New Definition Wanted

Before the U.S. goes very far on the road toward leadership of a democratic world, it will need a definition of democracy that the world will understand (see above). Last week at Moscow, George Marshall made a grab for such a definition. He told the Council of Foreign Ministers: "To us a society is not democratic if men . . . are not free to express their beliefs and convictions without fear that they may be snatched away from their home and family," and without fear "of being denied the right to work or deprived of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

That described some of the things a democracy was not. But what was it? Marshall's definition told Vyacheslav Molotov that the U.S. would not stand for the expansion of Soviet totalitarianism to Germany. But it fell several miles short of telling the Germans what kind of society the U.S. would recognize as democratic.

Concessions & Complications. This week Molotov presented the Russian economic proposals for Germany. He revived the $10 billion reparations claim (first made at Yalta), but offered to spread payments over 20 years. As expected, Molotov stipulated that some German reparations would come out of current production; he demanded a Soviet share in control of the Ruhr. Most significantly, Molotov was willing to let German industry recover to a level represented by 12 million tons of steel production-capacity a year. (In the 1946 squabble over the German level of industry, the British proposed to leave Germany 12 million tons of steel production-capacity. The Russians countered with a figure of 3 million tons, reluctantly settled for the U.S. figure of 7.5.)

Marshall insisted that Germany be made self-sustaining before reparations are skimmed off current production. Otherwise, the U.S., now pouring $300 million a year into Germany, would be subsidizing German reparations to Russia. When Molotov attacked the merger of the U.S. and British zones, Marshall hit back: "Charges and counter-charges get us nowhere. ... They do not solve our problems. They do complicate them."

As the conference came to close grips with Germany's economic future, which is the real key to success or failure, General Lucius Clay moved in from Berlin to pass Marshall more ammunition.

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