“What I Would Do With the World I”

1931 Salter, Sir Arthur (1881-1975). “What I Would Do With the World I.” The Listener 6.143 (October 7, 1931): 6.143 . LLL, NLS

The first in a series responding to H. G. Wells’s question: What would he do if he was Dictator of the world for the next twenty years and had the power to bring about change? He first says that it is important that policy be based on the consent of the governed. In those circumstances, he would establish a system devoted to developing all individuals equally, the elimination of war by strengthening international cooperation and a ten point program to bring about an interconnected worldwide free market, which he characterizes as “a world economic system functioning freely and independently of national frontiers, giving to industry a free world market and to the consumer access to all the world’s riches” (599). He would also expend the BBC’s range of controversial programing. Governments would decentralize and turn over many functions to specialized agencies. The author had been the Director of the Economic and Finance Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations.