Gas on the Stomach

The world, trying in various ways and with varying degrees of sympathy to understand the U.S., noted one general fact: no other nation had recovered so successfully from the war or had so much material reason for hope in the future.

Last week the Committee for Economic Development proudly estimated that 52,000,000 Americans are already back at civilian jobs; that only 2,000,000 are unemployed; that reconversion is 90% complete in many parts of the country; that payrolls and individual earnings are only slightly below the wartime peak (see BUSINESS). The nation was stuffed with yeasty potential. Vogue welcomed nylons back as "a symbol [of] the pleasures of peace, distilled into one wishful word."

The U.S. had a tremendous appetite for the feast of peace it saw ahead--but it suffered from gas on the stomach. The belly-rumblings last week were audible. Labor yelled: "Fascism!" Management yelled: "Socialism!" Homesick G.I.s made unsoldierly uproar around the world (see ARMY & NAVY), and the prestige of the U.S. Army went down like a falling star, carrying the nation's prestige with it.

Everybody wrangled; few cared if the neighbors overheard. Even as the United Nations General Assembly gathered in London, the U.S. delegation reached unanimity only after a noisy row.

Was this the country which was going to lead the world?

In a London hotel room Eleanor Roosevelt sat and mused: "Though Americans understand these strange things we do, other nations do not understand."

In the cold morning of their postwar poverty, other nations understood themselves better. In Washington another traveler mused. Energetic, one-eyed Herbert Morrison, leader of the House of Commons, declared: "We [Britons] haven't properly got used to [peace] and often have to think twice when an automobile in low gear makes a noise like a siren. . . . We still can't afford to light shop windows at night or allow electricity to be used for advertising signs.

"[Yet] the spirit and strength of the British people will speed their recovery. . . . We have come out of the war confident in our own power."

The U.S. had power, too--much more power, power to burn. Last week's excesses, whether they were burps or backfires, were a sign of it.

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