No Pig-in-a-Poke

A definite public attitude in the U.S. toward Western Europe was finally taking shape. The attitude in most respects reflected U.S. citizens at their best--a neighborly people, willing to help and prompted by humanitarian impulses, but nevertheless hardheaded and cautious.

A nation where charity is Big Business, where community-chest drives and Red Cross campaigns are splendidly supported, understood that free-&-easy charity sometimes does more harm than good. The U.S. was prepared to help Western Europe, but on a businesslike basis. A lot of U.S. money and goods had already been poured into Europe--more than $8.6 billion since war's end. The question was: How much good had it done? From now on Americans were not financing any charitable pig-in-a-poke. There was not going to be any WPA in Europe.

The evidence for this attitude came mostly from U.S. Congressmen, whose political lives depend on their appraisal of the sentiment back home. Since the end of the session, Congressmen had been touring Europe in droves. They went to have a look for themselves and to determine exactly what was required of the U.S. They did not go as busybodies, as they frequently had during the war, or as fat-cat junketeers. They were serious men who wanted to do the right thing.

The most important group which went abroad was the Select Committee on Foreign Aid, headed by Massachusetts' Christian Herter. After six weeks of assessing Western Europe's misery, the committee returned last week. It had exhibited congressional statesmanship at its highest. Committee members had talked to heads of governments, opposition political parties, organized labor leaders, workers, farmers, industrialists. They brought back trunkloads of data and notebooks crammed with impressions.

Not only did their performance reflect the new national attitude; their findings would undoubtedly be the basis for whatever decisions the nation would make. They refused to be hurried. Europe's cries of urgency were disturbing, even terrifying. But never before in peacetime had a single nation been called upon to make such vast contributions to the world community. Americans, and their representatives, were determined not to make any mistakes if they could help it.

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