Show angress on gress tackles labyrinthine job marshall plan complexities involve vast field of work by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator washington there never was a better example of the difficulties encountered in a democratic government than those which are being faced as the specially called short session of the congress carries on its debate today I 1 doubt if any parliamentary body in the world or any despotic ruler for that matter ever faced a problem more complicated in detail ail wider in its scope or more important in its potential results than the marshall program for aiding europe since the idea of the marshall plan was first broached I 1 have had opportunity to r gain a few short but very intimate glimpses into the machinery which contributed to its completion some of us tor for exam 4 pie recently were given a very condensed a and n d revealing personal account of the last long earnest sessions in washington where the depre P baukhage senta tives of the 16 european countries sat down in the state department to carry on their daily and sometimes nightly sern seminars inars with the representatives of 0 our government these discussions went through three phases the first phase was a careful expansion of details lacking in the formal report drawn up by the pans paris conference you would be surprised at the number and scope of those details many of which had to await special memoranda from technical experts in the countries involved for in stance we can imagine a conversa tion something like this just a moment one of the american officials says with his pencil poised over the pad in front of him you say that it will be impossible to increase the output of the mines in coun try X without additional mining machinery you gave us the fig ures tor for the total equipment estimated but I 1 wish you would describe specific specifically illy the types and the quantity you need if the foreign expert had the sta with him lum they were checked and the discussion of that particular item ended if not the next po nt was taken up awaiting the detailed figures which had to be cabled from country X however that phase was con eluded without any serious casual ties in fact I 1 understand it bradu ally blended into the third phase which was a two sided discussion bringing out exactly how the pans paris report was formulated whether for instance it was a synthetic combi nation of various separate view points and separate plans or whether the parts were fitted to gether with due relation to each other so that they could be taken apart and put together again the americans took it apart and we were told it went together all right As I 1 say this was a two sided dis cassion and I 1 understand that it developed a common appraisal of the plan in other words when it was completed either american criticism had been satisfied or the european viewpoint had been sum dently altered to achieve harcom ous agreement in setting forth their views tain main factors were em ampha pha sized by the europeans in the first place in normal times western europe traditionally im ported more goods from the western hemisphere than they exported to us however this imbalance was compensated tor for by the trade be tween the far east and western europe this trade furnished west ern em europe with sufficient dollars to make up part of the difference secondly in normal times par ticul arly in the case of great brit am there was the factor of in visible income this invisible in come was made up in part of in vestments held by individual brit ons and the british government of the income in commissions and other fees which the british and other nations earned as a a clearing house of merchandise through the use of sh aping facilities and many other services which it was con lenient and practical for european nations to provide tor for the world but this invisible income has largely disappeared now we asked one of the european representatives what had bad happened to it the partial answer of course was obvious with world trade at a standstill many of the services no longer are being provided and as to the personal holdings one european representative said before the war I 1 owned shares of atut and 20 shares of general motors but they had to go long before the war was over the interruption of my earning power high taxes and so on still another important factor Is the consideration of the normal trade which formerly existed be tween eastern and western europe it was interesting to note at this point that considerable optimism was expressed by the europeans w i e v over the possibility of a resumption of this eastern western trade in the course of this meeting and several others we have had a chance to learn many more deta details 1 Is of this complicated plan and its evo lution that possibly can be reported here and yet these meetings meeting s could reveal only tiny fragments of the tremendous amount of research analysis study and discussion which was reduced to a few salient points and presented to committees of congress in secretary of state Mar marshall s final report secretary marshall himself had to go through a long period of brief ing in his last news conference be fore he met with congressional corn coin mitte emen he had as he put it immense ground to cover marshall target of press critics I 1 mentioned secretary of state marshall and his last news confer ence before meeting with the con gressional committees there has been growing criticism of mr mar shall here in washington it took form after the conference and has appeared in editorials one washington editorialist complained that marshall wont won t talk that the newsmen at the conference drew a blank because marshall was nica tive the Weder question came up for example mar shall would say nothing lie ile add ed not petulantly but in a tone that forbade further questioning furthermore I 1 don t feel obliged to report on every con I 1 have with the dent period that was quite true he doesn doean t and t any secretary of state who d d feel obliged to import all information exchanged with the ch ef would not long hold his job but in a democracy if you are an off official loial you have to live in a goldfish bowl the editorialist quoted the late clinton gilbert on secretary of state later chief jus A marshall and the press tice charles evans hughes gilbert speaking of hughes said he talks to the country daily he takes the people into his confidence tell ng all that can be told and as soon as it can be told he makes no step without carrying the country with him that is democratic control of foreign relations well that is not state secretary marshall s way many of the traits that make a man a splendid leader of ar mies a strategist likewise make it impossible for him to cater to a public which reacts only to emotions not as armor plate reacts to shellfire you cannot land a million men on a foreign beachhead nor feed and clothe and care for them so they can carry out their gigantic mission with a glib tongue a charming smile or a keen sense of publicity that gets your cam laign on the first pages secretary of state marshall is a great planner and an excellent ex of plans it is up to someone else to sell those plans |