ARTICLE

Observations from Europe

MAY 01, 1959 by FREDERICK WALKER

Mr. Walker is an American public relations consultant and journalist now visiting Europe.

The all-out contest between the United States and Russia for mili­tary and diplomatic supremacy tends to obscure the fact that the United States holds a command­ing lead in the satisfaction of the daily needs of individuals. A visit to Europe, the continent most jeopardized by the American-Soviet battle, reveals to even the most superficial observer the out­standing performance of Ameri­can business and trade in supply­ing goods for consumers. American products are displayed and on sale everywhere, with no competition at all from Russia.

It seems that American busi­ness, harassed as it is by growing state intervention, is nonetheless able to enter foreign markets with products at an attractive price, while completely state controlled Russian enterprise fails to offer the foreigner anything he wants or needs. The universal existence of American products, and the ab­sence of anything comparable from Russia, surely is a testi­monial for the system of enterprise, merit, and price. This is no foreign aid handout at the expense of the American taxpayer but the conquest of markets through prod­ucts that meet human needs and wants.

The fact that American enter­prise can spread throughout the world while the Russians export espionage agents, munitions, and scare headlines suggests that the American economy has something the Soviets lack—namely, free­dom. And our national policy ought to stress the why of this success. The testimony exists everywhere in foreign shop win­dows and on shelves where Ameri­can products are for sale. Helping the foreign buyer understand why he can buy American foods, drugs, gasoline, and tobacco, while he has never seen anything from the So­viet Union except trouble, would be a step toward sound foreign relations which no amount of for­eign aid or State Department propaganda could accomplish. The visual demonstration is already there. Needed is the clear and comprehensive explanation of what it stands for.

Many Americans in recent dec­ades have tended to reject free markets in favor of the restraints of an expanding state. Free enter­prise has too long been associated in many minds with the selfish in­terests of wealthy men and cor­porations as though they were public enemies; these critics do not see that free enterprise is equally beneficial to everyone con­cerned.

American foreign policy has tended to stress military might and foreign aid handouts while neglecting to tell the world that America stands first for freedom and its results which supply the needs of people. Reports from abroad indicate that the so-called backward countries are interested in political freedom and a greater participation in the goods of life. America has demonstrated the possibilities, and our exports offer physical proof that we can pro­duce the goods of life in abund­ance. Russia, on the other hand, offers promises and propaganda but neither the products people want nor the freedom that makes for productivity. And the great pity is that we play down or ig­nore our actual triumphs and copy Russian diplomatic methods in­stead, hoping to gain friends through military and astrophysi­cal projects capable of destroying the world.

American enterprise has proven its ability to produce, to enter new markets, to supply needs. But hav­ing accomplished all this, we now seem intent on throwing away our greatest strength to take a rocket to the moon ourselves.