For Long-Range Aid

A voice of authority spoke out last week for more U.S. economic aid to the world's underdeveloped countries "regardless of what the Russians do." Said the Committee for Economic Development, in a 49-page report on behalf of its 150 businessmen and educators: "More active U.S. participation in developing underdeveloped countries is needed not only to protect our vital immediate interests; it is needed also to help the underdeveloped countries build the kinds of societies with which the West can live in cooperation and peace in the long run."

Big obstacle to development, the C.E.D. reported, is shortage of capital. To encourage U.S. private investment, C.E.D. joined the clamor for lower corporate taxes on overseas earnings of U.S. firms (a proposal that the Eisenhower Administration has already urged on Congress). Since Government aid would still be necessary, C.E.D. endorsed the principle of loans rather than outright grants, "devoted mainly to the creation of basic economic facilities such astransportation and development of water resources." Such economic help, along with technical assistance, said the report, "is now one of the main channels through which the West can keep in contact with the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America . . ."

As the report was issued, C.E.D. Chairman James D. Zellerbach, president of Crown-Zellerbach Corp., added a personal postscript: "I don't think a billion dollars a year is too much to earmark for this economic aid job. Certainly it is not a sum which the $400 billion U.S. economy cannot take easily in its stride . . . We should be interested in working with these peoples over a continuing period of time, helping them build up their countries instead of going in only to offset the Russians . . . That way we'll build up a great deal more good will . . ."

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