One Year After

The Commencement appearance of Paul G. Hoffman comes not only at the striking moment one year after Secretary Marshall's opening shot for European Recovery but also at a moment when the fate of United States foreign policy suffers the meanest of political buffetings in Washington. It is a time close to the national convention of a party split, as with any group of men expecting power, by fierce final struggling for commanding position. Homeground evidence of the overriding importance of the outcome of this competition has existed during the past two weeks in the rampant speculation about Republican Presidential hopefuls as possible honorary degree recipients.

Robbing the Economic Cooperation Administration of some 25 percent of its effective strength would have seemed extremely unlikely one month ago in the face of an overwhelming American public opinion. But that is precisely what GOP House leaders have achieved, pressed into irresponsibility by their own backward outlook and, more significantly, by the formal contest for control of their Party which looms so close at hand. If the dominant Martin-Taber-Halleck Knutson cabal successfully "guts," to use Senator Vandenberg's expression of yesterday, the ERP endeavor, it will amount to national tragedy. If this is heaped upon the deed of a mangled reciprocal trade agreements program and if it is followed by the further steps which such a high-riding reactionary leadership would surely attempt, the earthquake tremor of fear of American isolationism which has already struck Europe could well become paralytic.

If there is any message on Commencement Day of 1948 it is that such a development must not happen. The ideal national course--aid to the actual democratic socialistic parties as well as the present governments of Western Europe--is perhaps too much realistically to hope for faced with our prevailing political temper. A minimum of desirability in United States policy, however, cannot, and must not, be permitted to seem too much to hope for. An overwhelming vote by the House Appropriations Committee should restore the European Recovery grant to its original amount. United action by the House and the Senate should then be secured with personal political considerations thrown aside.

This newspaper will not take sides in the November elections until later. There certainly can be no doubt, however, that every American who cares about the outcome of the current international crisis should approach public issues clearly searching for the oft-criticized "lesser of evils"--if that is the sorry state of American politics at this point. In Illinois, for example, there is no question that democratic-minded voters should unite to support Professor Paul Douglas against Wayland "Curly" Brooks, who cast one of the House Committee's votes in favor of slashing the ERP appropriation; the third party should join in this unity. And when they convene in Philadelphia June 21, Republican Party delegates should repudiate isolationism with all the emphasis they can muster.