Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

will have a very profound effect upon the United Nations Organization.

As one of the sponsors of the San Francisco Conference, as one of the most powerful nations of the world, the United States has the grave responsibility to choose wisely.

The Women's Action Committee respectfully urges that this country's first great decision for the future be the decision to join this international organization, without reservation, and that the Charter be given prompt ratification by the Senate of the United States.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. We are very glad to have your testimony.

Is Mr. Alfred M. Lilienthal present? He has asked to be heard. He does not answer.

Mrs. Van Hyning, representing We, the Mothers, Mobilized for America, Incorporated? She is nct present.

Is there present a representative of the American Council of Christian Churches? That organization asked for a hearing, and we wired them granting it. They have not appeared.

We have present today Representative Compton I. White, who desires to address the committee. I have looked at his statement. He devotes most of it to a discussion of the Bretton Woods agreements, which we are not considering. However, we will hear him on this Charter. Representative White.

STATEMENT OF HON. COMPTON I. WHITE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF IDAHO

Representative WHITE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I am Compton I. White, Representative from the First Congressional District of Idaho, also chairman of the Coinage, Weights, and Measures Committee of the House.

In considering the international Charter, I have drafted my ideas of the cardinal principles of such a charter and have placed them in the form of a chart, which I should like to read to the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean that you have an entirely new plan? Representative WHITE. No; it is a plan whose principles, I think, in revising this Charter before, should be incorporated as soon as possible in the Charter that will be finally accepted by the United States.

The United Nations, in order to maintain peace and prevent war, will create no supergovernment, and will insure the retention of complete sovereignty of every nation.

The nations subscribing to the Charter will establish a World Court to be composed of proportionate representatives of the several nations, with an international world commission with power to settle international grievances and prevent aggression and invasion of any nation, implemented with an international army and navy, each country to have proportionate representation on the commission and supply a relative quota of the policing force;

The personnel composing the policing force not to be permitted to serve in the country of which they are nationals;

The commission to maintain freedom of the air and freedom of the seas with universal disarmament;

No nation to be permitted to maintain a navy or armed force above its domestic policing requirements;

All international disputes to be settled by the Commission under the rules of judicial procedure with right of appeal to the World Court, whose decision shall be final and enforced by the international commission.

The nations subscribing to the Charter will establish an international monetary system in which the monetary unit of the several governments subscribing to the Charter of the United Nations shall Le made standard by weight and fineness to the metals gold and silver at a ratio of relative value to be fixed by the international agreement. There I have outlined as best I could my ideas of the fundamental principles of an international Charter.

The CHAIRMAN. We are glad to have them in the record.

Representative WHITE. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent at this point that the capitalization as it appears in this copy will appear in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. We shall undertake to do that.

Representative WHITE. I desire to make a few remarks in that connection, Mr. Chairman.

I am sure the people of the United States and their representatives in the Senate are conscious of the gravity of this hour and the tremendous responsibility devolved upon them. Never in all the great upsurges of humanity from the signing of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, and the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, the Emancipation Proclamation down to this approach to lasting peace and permanent security has the future of the world been freighted with such opportunity for good or evil. Never have the American people had so much at stake in the deliberation and actions of their chosen representatives.

We want permanent peace and amity among the nations; we want liberty and security for the people of all the world; we want freedom of intercourse and trade between the peoples of all nations; we want freedom of the seas and freedom of the air; we want disarmament and the power to prevent war and aggression in any quarter of the world. To obtain these blessings, we must have the cooperation of the several nations in establishing an international commission with power to prevent invasion and suppress aggression in any country, with authority to hear and settle international disputes with the right of appeal from the decision of the commission to a world court whose decision shall be final, and enforced by an international policing power under the direction of the international commission."

To insure amiable international relations and unrestrained international trade, the several nations must establish and maintain an international bimetallic money system based on the standardization in value of the monetary units of the several nations, interchangeable in the channels of trades and business among all subscribing nations. This can best be obtained by giving force to the law now on our statute book and by adopting a monetary system of bimetallism by the "leading commercial nations of the world."

Let me call the attention of the Members of the Senate to the fact that this has been done successfully in the past and can be done now.

Let me remind the committee that on the 23d day of December 1865, France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland united in the monetary treaty to regulate the weight, title, form, and circulation of their gold and silver coins with unlimited coinage and legal tender for such coins. By this system, we find that the contracting nations were successful in creating an international bimetallic system which was successfully used by France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and Greece. France alone had maintained bimetallism since October 1785. In 1865, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, and Greece joined this bimetallic league which gave these nations an international monetary standard that had been perfected and tested for nearly 100 years with standard gold and silver interchangeable between the nations subscribing to the leaguea monetary system that worked until the plan was broken down by Germany victorious in a war with France in 1870 when silver was demonetized by that country to increase the value of the war indemnity due from France as a result of that conflict.

There is presented here for your guidance in establishing an international monetary system, section 311 of the United States Statutes. I will take the liberty of reading from the Annotated Code the portion to which I refer.

We are trying to do a constructive thing and profit by the mistakes of the past. I think anybody who went through the period of depression, or whatever you want to call it, must have realized that the monetary systems which we have attempted to make work have not succeeded and that we are now trying to build a better and more perfect monetary system. I think we can do that by turning back to the statutes, our own laws. I shall now read to you section 311 of the Annotated Code:

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to continue the use of both gold and silver as standard money and to coin both gold and silver into money of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value, such equality to be secured through international agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as will insure the maintenance of the parity in value of the coins of the two metals, and the equal power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of debts. And it is hereby further declared that the efforts of the Government should be steadily directed to the establishment of such a safe system of bimetallism as will maintain at all times the equal power of every dollar coined or issued by the United States, in the markets and in the payment of debts. I pass now to section 313, which is somewhat briefer:

Section 313 International bimetallism. The provisions of sections 146. 313. 314, 320, 406. 408, 411, 429, 455, and 751 of this title and sections 51, 101, and 178 of title 12 Banks and Banking, are not intended to preclude the accomplishment of international bimetallism whenever conditions shall make it expedient and praeticable to secure the same by concurrent action of the leading commercial nations of the world and at a ratio which shall insure permanence of relative value between gold and silver.

Mr. Chairman, I have just this to say about the Bretton Woods greements: Taking the over-all dimensions of that program and plan, we seem to be constructing an international monetary pump. We have been trying here in this Congress

The CHAIRMAN. You are speaking of Bretton Woods?

Representative WHITE. That is what Bretton Woods represents

to me.

The CHAIRMAN. We are not considering Bretton Woods here.

Representative WHITE. I am wondering if the committee is going to consider Bretton Woods and if the Senate is going to pass upon it before it reaches the Charter.

The CHAIRMAN. I cannot tell you.

Representative WHITE. I understood that the Bretton Woods agreement was to be an integral part of the Charter.

The CHAIRMAN. No; there is no connection between them legally. You will have to consult with Senator Barkley as to when the Bretton Woods agreement will be taken up. But we are not considering it here.

Representative WHITE. You are not considering it?

I he CHAIRMAN. Not at all.

Representative WHITE. I want to say, Mr. Chairman, that in considering any plan for international peace and amity, we must provide a workable, adequate, stable monetary system. I think the whole plan will fall flat and be doomed to failure unless we do away with the jealousies and animosities that have been generated throughout the world in the past. Unless we give the world a workable, adequate, stable monetary system, I think the experience of the past and the records of the past will convince anybody that the gold standard alone is insufficient and that the bimetallic system has worked. We have tried everything else; now let us try bimetallism.

Senator GUFFEY. What ratio do you advocate for bimetallism? Representative WHITE. The ratio I advocate in the plan is to be fixed by international agreement. I will say, for the information of the member, that the record of the production of gold and silver down through the ages on an average is less than 15 to 1. We have never in the past had a perfect international bimetallic system. When we set up our system here in the United States, it was 15 to 1. It was changed in 1934 to 16 to 1. But France and the European countries all the time had maintained a 151⁄2 to 1 ratio, so there was a profit of 3 cents on each dollar in shipping our dollars out of the country.

If we had done what was attempted to be done in the monetary conference of 1868, when we were invited to join Latin-American countries to reduce our weight to 2 grains, we could have standardized our money and made our money interchangeable in every country. Until you do that, gentlemen, your efforts are going to be in vain.

The

If we are to enjoy the blessings of good government and the freedom of international trade, we must have a sound, adequate, workable money system. The best and the only way to achieve this is to follow the plan already laid down in the laws placed in our statute books, directed to securing the use of both gold and silver as money to promote international trade and stabilize international exchange. nations subscribing to the Charter should provide that the monetary units of the several governments shall be made standard by weights. and measures and fineness to both the metals, gold and silver, at a ratio of relative value between the two metals to be fixed by international agreement.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Congressman White. We are glad

to have

your remarks.

The CHAIRMAN. Mrs. Benge asked for 2 minutes, which was accorded her.

75608-45- -37

STATEMENT OF MRS. L. BENGE, MOTHERS OF SONS FORUM,
CINCINNATI, OHIO

Mr. BENGE. Members of the Foreign Relations Committee: I should like to say to you and to all people here that the thought came to me as I sat listening to this hearing that this country is in very bad case indeed when there is frivolity and laughter at the efforts of a group of middle-aged women who are trying to save what is left of their own country. I want to say that this is a matter which is not for laughter; this is a matter which should be approached in all sobriety and in all seriousness, and in all respect for the opinions of those who oppose us, regardless of where they come from.

I should like to say that I am a member-rather the president-of the Mothers of Sons Forum, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and that I am here to represent a group which has not been represented, in my estimation, either at San Francisco or here-the loyal fighting men who are paying in what Mr. Churchill calls blood, sweat, and tears for this conflict.

We have been told that Mr. Lilienthal represented the GI's and still represents them. I take issue with that, because of the fact that the GI's have had no opportunity whatever to choose a representative; and at best Mr. Lilienthal can only be said to represent a minority of them.

I want to say that the thing which has impressed me and which is, I consider, most significant about the people who have spoken at this hearing is twofold. One is the evidence that the people who want this Charter and who are talking of peace are the people who were most anxious to involve us in this war. They talk of peace, but do they want peace? There is every evidence from their own statements that they are part and parcel of a well-planned, well-financed campaign of propaganda which has gone over a considerable period, and that of itself is a significant thing.

The reason I am most anxious to speak for the enlisted men is not only for my own son, who is in the Pacific, but for all men, because these men, by the very nature of things will be put in the Reserve after the war is over; and if we are to be involved in a military alliance with the other major powers, these men will be the ones-trained men— who will be called upon to do the fighting again.

I should like to mention another point and say that the very same people also who are talking of peace and who are telling us that this thing will mean peace are the proponents of a bill for compulsory military service of men, men as young as 18 years of age. In other words, their deeds do not square with their projects.

No one in the world would like to see a plan for peace any better than I would. But this plan will not bring peace. It will bring not peace but a sword, because it will draw us into the age-old quarrels of Europe most surely.

If you people are sincere in your desire for peace, there is a sure way to peace, and to some it will be a bitter one. One angle was touched on by a previous speaker here, and that is the monetary angle. Every one of you people who have followed this thing knows that since the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, which joined us to the international finance system of Europe, we have been drawn

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »