"World Trade-the Symbol of the New Era"

Dr. James T. Shotwell,

famous historian and Director of the Division of Economics and History of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, outlines our nation’s needs and tasks in the world to come:

“There can be unparalleled prosperity at the end of the war. Or unparalleled adversity. Never was there a greater challenge to intelligence.

“A war-torn world has to be rebuilt. The task is not beyond the capacity of science, industry and the willing labor of those whose homes and means of livelihood are restored. But to succeed in this vast enterprise, we need world peace and world trade. The two go together, peace to guarantee trade, and trade to give vitality to peace.

“This means that we have to adjust our thinking to new conditions of life. Just as we must secure ourselves against the war system as an outworn and barbarous method of settling disputes, we must make world trade a two-way street to the markets of all peoples.

“The age of narrow nationalism has passed forever. World trade is the symbol of the new era as militarism was of the old. This does not mean taking down all barriers at once; but it does mean a recognition of our common interest in the welfare of those who are willing and able to join with us in creating a freer world.”