The potential of Inter-American economics

THIS SUBJECT might be developed as an implication of the “good neighbor” or hemisphere-defense program, which would give it a certain takeoff, since everyone knows about the good-neighbor program. This is not merely a political or diplomatic catchword but has roots in the minds of the people of the United States and expresses their genuine interest in and sympathy for the people of the other Americas. Reciprocally, it appears to me that other American peoples have a fellow feeling for us, and that their heritage from the culture of the old regime in Europe is such as to prompt them to join in a demonstration of international policies contrasting with those enmities and aggressions which have brought misery to other parts of the world. We all know that the inter-American spirit has brought tangible results in the form of trade agreements to facilitate the interchange of products for mutual benefit and that the United States have had splendid co-operation from the other American countries in the increased supply of strategic materials employed by our industries in the effort to arrest the present attempts to deprive human beings of the various kinds of personal liberty which civilization has painfully acquired in recent centuries.