opinion of the United States endanger international peace and security.” US. policy has been to maintain “a lasting political partnership” with Micronesia, especially now that the Unued States not only proposes to retain many of its taciities in the Marshalls but also has plans to construct new military bases in the Marianas and Carolines, made necessary by the reversion of Okinawa to Japan and pohtical instability in the Philippines. This month, a four-man mission of the U.N, ‘Trusteeship Council will be in Micronesia, to study hawwell the United States has guarded the interests of its wards. Such missions have visited Micronesia every three years, but now for the first time a Russian will be a member of the group, and the highest ranking Chinese at the U.N.—~ Tang Ming-chao, under-secretary general for trusteeships and decolonization affairs—may go along on Ins own, Nuclear war has already begun for the Marshallese, and nothing can end the suffering of the people of Roneelap and Uurik, or bring back twenty-five years of exile to the people of Kwajalein, Bikini and Eniwetok. Independence will not overcome past suffering but it may prevent new victuns. The Micronesians are finally demanding better treatment and feel strong enough to have now decided to negotiate for independence, but they have received Hitt help from Americans who for the most part ate unwilling to puncture the romantic bubble that makes them think of the islands as paradises where conflict and suffering are unknown, L] CORPORATE SOVERBIGNTY AND NATIONAL WELFARE The bustness corporation is, of course, this country’s mast potent tiyiiteton, From early modest beginnings, corporahons have flourished, multiplied, spread across the land and overseas and become steadily mivre impressive an terms of accumulated holdings, production, sales and profits Yet, as a soctal institution, the corporation has recetved nothing tke the critical scrutiny wodeserves. Now the “problem has taken on new dunensions with the rise of multinational, transnatronal corpurdtions and conglomerates, Without restraints and social controls, corporations are programmed, like a fhant computer, (o produce, acciunulate and expand watficnel tant A subcommittee chaired by Sen. Frank Chtich és undertaking a study of the multinational corPorauon, i promuses te be one of the most unpertarit inquities of the new Congress Ina recent speech in Chicago, Senator Church pointed eut that foreign investments by American-owned corpora gons have outstripped the growth rate of international fade and overall world output By the close of 1972, such corporations ended up wuh nearly S107 billion worth of direct forelgen investment on their bovks and probably double that amount in world sales. The over- seas production of these firms ranks in total magnitude nert to the pross national product of the United States anid the Soviet Union. “What, then,” Senator Church asks, ‘is the role of te states, of traditional political authority, faced with an economic force which refuses to recognize constraints and frontters?” It is not merely that these corporations exert a powerful influence on the world’s economy and present special problems to the host countries in avhich they operate and to the developing nations; they also present a basic problem for domestic economic policy. International polincal controls will come only slowly; in the meantune urgent issues need to be faced. For example, labor is nativally concerned about loss of jobs when for the period from 1959 through 1970, our unemployment rate averaged 2-f mes as hiph as the weighted average rate of six of our major trading partners. Japan, Britain, france, Sweden, West Germany and Taly. Brevteally an integrated iifernational business system will no doubt emerge, meanwhile “the pglobal carporation” demands close scrutiny, The svo articles that follow deal with closely related aspects of the problem which Senator Churcti's subcantnittee will explore. i. Tine Riwlitimational Computer V. LEWIS BASSIE Mfr. Basste is director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The world’s political leaders face increasingly difficult problems of economic stabilization and control, There are all the usual difficulies associated with growth and cycles inflanon, unemployment, and adverse balances of trade Or payments=--but, in addiuon, a corporate structure that has emerped in the Jast few ycurs transcends national boundanes and commands enough economic power to Tt NATION/ February 5, 1973 5913235 a put it largely beyond national control. Pofftical instituuons have made only partial adjustments te the new situation, so national leaders resort to stratagems that divide rather than unify the nations, The result is that they and the public needs they serve are ever more subo:dinated to the impersonal rule of the international business systen, ‘ Strong tides of cconomic nationalism and protectionism are mantfestin all parts of the world. In the United States, the New Heonomic Policy, devaluation, and the insistence on port quotis in key industries are paris of the picture. 169