"Facts about the Marshall Plan" Newsletter

FACTS about the MARSHALL PLAN NARA Published weekly by the Committee for the Marshall Plan to Aid European Recovery 537 Fifth Avenue, New York 17, N.Y. Tel. MU 7.5540 HENRY L. STIMSON, National Chairman ROBERT P. PATTERSON, Chairman of Executive Committee January 28, 1947 "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos." GEORGE C. MARSHALL, Secretary of State The Marshall Plan is a European Recovery Program. For the first time in modern history a program exists to put a major area of the world on a coordinated, self sustaining economic basis. We now have a plan, the European Recovery Program, to enable 16 nations of Western Europe-our allies economically and by common heritage-again to become self supporting. The basis of this program is not relief but full, long range recovery. This program recommends that for fifteen months; April 1st, 1948 to June 30th, 1949, the United States gov- ernment provide $6.8 billion for recovery among the 16 nations participating in the plan. Six Years of Total War profoundly disrupted Europe's ability to maintain the elementary bases of its existence. One quarter of Britain's national wealth was destroyed or liquidated. Destruction in France has amounted to 21 billion dollars: one quarter of its pre-war locomotives, two-thirds of its freight cars; 78,000 farm build- ings and 66,000 industrial and commercial buildings. Virtually every other country in Europe suffered similar disaster. On top of this came two years of freezing winter, spring floods and summer crop destruction. Restoration or Handout. Despite this and living on lower rations than during the war, Europe nevertheless has recovered to a remarkable degree. Steel production in Britain, for example, has topped the 1938 level. France's average production was greater in 1947 than in 1938. But food production in most countries is down by more than a fourth and coal is lower by a fifth. There is continued hunger, a shortage of goods, an idle- ness of men and machines through lack of materials and replacement of worn out or destroyed equipment. For Western Europe to support itself, not only food and fuel but manufacturing equipment-agricultural and mining equipment, trucks, freight cars, etc.-is needed to revive production. An estimated 70% of the European Recovery Program will go to Europe in the form of grants for food, fuel, fertilizer, raw materials-things immediately needed to keep people alive and working. The remaining 30%, perhaps less, depending upon the urgency of immediate needs will be extended through loans to provide the machinery to start the heavy industries of Europe rolling again. To insist that the immediate requirements of life be given on a loan rather than a grant basis would be to cripple at the outset the ability of weakened European economies to recuperate. To slash the European Recovery Program below $6.8 billion is to eliminate the difference between a relief handout and the impetus for all-out economic recovery. The Vital Five Per Cent. American aid, spread over the four years of the European Recovery Program, will only amount to 5% of the total production effort of the 16 participating countries. But this 5% represents the goods and capital equipment which only the United States can supply. It is the key to the entire recovery program. The major effort will come from the 16 participating countries and the bizonal area of Germany. They have pledged themselves to restore internal financial stability, to work jointly toward high production goals, to set up currency clearing arrangements, to construct such projects as hydro-electric plants without regard to national frontiers, to work for reduction of trade and manpower barriers and for eventual custom unions. They are cooperating closely with such United Nations organs as the Economic Commission for Europe. To carry out this four year program, the 16 participating nations must have assurance of continuing support from the United States. A long range recovery program cannot begin if Europe fears that we will withdraw our assistance after the first year. Authorization by Congress of the full four year project is a low price to pay for Europe's stability-and our own. Peace Through Cooperation. The Marshall Plan intends that stability among the 16 countries will pave the way for economic and eventual political stability on the entire continent. The first report of the Committee of European Economic Cooperation expressly states that participation in the European Recovery Program is open to all countries prepared to cooperate and to conform to the conditions agreed upon by the European nations and the United States. This has been clearly restated in the President's message and in the various American reports on recovery. Actually, considerable trade is going on between East and West and under the Marshall plan this will increase to near pre-war levels. By constantly seeking to increase the exchange of goods and services between all countries, European recovery becomes in fact, world recovery. One Economic World. America has learned that it cannot isolate itself from economic and social disruption in other parts of the world. We share in its prosperity-or ruin. Our peak level of production is possible only because we have access to goods from every other country. In turn, continued American prosperity depends upon our ability to sell our industrial and agricultural goods outside as well as within the United States. We are called upon today to guarantee that prosperity. Time is Running Out. The President has asked that this Program be approved by April 1. Every week the European Recovery Program is delayed means a further cut in Europe's dwindling gold and dollar reserves. Every week of delay makes eventual recovery more costly and difficult to achieve. This Fact Sheet, prepared by The Committee for the Marshall Plan-a non-partisan, non-profit organization-is prepared as a public service to provide you with a clear picture of the purposes and progress of the European Recovery Program. Reproduction is permitted without credit over