THE AMERICAS: A Voice for Aid

To the growing U.S. official sentiment for stepped-up economic aid to Latin America, Senator Homer E. Capehart, chairman of the Senate's Banking & Currency Committee, last week added his influence. Milton Eisenhower had earlier toured Latin America and found a need for the U.S. to hold down tariffs, stockpile more raw materials and make more development loans. Industrialist Clarence Randall, reporting last January to President Eisenhower on foreign economic policy, had proposed limited tariff cuts that would help Latin American exporters.

But when Senator Capehart and his colleagues set out last October for a 51-day flying study of Latin America's economy, there was doubt as to how a free-enter prising Republican millionaire from the traditionally high-tariff Midwest would feel about such economic aid. Capehart gathered his evidence tirelessly, attending more than 300 meetings with U.S. and foreign business and government officials. As Banking Committee chairman, he focused on the work of the Export-Import Bank of Washington and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). Chomping cigars, he applied to his job a 20-20 insight into practical commerce, the horse sense of an Indiana Rotarian and the conviviality of a life member of the Loyal Order of Moose. His conclusion, summing up a 648-page report: general agreement with Milton Eisenhower's findings.

Capehart particularly stressed expansion of the Export-Import Bank rather than the World Bank. He reasoned that Export-Import i) favors loans to private (including U.S.)companies in Latin America, and 2) requires that imported machinery and equipment used in its developmental projects come from the U.S. (The World Bank lends mainly through governments, insists that equipment be bought where cheapest.) Capehart's recommendation collides with the policy of Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey, who has cut Export-Import Bank loans to a minimum for reasons of general economy. When this issue comes up for settlement, probably before the Inter-American Economic Conference in Rio next fall, Businessman Humphrey may well find Businessman Capehart's reasoning even more persuasive than the State Department's diplomatic reasons.