306 J.-A. PEMBERTON
direction of economic improvement in recent years had been fully sup-
ported by President Roosevelt and his secretary of state, Cordell Hull.^230
The LON had been further encouraged in its pursuit international eco-
nomic cooperation, Bruce noted, by the recent agreement among France,
Great Britain and the United States which was the Tripartite Monetary
Agreement and, according to Bruce, it looked forward with great interest
to the report of Van Zeeland on ‘the important mission’ which he had
undertaken at the request of France and Great Britain.^231
Noting the ‘almost unlimited power of increased production’ that
science now placed at the world’s disposal and suggesting that the suc-
cess of LON ’s work in the economic field thus far would soon be over-
shadowed by the ‘immeasurably greater things’ it would achieve in that
field in the future, Bruce declared that it was important to keep in mind
‘the fundamental human issues’ with which the LON’s economic work,
in the final analysis, was concerned: the ‘raison d’être’ of international
economic cooperation concerned the fact that such cooperation was
required if the livelihoods of ‘the general mass of....ordinary men and
women’ were to be bettered.^232 Having observed that the report of the
Mixed Committee on Nutrition was only a preliminary step in this direc-
tion, Bruce proposed that the assembly request the council ‘to organise
another ad hoc enquiry to consider methods, both national and interna-
tional, for bringing about a progressive improvement in standards of liv-
ing.’^233 By means of showing leadership in regard to social and economic
questions, Bruce declared in concluding his speech, ‘we shall best restore
the prestige of the League in the eyes of the world and carry out the great
responsibilities that rest upon us.’^234 An immediate upshot of Bruce’s
proposal concerning an inquiry into the standard of living, was the pro-
duction of a memorandum entitled ‘National and International Measures
to be employed for raising the Standard of Living’ for the benefit of the
Economic Committee’s discussion of Bruce’s proposal which was sched-
uled to take place in December 1937.^235
(^230) Ibid., 76–7.
(^231) Ibid., 77.
(^232) Ibid., 77.
(^233) Ibid., 78.
(^234) Ibid., 79.
(^235) Way, A New Idea Each Day, 202. Way notes that on the recommendation of
McDougall, the memorandum was prepared by Professor Noel Hall and, according to Way,
it reflected in many instances the thinking of the former on the subject.