Point Four
When President Truman, in his inaugural address of January, 1949, first announced his forthcoming programme of technical assistance to under-developed areas—the now famous Point Four— many responsible observers felt that he had been a little hasty in his presentation of an idea with such vast implications, and that it might take a long time to translate the proposal into action. But few of them could have thought that there would be so little to show by June, 1950. This week members of the United Nation- met at Lake Success to discuss the possibility of raising $20,000,000 for development plans of the kind the President envisaged. This figure may be compared with the total authorisa- tion by the United States Government of $3,121,450,000 for foreign aid in the next fiscal year. And of the $20,000,000, 60 per cent. has been offered by the United States, on condition that other countries raise the rest. It is true that a small part of the expenditure authorised under the Foreign Aid Bill will be for what may be termed Point Four purposes, and that the Export-Import Bank may guarantee a certain amount of private investment. But these itgms still do not add up to a programme of economic betterment sufficient to overcome the appeal of Communist propaganda in the more backward corners of the world. President Truman, speaking at the University of Missouri last week, once again pleaded with eloquence the claims of overseas investment as a creative enterprise, from which Americans would benefit along with the rest of the world. But the fact remains that Point Four is still not much more than an enlightened idea.
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