Growing Pains

"I expect we will have problems between us," said Jean Monnet last week. "But I hope our problems will be eternal, for that would be a sign of the vitality of our relationship."

As president of the High Authority of the European Coal & Steel Community, Jean Monnet was in Washington seeking a little help for the six-nation Schuman Plan combine, which is the only supranational organization now doing business in Europe.* Dapper, hard-working Monnet is an idealist--he wants a united Europe--who talks in practical plans. Around a large oval table in the State Department, Monnet and his advisers conferred with Secretary of State Dulles and Treasury Secretary Humphrey.

The Schuman Plan will have its second birthday next August. In handling its six member nations' coal, iron ore and steel, it has, in large part, done away with some old nuisances such as customs, quotas and double prices, but its battle is far from finished: it is still fighting entrenched European cartelism, restrictionism, and protectionism. Monnet wants a U.S. loan --not a gift--for modernization, which he hopes will raise productivity, lower prices and stimulate European investment. Monnet had originally hoped for $500 million, but is reconciled to something around $100 million. Apart from the money, the loan will be welcome as a gesture of U.S. support. Jean Monnet needs that very much at this point.

Many of the High Authority's troubles stem from difficulties inherent in the task, and from difficult men. But most of all, its crisis is just a microcosm of the crisis of Western Europe itself. The Schuman Plan was meant to be an economic counterpart of EDC's military partnership. So long as France hesitates over EDC and so long as France's suspicion of Germany is met by German resentment of France, so long will Monnet's brainchild be a sickly youngster in a household of quarreling parents.

* The six partners are the same as those proposed for EDC: France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg.

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