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Statement by the President on Receiving Secretary Krug's Report "National Resources and Foreign Aid."

October 18, 1947

I HAVE received a report from the Secretary of the Interior on national resources and foreign aid.

This report is the first in a series of three reports being prepared by special committees which I appointed in June to study the relationship between the interests of our domestic economy and the extent to which the United States can aid friendly foreign countries in programs of self-rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The task assigned Secretary Krug's committee was to explore the state of our resources and report upon their adequacy to contribute to foreign reconstruction. This report covers the physical aspects of the subject, with only such reference to economic and fiscal aspects as is necessary to define the problem of resource use.

Secretary Krug reports that on the whole our national resources are physically sufficient to preserve the national security and the American standard of living, and at the same time to support a considerable foreign aid program. The report emphasizes that intelligent utilization of our natural resources calls for an expanded program to conserve them from waste, and more intensive efforts to discover and develop new sources of supply for many of our basic raw materials.

The fact that our natural resources are adequate to permit sharing is heartening. But other vitally important factors must be weighed before we can determine the extent to which these resources can be shared.

The Council of Economic Advisers will shortly report on a related aspect of the problem. The task assigned the Council is to appraise the economic impact on the United States of aid to other countries. The basic data and analyses have been made available to the nonpartisan committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary of Commerce. Secretary Harriman's committee will report on the character and quantities of our resources which may be safely and wisely utilized in a program of foreign assistance.

The studies by the three groups are interrelated. The facts and conclusions of Secretary Krug's report are already being used by the other two communities. Aided by these three studies, and by information assembled by the State Department concerning the needs of other countries and the measures of self-help and mutual help being taken by these countries, I shall prepare recommendations to the Congress on the nature and extent of a balanced foreign aid program.

The remaining two reports will also be made public as soon as they are completed. I hope they will receive full discussion by Members of the Congress and by business, labor, agriculture, and the general public.

Note: The report is dated October 9, 1947 (Government Printing Office, 97 pp.).

For the President's statements upon making public the reports of the Council of Economic Advisers and of Secretary Harriman's committee, see Items 217 and 219.

Harry S Truman, Statement by the President on Receiving Secretary Krug's Report "National Resources and Foreign Aid." Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232466

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