Excerpt: In carrying out these trade agreements, we face two alternatives—to play the international trade game the way the other countries are playing it, or to try to change the whole international attitude toward world trade. What the other countries have been doing is to put on additional restrictions, with slight concessions aimed at benefiting individual countries. If we play the game the same way, while we might get worth-while individual concessions at particular points, by and large the new restrictions would tend to hinder world recovery rather than help it, and we would be sure to lose in the process. What we are trying to do is not to play the game the way the others have been playing it, but to change the rules of the game so that instead of holding down trade, we will stimulate trade; instead of piling up more restrictions, we will leave fewer restrictions to be faced. There is only a chance we will win, for the whole world is still extremely nationalistically minded, and it remains to be seen whether our effort can change the whole tenor of world development. But the advantages to us and the rest of the world in restoring international cooperation are highly important, and we must follow through to see if we cannot win through to success.
