Rockefeller Reports

Five months ago President Roosevelt gave young (32) Nelson Rockefeller a bigger job than any he was heir to. His title: Coordinator of Commercial and Cultural Relations between the American Republics. His job: to give the U. S. a better name than it had, south of the Rio Grande. That meant economic aid (to check Nazi penetration) and the active publicizing of the U. S. case (to supplant Nazi propaganda on the virtues of dictatorship).

The U. S. had many a Government department and private agency working for better Pan-American relations, but none that was notably energetic, imaginative, outspoken. As time went by and little was heard from Coordinator Rockefeller, it looked as if his attempt might have gone the way of all others. Critics complained that Mr. Rockefeller had apparently done nothing except suggest to movie producers that they refrain from showing gigolos as Argentines. But last week Coordinator Rockefeller issued a preliminary report that showed he had done a good deal more. Based on a three-man survey, in 18 countries, the report charged:

> That U. S. business in South America has often ignorantly hired anti-American commercial agents.

> That these agents use U. S. advertising appropriations to force newspapers and radios to follow anti-American policies.

> That many such Latin-American employes of U. S. firms are known members of anti-American organizations.

> That some of them turn over confidential trade information to other and unfriendly countries, help German merchants by supplying U. S. goods to fill orders on which the Nazis would otherwise have to default. Furthermore, said Mr. Rockefeller, many firms representing U. S. companies distribute anti-American propaganda, and, in a number of cases, their officers and employes are officials of anti-American powers.

Coordinator Rockefeller said "anti-American" rather than "Nazi." He also reported that many companies are cleaning house. He added that most U. S. companies knew nothing of the political wire-pulling their agents were engaged in.

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