NEW FRONT IN THE COLD WAR

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¶ U.S. Customs Procedure. "Many goods take longer to pass through customs than it took Columbus to discover America," said a 1953 U.S. Government report. There are 20 different chargeable rates on fine animal hair, half a dozen for leather gloves, depending on whether the seam is sewn by hand or by machine. Charges often vary as much at 25% between New York and New Orleans, and at the end of 1953 there were some 750,000 unsettled customs entries-the equivalent of a full year's work—pending on inspectors' desks.

Advice to Congress. To remedy the worst of these abuses, the Randall Commission proposed a cautious middle-of-the-road program (TIME, Feb.1) It advised Congress to:

¶ Extend the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act for at least three years. Cf Empower the President to cut all tariff rates by 5% each year over a period of three years.

¶ Authorize the President to slash existing tariffs to not more than 50% ad valorem at his discretion.

¶ Simplify tariff classifications and customs procedures.

¶ Change the Buy American Act to permit foreign companies to bid on U.S. Government contracts without discrimination.

The timidity of the Randall Commission's recommendations was rooted in the notion that a bolder program could not get past high-tariff Republicans in Congress. President Eisenhower did not back the Randall proposals with his full prestige, and protectionists in Congress killed the program anyway. But Ike has decided to try again in January, and he should have more luck, since low-tariff Democrats will occupy the key committee chairmanships in both House and Senate.

RAISING LIVING STANDARDS

WHAT Europe needs is trade; what Asia, Latin America and Africa need is capital and know-how. Perhaps one billion people in these continents are experiencing what economists call "a revolution of expectations." A fairly simple Western notion—that poverty, disease and illiteracy are not inevitable—is spreading like fiery crosses among folk who for centuries have remained apathetic to advance. Having emancipated themselves from colonialism, millions of human beings are consumed by an aching need to pull themselves up from economic servitude. They look to "industrialization" as a magic panacea.

This blind and touching belief, and the rising expectations that impel it, have been seized upon by the Communists as a powerful lever of influence. From Moscow and Peking, Communism is held out as a short cut to material progress. Recently John Foster Dulles warned Americans that the Communists' "cruel system . . . does have a certain fascination for the peoples of underdeveloped countries who feel that their own economies are standing still." The danger is that those who compulsively hunger for economic advance will opt for the Communist alter native, if democracy's methods are too slow.

Partnership for Growth. To meet this need and challenge, the Eisenhower Administration is considering an imaginative proposal originally offered to the Government by M.I.T.'s Center for International Studies. Backed by a powerful segment of the State Department and by FOA's Harold Stassen, it calls on the U.S. to launch and lead a free world "Partnership for Economic Growth."