Thoughts

Harry S. Truman, Herbert Hoover and Eleanor Roosevelt are former occupants of the White House with little else in common. But last week they showed that they agree on at least one thing: that the U.S. should continue to support the United Nations. Within the framework of that agreement, there were some interesting differences in emphasis and enthusiasm as Truman, Hoover and Mrs. Roosevelt testified before a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee studying revision of the U.N. Charter.

Said Harry Truman: "One of the most significant things about the world situation today is that the United Nations still exists ... I believe that if we had not had the United Nations, the events of these last ten years would again have plunged the world into unlimited international warfare."

Herbert Hoover was more cautious. He conceded that the U.N. has been successful in ironing out disputes--"principally among the secondary powers"--that might have led to war. "It has not, however, fulfilled expectations," he said. "After ten years of its service, we have not only had no peace but a continuing cold war and increasing dissension in the world." Recalling that he once suggested that either the Soviet Union or the free world withdraw from the U.N., Hoover said he has changed his mind. "My own conclusion," he explained, "is that we have got to go on and worry with the Russians in the United Nations in the hope that things will get better."

Mrs. Roosevelt counseled patience with the U.N. Said she: "People have turned to force for a very long while, and it will take time. I think, for us to find the ways to greater understanding . . . But the values that can be attained through working together, I think are very great."

As for Charter revision, all three witnesses expressed doubt. Said Mrs. Roosevelt: "The world is still in a very troubled state. I doubt if we would have calm and objective deliberations." Said Truman: "Let us be everlastingly careful not to throw away the great and good instrument we already have in a search for something better." Said Herbert Hoover: "The world must await a great change in the whole Communist attitude."

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