisco conference of the United Nations fluctuates daily with the arrival of each new bulletin, but the hope that something lasting and worthwhile will emerge persists in the hearts of all men of good-will despite the far from happy beginnings...
...It should be noted, however, that throughout the country many of the old line Republican papers which originally looked upon TVA as an "experiment in bolshevism" have praised its splendid record and have called for Lilienthal's reappointment, The U. S. Senate should take this as a measure of how solidly the country is behind Lilienthal...
...They know that he is largely responsible for TVA's magnificent record of achievement, its inspiring example of democratic, grass roots administration...
...These forces, which include the power and the fertilizer trusts, are determined to smash the nation's outstanding yardstick of democratic planning...
Vol. 9 • May 1945 • No. 20
