seventy million educated, efficient and imaginative
people can be kept within bounds on such a low level
of subsistence as the Treasury proposals contemplate.
I do not believe that is humanly possible. A subordi-
nate question is whether even if you could do this it
is good for the rest of the world either economically
or spiritually. Sound thinking teaches that prosperity
in one part of the world helps to create prosperity in
other Parts of the world. It also teaches that poverty
in one part of the world usually induces poverty in
other parts. Enforced poverty is even worse, for it
destroys the spirit not only of the victim but debases
the victor. It would be just such a crime as the
Germans themselves hoped to perpetrate upon their
victims--it would be a crime against civilization it-
self.
 
 
 This country since its very beginning has
maintained the fundamental belief that all men, in the
long run, have the right to be free human beings and
to live in the pursuit of happiness. Under the Atlantic
Charter victors and vanquished alike are entitled to
freedom from economic want. But the proposed treatment
of Germany would, if successful, deliberately deprive