ms to be having a tendency in the
opposite direction--to be closing the doors of equal opportunity and
preventing the natural world use of the world's resources.

These new conditions, together with others outlined in the preceding
section, have made it necessary to pay more attention to the
possibilities of international cooperation than ever before,--not as a
restrictive measure, except temporarily in regard to the Central
European powers,--but as a means of insuring open channels of movement
for raw materials, and of insuring equal economic opportunities to all.
Many of our mineral industries have already appealed to our government
for cooperation and aid in their international dealings. Further,
mineral industries in private hands in the various Allied countries have
attempted to get together to arrange for private cooperation, and
appealed to the Peace Conference for authority to do so. In certain
cases the necessity for cooperative action became so apparent that
pressure was brought to bear on the Peace Conference for the forming of
some sort of international economic body which would make possible some
of these steps. These movements were all dictated by considerations of
self-interest, but self-interest broadened and educated by a knowledge
of the world's situation.

Just as the increasing size of the units engaged in the mineral trade
within national boundaries has led to discussion of the possibilities of
government control in the interest of the public, so the increasing size
of the units in the international mineral trade, the units in many cases
being governments, is leading to discussion of the possibility of some
international or supernational control in the interest of the world
good. Just as national interest is the lengthened shadow of individual
interest, so international interest may be regarded in some aspects as
the lengthened shadow of national interest.

The general purpose of the suggested control is to minimize
international friction; but more specifically it has been suggested that
some sort of international cooperation is necessary in order to insure
equality of opportunity among nations, both in supplies and in markets,
and thereby to prevent the crowding of the weaker by the stronger
nations. This is the gist of one of the famous fourteen points. The
purpose might be accomplished by direct allocation of supplies or by
control of tariffs and exchange.

One of the conditions which seems t