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HOLD FOR RELEASE
HOLD FOR RELEASE
HOLD FOR RELEASE
November 9, 1949
CONFIDENTIAL: The following address by The Assistant to the President,
John R. Steelman, before the National Electrical Contractors Association
in convention in Houston, Texas, MUST BE HELD IN STRICT CONFIDENCE until
1:00 p.m., CST, Wednesday, November 9, 1949.
CAUTION: This release applies to newspapers, radio announcers and news
commentators. Extreme care must be exercised to avoid premature publica-
tion or radio announcement.
CHARLES G. ROSS
Secretary to the President
-
I am glad to be in Houston today and to have this opportunity
to talk to you about some economic aspects of our foreign policy and
their importance to the business men of the United States.
The chief aim of United States foreign policy is to create the
conditions necessary to maintain peace throughout the world. The en-
couragement of mutually beneficial trade, as a means to this end, is a
cornerstone of United States foreign policy as it has been from the
earliest days of the Republic.
Experience throughout our history has made it ever more clear
that peace and trade are two sides of the same coin.
Today, more truly than ever before, the maintenance of a sound
peace requires a solution of the economic problems confronting the world.
For we know that in practically all cases economic problems are the real
basis of political and social unrest. Today, moreover, economic problems
confronting some other countries cast their shadows afar and cannot be
ignored elsewhere. The United States cannot be economically isolated from
any corner of the world any more than it can be blind to undemocratic
political and social developments.
While many economic problems throughout the world are the after-
math of war, others in many under-developed areas are rooted in ignorance
of industrial technology, in lack of opportunity to utilize a country's
natural resources, or in poverty.
The end of World War II found the world economy seriously out
of balance. Our own country was virtually the only major nation in the
world which came out of the war with its industrial machine still in
top running order. In many others production facilities were seriously
crippled.
This meant that many nations in Europe and Asia were unable
alone to make a satisfactory beginning toward reconstruction. In many
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