Expert Calls On U.S. to Meet New Soviet Economic Aid Drive

The United States should meet the recent Russian campaign to aid underdeveloped countries with a "bolder and more vigorous foreign economic program," Abram Bergson, professor of Economics, said last night. Bergson spoke in a lecture at the Geographical Institute on "The Rise of Economic Competition in the Cold War."

Bergson felt that the Russians are utilizing their foreign expenditures much more wisely than the United States. For example, he said both countries have given aid to India, but the Russians have achieved the most lasting results.

The Soviet nation has been waging its campaign, Bergson said, while still maintaining the large degree of the economic independence nurtured by Stalin. The entire Soviet bloc, including Communist China, carries on only three percent of the world's trade outside the Soviet orbit.

Bergson said that the Russians had increased their trade recently, but were hindered by internal economic problems.

The talk was sponsored by the International Development Society.