A Plan for Europe

Of all postwar problems the one most thickly sown with mines, strung with barbed wire and most heavily fortified is the future of continental Europe. Last week FORTUNE, in a special supplement, fourth of a series on The United States in a New World, made a frontal assault on this intellectual Festung. Compared with much postwar thinking in the press about Europe, the proposals of FORTUNE'S editors are direct and bold. Their goal: "to create a new Europe. We are no more 'realistic' than that." But readers who could remember back before Hitler, before the Depression, recognized that much of FORTUNE'S brave new Europe was in a high old tradition, had been dreamed again & again by Europeans themselves. A host of great Europeans, from Kant to Ortega y Gasset, had agreed that in unity lay the only European future that made sense. In 1929, the high noon of France's hegemony on the continent, the great Aristide Briand sent a memorandum to all European governments proposing steps toward a European federation. From 26 nations came approval -- in principle. Though Britain was officially cool, Winston Churchill, then a political outcast, wrote: "Why should Europe fear unity? As well might a man fear his own body." Edouard Herriot, Briand's bulldog, wrote a book called The United States of Europe (1930). But before the movement could get anywhere, Depression and Hitler intervened.

A Brighter Future. Today few post war planners have picked up this prewar thread. Many of them figure that since Hitler has tried to unify Europe by force, any kind of unification must be wrong. But FORTUNE warns that if the old European state system is revived, Europe, once the center of Christian culture and world power, is "in danger of receding into its own glorious past." FORTUNE thinks the U.S. should wish Europe a brighter future, figures that European unification would 1) uphold Christendom; 2) eliminate some causes of war and thus prolong peace. The article shows how this unification can grow naturally from steps to be taken during the war. Specific goals: 1) A European Council of all continental members of the United Nations, plus Britain, Russia, the U.S. When the Council has put Europe on the track to federation and has joined a world security system, the Big Three would resign from it.

2) A European Court and police force, to decide disputes inside Europe and prevent or localize Europe's wars.

3) A Bill of Rights for all Europeans, guaranteeing freedom of speech, worship, movement, etc. Individuals throughout Europe could appeal from their national courts to the European Court for enforcement of these basic rights.

4) A series of technical agencies under the Council to knit Europe into an economic whole. Key transport would be under central control; no more tariffs would be permitted within Europe, although each nation could still determine its own trade policy toward the rest of the world. Europe would have a central bank, investment authority, cartel policy, etc., all aimed at a common (not uniform) economic life.

These proposals involve "formidable cessions of traditional sovereignty," but do not add up to a European federation.

They are the steps toward a federation that Europe is incapable of taking "with out outside pressure and help." The German Menace. "Europe is a nest of small nations." Hence to the 80% of Europeans who are not Germans, freedom from fear means freedom from aggression by Germany. This obstacle to unity FORTUNE proposes to liquidate by placing Germany under an international administration for as long as is necessary.

So that loss of nationhood during this period will not make him more neurotic, FORTUNE'S international government will give the individual German a high standard of living and plenty of personal freedom. The Allies would destroy German autarchy, basis of German militarism. De-Prussianized (though not dismembered) and Europeanized a peace-loving German nation would some day be ready for membership in the European Council.

Strong Objections to such unification proposals will come from European nationalists, legalists and "realists" who maintain that Europe has always been hopelessly divided, always will be. With out blinking their arguments, FORTUNE describes Europe as the United Nations will probably find it on the day of deliverance. "An atomized social structure. An economic system which, though primarily Germanized, is also partly Europeanized . . . bloodthirsty hatred of all Germans . . . readiness for civil war. . . . Physical hunger; and a widespread cynicism. . . .

But a spiritual hunger for the old freedoms, too." In addition, "a tremendous resurgence of nationalism." From this mess FORTUNE would try to bring unity not by trampling on any small ally's sovereignty, but by a combination of Big Three pressure and guarantees.

The continent, implies FORTUNE, wants something beyond the status quo; the natural development of its own best traditions lies in the principle of federalism, which means "unity in the things essential to survival; diversity and freedom in everything else." Stronger Objection to FORTUNE'S line will come from Americans who would rather leave the problem of Europe to Britain and Russia. FORTUNE assumes agreement with Britain and Russia but thinks the U.S., which has never had a consistent policy toward Europe, will need one henceforth. If the U.S. is a full and equal partner the Big Three can keep Europe at peace. The U.S. role in this power triangle is to be the disinterested sponsor of a strong Europe; to make sure that Europe is not only restored to "all its ancient greatness and dignity" (as Churchill promised), but that it keeps up with the rest of the world. All the other centers of world power are now vast super states, "aggregations of culture and strength on a scale that no single European state will ever rival again." If the Europeans organize their continent on a similar scale, but on a basis of peace, freedom and prosperity, FORTUNE thinks "U.S. soldiers never will have to go there again."

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