A UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE
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AST week President Roosevelt spoke of a conference of representatives of the United Nations to be held in the ring to discuss post-war food production. Later Mr. Sumner dies, speaking at Toronto, raised a still wider question, which has also been discussing in the Atlantic Monthly, when he id that his Government intended at once to confer with other mbers of the United Nations about measures that should taken over the whole economic field to solve the problems unemployment and want. " My Government believe," he id, " that the initiation of such studies is already overdue." he proposals are exactly what students of reconstruction in 's country have long been desiring ; for it was obviously prefer- e that they should emanate in the first place from the United ates rather than from Britain. The enthusiasm with which the veridge report has been received in Britain is evidence of the tense desire that the Government should get on with the task to laying the foundations of a future peace, putting first things st—freedom from want, in the sphere of social reform, having olute priority, though side by side with it should be considered ose other evils named by Sir William Beveridge, squalor, ignor- o ce and idleness. Plans to deal with some of these evils can be repared at once. There is nothing to stop us from accepting the hole scheme of Social Security, so long as we do not forget the ti ondition presupposed in the report—that mass unemployment, rising from recurrent waves of industrial depression, must be a voided. In view of the conditioning factor, the Government has seen criticised on the ground that it has not initiated an inquiry to unemployment comparable with the inquiry on Social ecurity ; to which it may be replied that though much may be one at home there is no absolute cure for unemployment nless the Governments of the world get together and concert eans internationally. Unemployment can be cured, but only if he great exporting and importing countries agree on a common rogramme, recognising that the trading interests of the nations re not in the long run opposed to one another.
In broad principle that agreement has already been reached.
e Atlantic Charter has been accepted by all the United Nations, who, as Mr. Sumner Welles pointed out, concur in wanting full employment for their people at good wages under good working conditions, and other arrangements that add up to freedom from want. But while there is general acceptance of the goal, there has as yet been no concerted examination as to the means to be adopted by all and each to get there, no scientific examination of the facts and the machinery which must be set up. It would be a calamity if the moment of peace caught us before joint measures had been prepared, and if it were left to the nationals of each country to pursue their separate ways in a scramble for trade. It is high time that the experts of the United Nations began to get to work together on broad plans agreed upon between all the Governments concerned. It is appropriate that the United States, with her vast resources, her great capacity for primaiy production and her huge industrial power, should take the lead. It is evi- dently necessary that Great Britain and the Empire should be associated with her at every stage. But it is equally necessary that Russia and China, with their different but related problems, the South American Republics, Holland, and indeed all the United Nations, should be asked to pool that enthusiasm now evoked for winning the war for the service of an enduring world peace.
The exact nature of the procedure proposed is not yet clear. President Roosevelt in the first place spoke only of a United Nations food conference,,which would doubtless be concerned with the problem of avoiding food shortages and disposing of food surpluses, and providing in different countries a steady maximum production which would keep the producers profitably employed and afford a flow of goods to consumers at relatively stable prices. He recalled the wheat conferences of 1934 and 1939. But Mr. Sumner Welles envisages joint inquiries covering the whole field of economic relations—presumably the production and distribution of raw materials other than food, the exchange of goods, primary and manufactured, tariffs, currency exchanges, international finance, and all the factors which make for the largest possible production in each country within a sphere appropriate to it, not excluding the need of subsidiary industries in the primary pro- ducing countries. Since Mr. Roosevelt spoke of a food inquiry in the spring, it may be that what is contemplated in the first place is the calling together of expert international committees to examine various aspects of the world economic problem, to be followed by a subsequent conference of the United Nations. Alternatively, the plan may be to summon a conference to reach agreement on the broad principles and to delegate further explora- tion to a number of expert committees. What matters is that there should be agreement between the United Nations on the main objectives to be reached, and expert examination of the means.
In the broadest terms the object of inquiry is to find ways of abolishing the absurdity of the prevalence of want in the midst of plenty. The League of Nations' inquiry on the subject of nutrition established the fact that even in the most prosperous countries there is at all times a very large proportion of the population suffering from malnutrition. The problem, then, is to find the means of supplying these millions of people, whose consumption should be increased out of the world's almost unlimited capacity for production, enabling every country 'to develop to the utmost a carefully balanced system of pro- duction which should take into account both its own needs and those of other countries. Such a country as Australia will want to be sure of a steady and remunerative price for its food exports, and yet to be able to develop industries of its own. Such a country as Great Britain will want to produce more food on its own soil, but will need to export to pay for the food which it must still import, and its raw materials. Such a country as the United States, though capable of being almost self-supporting, will still desire to export a considerable surplus ; but that she can only continue to do if she is ready to accept goods in exchange.
The, whole problem is capable of taking quite a different form if we cease to assume that world trade is strictly limited, and if we recognise on the contrary that the needs of consumers are so great that all the countries can be kept busy in satisfying them. To get over the difficulties plans must be made to secure a fair distribution of raw materials, to prevent gluts and scarcities and violently fluctuating prices, which more than anything else have been responsible for trade depressions, and for general action upon the principle that goods and services must be paid for with goods and services. It will be necessary to aim at tariff reductions and the abolition of severe currency restrictions. Out of chaos has to be built up a new conception of international relations, based upon international planning. The world of the future cannot be left uncontrolled, unplanned.
In many cases war machinery may be adapted for purposes of peace. One such piece of machinery is that of the Combined Raw Materials Board which has just issued its first annual report. The American member of the Board, Mr. William L. Batt, suggests that its continuance after the war would prevent a scramble by all nations for available supplies. The principle of the Wheat Agree- ment of last June is capable of application to other commodities in world-wide demand. And during the war there has been one beneficial innovation which has produced revolutionary effects in the whole sphere of economics. It is that of Lend-Lease. On the face of it, this required the supply of goods without security of payment mainly from one country—the United States— though Canada has also played a great part, and Britain and other countries have rendered reciprocal services. But in the main the burden appears to have fallen on the United States. Yet that country is the first to recognise that if she is not paid in cash or goods, she has received consideration in other forms— in the combatant efforts of countries on whom fell the first brunt of the war. 'The imaginative conception of the Lend- scheme tends to create a new trend in the world of econo It recognises the value—even the cash value—of the long vie the value—even the cash value—of ideals. There will be Occasions in the re-settlement of the world where the applies • of this generous extension of the conception of economic val may solve" otherwise intractable problems. The Was Administration has set an example. If the conferences a to be held are conducted by all the parties in this spirit—it the spirit of the Atlantic Charter—they will not fail of sue
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