ECONOMICS: It Can Be Simply Said

The U.S. State Department last week rose above the platitudinous prose of officialese. Its preamble to a declaration of U.S.-British commercial policy was a, forceful restatement of a forceful argument:

“The main prize of the victory of the United Nations is a limited and temporary power to establish the kind of world we want to live in.

“That power is limited by what exists and by what can be agreed on. Human institutions are conservative; only within limits can they be moved by conscious choice. But after a great war some power of choice exists: it is important that the United Nations use it wisely.

“The fundamental choice is whether countries will struggle against each other for wealth and power, or work together for security and mutual advantage. . . . The experience of cooperation in the task of earning a living promotes both the habit and the techniques of common effort. . . .”