Cut Off in Vacation Retreat, Mason Hears Late Word on Truman Committee Position

Word of his appointment to a 19-man bi-partisan citizen's committee, one of three groups named by President Truman over the weekend to study America's ability to assist European recovery, finally caught up with Edward S. Mason, professor of Economics, late yesterday.

"The most important problem the committee will have to solve," Professor Mason told the CRIMSON from his summer cottage in Danville, Vt., last night, "is what kind of inflationary effect any implementation of the Marshall Doctrine will have on the domestic picture."

Reached by telephone at his Danville vacation retreat yesterday afternoon, Professor Mason was at first completely unaware that he had been chosen to prepare a report with 18 other educational business, and industrial leaders under the chairmanship of W. Averell Harriman, Secretary of Commerce.

Newspapers Delayed

Only after the morning papers reached Danville at 6 o'clock last night could Professor Mason get a full picture of his new responsibility. A Sunday telegram from President Truman had been dispatched to his Littauer Office, but his secretary could not get the news to him throughout yesterday.

By last night, however, Professor Mason was able to formulate the probable areas where his committee would concentrate their investigation. Broadly, said Mason, it would have to examine the consequences of American aid to Europe on our own as well as on Continental production.

Meeting Europe's coal shortage Professor Mason termed the most pressing difficulty. "England is now out of the coal export market," he explained, and the Ruhr Valley is operating at half the pre-war level. Poland, the third great source of Europe's solid fuel, is now shipping the greater part of its output East.

"But the United States," he continued, "is already shipping 25 million tons per year." Professor Mason wondered whether American industrial needs might prohibit any further additions to this figure.

Careful Distribution

"In general our resources are dwindling," Professor Mason declared, indicating that the American handout will have to be husbanded very carefully.

Dollars will have to be applied at strategic points overseas, he went on, noting that credit should not be extended to countries which discriminate against American political and economic interests such as Hungary.