Balloons

If an envoy of George V publicly urged that the dollar and the pound be pegged together, no doubt would exist that His Majesty's Government desired such stabilization. If one of Benito Mussolini's Undersecretaries of State called upon nations to create a World-wide Planned Economic Order, Il Duce's stand would be clear. Last week, however, White House correspondents could not get the President to say Yes-or-No when they asked if he approved proposals for monetary stabilization and world planning solemnly made in Europe by men whose duty was to keep silent if they were not speaking for the Administration.

Scotsmen, when they asked U. S. Ambassador Robert Worth Bingham to address the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution last week, assumed that he would not talk through his high hat. Ambassador Bingham called fervently for pound-dollar pegging, continuing : "I believe it would be desirable if other nations were included, but, if that is not practicable, stabilization should be achieved between ourselves. . . . You may be able to conquer your difficulties alone and so may we, but I do not doubt that with proper understanding and co-operation we may not only protect and further our own interests but may play a magnificent role in aiding a world ill nearly unto death."

Next day Italians welcomed U. S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Rexford Guy Tugwell to the 12th biennial general assembly in Rome of the International Institute of Agriculture, a fact-finding body founded under the patronage of King Vittorio Emanuele with cash supplied by an earnest U. S. donor, the late David Lubin. Brain Truster Tugwell, who tousled himself somewhat before the U. S. Senate's inquiry into his beliefs (TIME, April 23), sleeked himself into a faultless cutaway last week and, with a purple violet peeping from his buttonhole, addressed the Institute, which promptly elected him a vice president.

In ringing tones Professor Tugwell endorsed an international planned economy to end cutthroat international trade relations. "The only question is," he confidently declared, "how we can perfect in each country as quickly as possible some organization capable of managing international exchanges."

Nowhere in the world was there any authentic indication that President Roosevelt stood behind either Ambassador Bingham or Undersecretary Tugwell, though it was assumed that he must have known in advance what each was going to say. In Great Britain, where pound-dollar pegging has long been desired, officials of His Majesty's Government wishfully said that they consider Ambassador Bingham's speech a "trial balloon."

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