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Next week more money goes out, this time $80 million to the Central African Federation (Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland) for a gigantic dam across Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River south of Victoria Falls. For the money, Banker Black will see a 400-ft. dam rise to back the Zambezi up into a 1,500 sq. mi. lake, new power plants to provide 1,250,000 kw. of generating capacity for the federation's ballooning copper industry, its spreading cities and farms.
Progress & Achievement. The World Bank's president makes no bones about the fact that his job is much more than that of a moneylender. "We do our damnedest," says he, "to spread capitalism." He is convinced that capitalism is the best way for the "developing" nations, as he calls primitive lands, to catch up with the 20th century. By lending money in a businesslike way, he hopes to teach them one of capitalism's primary lessons: that money must be wisely invested to earn a profit, but that when it is, the harvest both for lender and borrower multiplies beyond all dreams. Black recognizes that the hunger of undeveloped nations for the fruits of mass production is the great political fact of modern times: "We are faced today by a revolution of expectancy. People are less and less content to live in the past or think in the past. The way to deal with a revolution of expectancy is to turn it into a revolution of achievement and progress."
In terms of the billions funneled out in direct U.S. Government aid abroad, Eugene Black's achievement appears modest. But, unlike direct foreign economic and military aid, its results are unquestioned and rarely disputed. Dollar for dollar, the World Bank has proved itself one of the most effective weapons in the cold war. In ten years, drawing funds from contributing member nations, it has lent only $2.6 billion. But by concentrating on basic projects—utilities, agriculture, transportation—it has helped build a solid floor under the economies of more than twoscore nations.
The bank has also helped underdeveloped nations draw up complete economic plans to stimulate private investment in consumer and heavy-industry projects outside its scope. Thus, where direct U.S. Government aid is often resented for its political strings, loans from the World Bank are welcomed. Says President Black: "When I am doing this job, I am international. As a business corporation, we are not plagued by the multitude of difficult questions that can arise when one sovereign nation treats with another. We cannot be charged with invading national sovereignty, with economic exploitation, or with political discrimination. The World Bank has no interest except to help its members."
Borsch to Buddha. Banker Black's polyglot borrowers range from businesslike Belgium to borsch-Red Yugoslavia and Buddhist Burma. Some projects:
¶To Pakistan, six loans totaling $77.3 million to recondition railways, exploit a vast natural-gas find at Sui in West Pakistan, extend the country's power supply, develop the port of Karachi. One project: $3,250,000 for earth-moving machinery to divert three rivers, turn the barren Thal desert area into a 2,170,000-acre farm (wheat, cotton, sugar cane) belt.