A Noble Idea

President Truman's Point Four program for developing backward nations has been discussed at high policy levels for months. But it was not till last week that two congressional committees brought the talk down to earth. From spokesmen for U.S. business, which was expected to supply the know-how and capital for the program, the committees got some plain talk on what was needed to make the program work.

Before a joint committee looking into the whole field of U.S. investments, appeared Eugene Holman, president of Standard Oil Co. (N.J.). How did he think U.S. capital could be lured abroad? The net of Oilman Holman's forthright reply was that the real job could not be done by the U.S.; it had to be done by other nations. Before U.S. investors would loosen up, he said, high taxes, foreign currency restrictions and other controls would have to be eased.

Jersey Standard and its subsidiary in Britain, said Holman, are now spending $150 million to expand the refineries there. But before they started, they got an assurance from the Labor government that it did not intend to nationalize the oil industry.

Nevertheless, said Holman, "as members of an industry that provided four-fifths of the private investment made by American interests abroad last year--totaling $1.5 billion--we are disturbed by the worsening of the investment climate in many countries." Holman thought that Point Four was certainly a fine idea--if it could be made to work. So did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This week it gave qualified support to the program--provided that the nations receiving the aid sign treaties "assuring fair treatment of American capital."

Hydrography & Health. To explain how Point Four might work was the job of Under Secretary of State James E. Webb. Last week he appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to push an Administration bill clearing the way for $35 million worth of technical assistance, ranging from hydrographic surveys to health advice, to get the program started. Webb's vague generalities on how the program would stimulate world trade and hence the U.S. economy were not the blueprint the committee wanted. Snorted Ohio Republican John M. Vorhys, critic of foreign spending: "Rube Goldberg must have been your consultant."

But the committee was impressed when Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan marched in with an armful of facts & figures on how well a program of industrialization with U.S. techniques and capital had been working in Latin America. Brannan brushed away the possibility that industrialization of backward nations would only build up competition for U.S. goods. "Only the developed areas," said he, "are good customers. [Developed] countries making up only 11% of the world's population are providing us with more than half of our market."

Faith & Hope. Nelson Rockefeller, who with his brothers has launched his own private Point Four program in South America (TIME, Jan. 31), testified that he was also wholeheartedly in favor of Point Four. It was the promise of renewed "faith and hope that free peoples can work together . . . We cannot go on indefinitely subsidizing our exports by giving away dollars."

Many a businessman agreed with Rockefeller that the program was a noble idea. But they also agreed that U.S. investors would need more assurance that they wouldn't lose their shirts, or have them nationalized, in foreign ventures. This week, the Administration will try to provide some of that assurance. Senate Democratic Leader Scott W. Lucas said the Senate would take up a bill to empower the Export-Import Bank to guarantee foreign investments against 1) inability to convert profits into dollars, and 2) confiscation by foreign governments. Prospects were good for Senate approval.

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