The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-27

ments. So, putting
 away your mourn
 EdsOEl full oboe and un- sheathing the piping piccolo, here are random notes about the way the readjustments for peace are begin ming to be worried about in Wash ington.
 One of the commonest plaints these days is that while these times are tough and while the depression was disastrous, the post-peace treaty panic is going to be worse than both put together-worse than any post war slump has ever been. Almost any barber shop economist or bridge table seer will tell you SO. BAD MEDICINE
 LAST
 The most optimistic of these pre- dictions Is that for a couple years after the armistice, God speed it, business may be pretty good, for in- dustry will have to do a lot of catch ing Up producing the automobiles, refrigerators, radios, washing mach ines and such stuff the country will not be producing in this era of de- fense production. But after those few years, look out for the deluge. War debts will be terrific, employ ment will stuff off, all these new de- fense factories will have to shut down, Europe will be starving and 1t will be up to the western hemisphere to feed the world and rebuild bomb- ed cities and never mind about the bill. So runs this forecast of doom.
 The common assumption is that the only insurance against this doomsday now being considered by the government is the building up of a shelf of public works projects, a backlog of WPA and PWA blue- prints which can be pulled out on demand, and all the people now em- .ployed on defense work can be given boondoggling jobs till the clouds roll by. That's dismal outlook at best, and such prospect always brings you face to face with the reality that If the country is going to be broke by defense costs anyway, how can 1t possibly pay for mulu-billion dollar public works programs
 An extremist solution to this prob- l lem is that the country should be permitted to go through period of uncontrolled imitation which would in effect permit the payment of the defense bills with cheap currency, wiping all states clean and letting everything start all over again on Q new basis. That is of course jungle law thinking, for any such program would wipe out all savings and elim- mate the so-called middle class at the same time.
 Tn the face of all such crack pot thinking, there is in Washington a growing opinion that the world in general and the United States in particular must not feel that 1t is licked after the war. One of the problems is to convince enough peo- pie that there is this hope, and then build up confidence that the worlds ills can be cured by something other than resort to wolf tactic-the sur- vival of the strong and sacrifice of the weak.
 ATLANTIC MEETING
 AGAIN
 Any such change in the approach to the postwar problems naturally cannot be effective If 1t takes the form of ivory tower p:anning from the top down. It's easy, of course, to wish for world stability and say that 1t would be nice thing. Doing any, thing constructive to achieve that end is something else.
 Perhaps the most concrete express sion of the theory is found in point " of the Atlantic charter drawn up by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. You will prob- ably be hearing more and more about this point which provides for the enjoyment" of the trade and raw materials of the world by all states, great or small, victor and vanquished."
 Previous to the Atlantic meeting, special division of the State De- partment under Leo Pasvolsky had been studying post-war problems and solutions. This research has all been under cover. Not much more open has been the work of the special research department of the Economic Defense Board under Dr. Winfield W. Riefler of Prince ton.
 Both these staffs have merely scratched the surface. They have nothing definite to report and 1t is safe bet they will come up with no single panacea to make every body rich or even happy. But in approaching the problem from the angles of making an economic rath- CT than a purely political peace there is significance and whatever satisfaction you can get out of 1t that something was learned from the last war.