orl 21, 1945 — Page 15

- “ “THIS IS MY RACKET BUDDY!”

Ensures Jobs And
Expanding Trade

' Along with the Dumbarton
Paks Plan, Bretton Woods puts
if} own on paper the lessen we've
lsarned from the war—that this
's really one world, that depres-
‘ion, hunger and unemployment
Fi nywhere on the globe will sooner
'y later make itself felt in the
) ves.of American workers. Bret-
™ on Woods recognizes two things:
') jobs and prosperity depend on
7 reatly expanded world trade and
=> the unbridled imperialism and
" ascist economic preparation that
©:d up to World War II must be

s revented in the future.

» Tf there are to be enough jobs
™ fter the war is over a great deal
e ill depend on our expanding our
Poreign trade way above prewar
‘csandards. We wont have to do
Piuch looking fer customers.
We very nation that has been de-
= astated by the fascist locusts
Fall need our goods to help it
ebuild. But we can’t expect those
ountries to buy goods from us
snless we're willing to accept
‘leir money.

The war and the cut-throat
Fconomic competition that pre-
aded it have played havoc with
Fie currencies of most nations.

> obody knows, for instance, what

_ French frane is worth, or a
utch gulden, or a German mark.

) he international monetary fund
=t up under the Bretton Woods

Plan would take care of that by
Stabilizing world currencies and
providing its. members with a
Satisfactory medium of exchange.

The alternative to the fund is
sheer economic: chaos, the kind
that hit Wall Street and other
financial centers in 1929, kept
workers shuffling ‘in breadlines
for years afterwards, and finally
resulted in the bloodiest war this
world has ever known. Before the
war it was common practice for
countries to deliberately drive
down the yalue of their own
money in the hope of gaining a
temporary advantage in world
trade by being able to undercut
prices. And in the end, lower
prices led to wage-cutting and
wholesale unemployment. A few
bankers profited under that dizzy
whirlpool brand of economics, but
most of the world suffered.

In addition to stable cur-
rencies, the world will need
long-term leans at reasonable
rates for reconstruction and de-
velopment of natural resources.
A nation like China, for ex-
ample, will not. only have to
repair the vast wreckage
brought by the war, -but will
also be ready to take up the
tremendous job of industrial-
ization, which was interrupted
by the Japanese invasien. In-
dustrialization of China, the

ECONOMIC WAR

New Hampshire.

For three weeks at Bretton
Woods delegates met, discussed

and-take They emerged unani-
mously agreed on what-is now
known as the Bretton Woods
Plan, which provides*for an In-

Not All

Bankers
Opposed

YORK (PP) — An im-

number of business,
banking and civic forces are
fighting along with organized la-
bor for passage of the Bretton
Woods Plan without the death-
dealing amendments backed by
the big bankers. Labor’s allies in-
clude: :

The Independent Bankers
Assn., representing more than
2000 country banks. The héads
of the 11 major banks of Phila-
delphia.

A number of midwestern
bankers and industrialists led
by Board Chairman Edward E.
Brown of the ist Natl. Bank of
Chicago.

Chairman Marriner S. Eccles
of the Federal Reserve Board.

Americans United for World
Organization, headed by Ship-
builder Henry J. Kaiser.

The League of Women Voters.

_ United Christian Council for

Democracy.

A group of 224 leading Am-
erican economists, including 16
past presidents of the Ameri-
can Economic Assn.

The Committee for Economic
Development, headed by. Pres.
Pauli
baker Corp. and representing
more than 2000 firms and in-
dividuals.

The CED report backing Bret-
ten Woods was submitted unani-
mously by its research committee,
including such important bankers
and business executives as Pres.
Ralph EB. Flanders of the Federal
Reserve Bank of Boston; Vice-
Pres. R. Gordon, of J. P. Morgan
& Co.; Pres. Beardsley Rum! of
the New York Federal Reserve
Bank; Pres. Chester C. Davis of
the Federal Reserve Bank of St.
Louis, and Pres. Exic Johnston
of the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce.

NEW

pressive

Soviet Union and Latin Am-
erica means bigger and better
markets.

The world bank seeks to re-
place a world divided into con-
testing economic and political
blocs with a world in which all
nations will be able to develop
their resources without giving up
their independence. long-term
loans at reasonable rates wall be
guaranteed by the bank with se-
eurity for both the lender and
borrower. Control of the loans will
not be held by a small crew of
economic lone-wolves, but will be
vested in the United Nations
which are committed to peaceful
economic collaboration.

‘ternational Monetary

and worker in a spirit of give--

Hoffman of the Stude- ~

Fund and
an International Bank for’ Re-
construction and: ‘Development.
Here is what each would do:

The fund is designed to achieve
three objectives through world
cooperation: @ stabilize the va-
lues of all currencies in terms of
gold. © Progressively remove bar-
riers against making payments
acYoss international boundaries.
@ Provide a fund of foreign ex-
change for member countries to
help them maintain stable and
unrestricted exchange relation-
ships in times, of stress without
being forced to resort to cut=
throat competition and economic
wariare.

Hach country contributes gold
and loca] currency to a common
pool in the fund. Total assets of
the fund will be $8.8 billion. U.S.
share of the investment will be
$2.75 billion. :

Purposes of the bank are to:
@ Help in the reconstruction of
Wwar-devastated countries and de-
velopment of backward countries
by encouraging the investment of
capital for productive purposes.
@ Promote priyate foreign invest-
ment by guarantees and partici-
pation and, when private capital

is not available on reasonable

Bretton Woods Laid Plans For
Reconstruction And Development

- Bretton Woods is the name of a small resort town in
It is-also the place where for three weeks
last July the representatives of 44 nations met as the United
Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to work out a
| plan to avert world financial chaos after the war.

terms, to make someloans out
of its own resources. @ Promote
the long-range balanced growth
of international trade. @ Arrange
for loans so that the more urgent
projects will be dealt with first.

Each of the 44 United Nations
will buy shares of stock in the
bank. Only a small part of. the
value of each share will be paid
immediately and by far the larger
part will be a reserve to support
Suarantees made by the bank. The
liability of each member country
is limited to value of its shares in
the bank. Hach member will share
in the bank’s risks in proportion
to the stock it holds.

The subscribed capital to the
bank will be $9.1 billion, of which
the U.S. will subscribe $3.175 bil-
lion. Members pay in only 10 per
cent of their subscription. That

|} means the U.S. has to pay in only

$318 million.

The Bretton Woods Plan is sub-
ject to approval by each of the
44 nations whose representatives
Signed it on July 22, 1944. Here
in the U.S. it was introduced in
Congress by Brent Spence \(D.,
Ky.) in the House and Robert
Fr. Wagner (D., N.Y.) and Charles
Tobey (R., N.H.) in the Senate.
As an appropriation bill it re-
quires only majority.vote by each
house for approval. Hearings are
on now before the House banking:
and currency committee, headed
by Spence.

iN

slow To Speculators

Prevents Manipulation

The reason the big American.
bankers, and an even smaller
group in England and elsewhere,
don’t want the stablization fund
is that under it they will no longer
be able to juggle currencies and
gamble on the money value of
another country’s currency for
their own profit. In the past a

_|few international bankers did just

that. By their unscrupulous mani-
pulation of eurrency they often
made billions on the bankruptcy
of a nation.

While nations in financial
trouble resorted to desperate tac-
tics of economic warfare — de-
valuating their money, undercut-
ting prices, dumping, goods—the
few big bankers speculated and
profited and gained virtual dic-

‘for Bretton Woods,

tatorship of nations that needed
their money: Now nations won’t
have to get into such warfare be-
cause they ll have the funds.

Despite the noisy opposition
front the ABA and other small
but powerful interests, most far-
sighted businessmen and bankers ”
who are more interested in g@en-
eral business profits and pros-
perity than in the power to specu-
late on international currency are
fund and
bank. They want foreign trade
after the war and, aware of how
currency dealings in the ’30’s
wrecked foreign trade, they view
currency stabilization as mneces-
Sary to insure their sales and in-
vestments abroad.

OR PEACEFUL TRADE ‘