NUARY 3, 1943. Super-National Organization Held No Way to Peace Radical Change in Political Mentalities and Social and Economic Ideologies Viewed as Necessary in Order to Eradicate Economic Nationalism The writer of the following letter was I further a nation goes on the road to- Professor of International Economic government. The same is true of Ger- ward public regulation and regimenta- Relations at the Graduate Institute of many. The Nazis have replaced the tion the more it is pushed toward eco- International Studies at Geneva from Reich's federal constitution by a uni- nomic isolation. 1934 to 1940. Prior to that he was Pro- tary government. In the days of domestic laissez-faire fessor of Economics at the University Under present conditions it does not a mere customs union could be con- of Vienna. He is the author, among make much difference whether the con- sidered as an adequate means to brush other volumes, of "The Theory of stitution of the suggested union of the away international conflicts. But it is Money and Credit" and "Socialism." Western democracies is shaped accord- different under present conditions. As His books have appeared in German, no nation is prepared to forsake public ing ernment to the legal unitary gov- pattern of English, French, Spanish, Italian, Swed- control of business, a customs union is or according to the legal pat- ish and Dutch editions. tern of federal government. There are not feasible, unless the power to inter- only two alternatives open either fere with business is vested in a super- trade barriers between the member national authority. This, however To THE EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: states with all their sinister conse- would be tantamount to the almost Recent events on the various battle quences, economic nationalism, rival- complete renunciation of national SOV- fronts inspire the confidence that the ries and discord, or free trade between ereignty. victorious end of the war may be near- the member states and, whatever con- er than pessimists expected a few Super-Nationalism Out stitutional label is adopted, strictly cen months ago. Thus plans for the estab- tralized super-national government. This focal matter has been neglected lishment of a more satisfactory post- In the first case there would be dis- because some people have fallen prey war order become more urgent. It is union only. In the second case the to the illusion that the formation of a a mistake to assume that it is too early President of the United States and the super-national federal union could solve to discuss them seriously before the the problem. Clarence Streit aims at British Prime Minister would virtually totalitarian aggressors are completely the creation of such a union for the be reduced to the status of provincial defeated. The difficulties involved are governors and the United States Con- Western democracies. / Count Couden- so great that one cannot enter into gress and the British Parliament to the have-Kalergi aims at a similar union their careful examination soon enough, status of provincial assemblies. It is for the European countries. Other Immediately after victory the United unlikely that Americans or British writers aim at one for the Danubian Nations will have to face very grave would agree to such a situation. countries. Some powers, they say, problems. Only if they succeed in should be given to the suggested super- Opposition Foreseen solving them can a third and still more national government, the rest should dreadful world war be avoided. If they remain with the governments of the The opposition to an abandonment of fail, future conditions will not differ member nations. Federal government national vated merely sovereignty by moti- would not be essentially from those prevailing in the did succeed very well in the United reluctance to depart years 1919 to 1939. Economic rival- from tradition and from constitutional States and in Switzerland. There is ries among the peace-loving democra- no reason to suspect, many people be- standards sanctified by the proudest cies, and resulting disunion, would pro- lieve, that it would not prove very sat- memories of national history. To vest vide the dynamic powers with the op- isfactory in the great federal union of the power to deal with public control of portunity of intriguing and plotting the democracies suggested by Mr. business in a super-national authority anew and of preparing a still more Streit. would interfere seriously with the en- terrific assault. tire structure of political forces. Pres- These projects fail to take account sure groups which were very influen No Single Cause of the changes that have occurred in tial within the national frame and the structure of these two federal gov- This war was not caused by nazism therefore in a position to determine the ernments-as in that of all other feder- alone. The failure of all the other na- ations-wit the spread of economic in- trend of policies might become power- tions to stop the rise of nazism in time less within the super-national federa- terventionism and socialism. and to erect a barrier against a new tion and vice versa. American labor The federal systems, both in America German aggression was not less instru- would not acquiesce in a state of af- and Switzerland, were established in mental in bringing about the disaster fairs that would deprive it of the trade an age of liberalism, which did not con- than Germany's own domestic evolu- barriers protecting its higher wage sider it a function of government to in- tion. The Second World War would rates against the competition of coun- terfere with the business of citizens. never have broken out if the Nazis had tries in which comparative overpopula- There were in the United States federal expected to encounter on the first day tion and poverty of natural resources customs, a federal postal service and of hostilities a joint and adequately maintained wage rates at a lower level. a national currency system. But in al- armed front of all the nations that are British farming would not be pre- most every other respect civil govern- today united in fighting them. There pared to stand unprotected against the ment was not concerned with the con- competition of American and Canadian was no secrecy about the ambitions of trol of business. The citizens were free agriculture, producing on a much more the Nazis. Everybody knew that there to run their own affairs. The govern- was but one means to thwart them and fertile soil. The American farmer ment's only task was to safeguard do- to prevent war-collective security. would not easily agree to free imports mestic and external peace. from Argentina. But the nations that were menaced did Under such conditions it was easy to not adopt this program. They pre- divide powers between the federal gov- Public Control ferred to cling to their policies of eco- ernment and the governments of the Government control of business is a nomic nationalism, which frustrated all various member states. To the federal method of furthering the economic in- endeavors for the formation of a united government those matters were as- terests of various influential pressure front. signed that went beyond the boundaries groups. The vested interests of those Every one must agree that the aban- of the states-foreign affairs, the con- fayored by these policies would violent- donment of economic nationalism is the duct of war, the safeguarding of trade ly oppose a change which might im- main requisite of a future settlement between the states, the management of peril their political power and thereby that could succeed in making pease the postal service and of customs. their economic gains. No pressure last. All plans for a more satisfactory Moreover, the federal government did group is ready to surrender one of its world order are based on the assump- not interfere with the local affairs of privileges in the realm of domestic af- tion that it will be possible to elimi- the states, and the states did not inter- fairs even if its pernicious implications nate economic nationalism altogether, fere with what they considered the pri- for the rest of the nation and for the or at least in the mutual relations of im- vate affairs of the citizen. commonweal are manifest. It would be portant groups of nations. These plans take it for granted that the continua- Two Real Capitals an illusion indeed to believe that a pressure group would be willing to for- tion of the economic wars waged in the This equilibrium in the distribution sake one of its claims in order to avoid past by each nation against all other of jurisdictional powers was entirely inflicting harm on foreign nations. nations would render vain any program upset by the policy of economic inter- We must realize that the very ambi- for the establishment of peaceful col- ventionism. The new powers did not tious plans for a super-national organi- laboration, A political alliance or accrue to the member states but to the zation, even if limited to the Western league cannot work if every member federal government. Every step to- democracies only, cannot be carried out nation isleager to inflict as much harm ward more government interference in this age of public control of business as possible on every other nation by and toward more planning means at and its corollary, economic nationalism. trade and migration barriers, foreign the same time an expansion of the It cannot be expected that the schemes exchange control, monetary devalua- jurisdiction of the central government. for a substitution of an effective inter- tion and confiscation of foreigners' Washington and Berne have become national union or a super-national fed- property rights. today capitals in the true sense of the eration for the unsatisfactory Covenant But, unfortunately, the problems in- word, and the States and the cantons of the League of Nations would be