“While building our trade with other wealthy nations, we must also find new approaches to our relations with less developed countries. There are in reality two worlds today: One—rich, industrial, urban, literate, and consumption-oriented. The other—poor, agrarian, rural, malnourished, largely illiterate, and survival-oriented. The gap between these two worlds should be closing; unfortunately, it is increasing.”
Our Quote of the Week centers on trade as a way to build relationships with other countries and points out the wealth gap that must be addressed between nations.
Running as the vice presidential candidate on the George McGovern ticket in 1972, Sargent Shriver gave a powerful speech, The Quest for World Prosperity, towards the end of the campaign. In the speech, he focuses on the imbalances in domestic and foreign policies that were robbing Americans of a prosperous society. He pledges that a McGovern/Shriver administration would tackle trade imbalances caused by US protectionism and isolationism, and growing hostilities between the US and other countries that were being exacerbated by an out-of-control war in Vietnam, among other issues. It is notable that Shriver focuses on the issue of trade, pointing out that expanding trade and reducing tariffs would improve foreign relations and increase economic prosperity:
“We will work for expanded trade with the markets of the world. The Kennedy Round, negotiated during the 1960s, provided important reductions in tariffs on manufactured goods. We must now seek similar progress in removing non-tariff barriers, in reducing restrictions on trade in agricultural products and in removing barriers to our agricultural exports.”
In the speech, Sargent Shriver links three crucial concepts: prosperity, justice, and peace. With his words, he reminds us that achieving a peaceful, prosperous society requires daily efforts in multiple areas. Those efforts will have great payoffs: “Prosperity, like justice,” he said, “liberates creativity. It gives hope and incentive ... Prosperity with justice creates harmony between nations and removes the causes of war.”
He also reminds the audience:
“For peace is not just the absence of fighting; a phoenix does not rise out of the ashes of bomb craters or out of the wastelands of want. Peace—if it is to be lasting—must be based on economic prosperity coupled with justice.”
What does Shriver’ s economic vision look like?
“We must lose no time in developing a comprehensive economic policy—a policy which must include:
- The expansion of our trade;
- Realistic new economic alliances with the European Common Market, Japan and other industrialized countries;
- Vigorous efforts to narrow the income gap between rich and poor nations;
- Cooperation in building a strong yet flexible world monetary policy;
- Most importantly, a full employment domestically, coupled with help to workers and businesses displaced by imports or conversion.”
And he once again asserts that economic prosperity is essential for peace:
“The job that needs to be done is to win the peace. The economic plans I have talked about today are plans to win the peace—plans to advance world prosperity.”
“I believe we still have the opportunity to create a world in which trade moves more freely, a world in which barriers against both people and goods are struck down -- a world of interchange and movement, a world of harmony and enterprise and of the satisfaction of men’s needs.”
Shriver’s linking of economic prosperity and peace was not new; indeed, he made this link in the 1960s when he led the Office of Economic Opportunity during the War on Poverty. It is striking to see him make the connection here, though, as he outlines his approach to foreign policy. It suggests a vision of the world as one, broad community that can only achieve stability and peace if economic inequalities are eliminated, and if nations can deal with each other as partners and friends.
Like this quote? Read the speech and subscribe to receive our Quote of the Week by email.
