WORLD ECONOMY: Redressing the Balance

From Washington this week two grimly determined men set out for Europe bent on keeping friends—but saving U.S. gold and dollars. To strengthen their sales pitch, Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson and Under Secretary of State Douglas Dillon had a potent new persuader: the seeds of a "Buy American" policy in the cuts in U.S. spending abroad decreed last week by Dwight Eisenhower (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). But it was unlikely that the travelers would be obliged to brandish this weapon. Unable to blink any longer the sobering fall in U.S. gold reserves, U.S. allies around the world had at...