Evening star., 1942-10-25
Pollyanna Attitude Regarded
AS 1mperiling U.S.. War Effort
Production Treated as Salesmans Proposition
Rather Than Mobilization for All.Out
Struggle, Tolan Committee Indicates
By Felix Morley.

In the current report of the Tolan
Committee, which may well come to
stand out in retrospect as document of
historical Importance, appears the fol-
lowing tart phrase:
WAR production is treated as a sales
mans proposition rather than as mo-
bilization of our entire national plant
for total war"
Many Americans for months have been
uneasily aware of the cogency of this
criticism. 1t is brought home by radio
broadcasts in which war news is made
a setting for dulcet elaboration on the
virtues of rival brands of cigars, ice
cream and chewing gum. 1t is empha-
sized by newspapers in which advertise
ments for liquor, furs and cosmetics sar-
donically compete with editorials urging
Pentecostal sacrifice. The procedures of
craftsmanship are tacitly indorsed by the
armed services in recruiting drives which
compete for dWindling manpower much
as the popular brands of cigarettes vie
Tor the consumers dollar.
Result: Pollyanna Attitude.
Coupled with the confusion and vast
age caused by these competitive pro-
cedures is a consistent minimization of
the strength OF our enemies which could
scarcely be more helpful to them if it had
been planned by DR.. Goebbels himself.
The belief seems to be that exaggeration
will somehow increase the difficulties of
the Axis while understatement will
simultaneously solve those of the United
Nations. The net result is a general
Polyyanna attitude which contributes in
no small degree to the as yet indecisive
character of the American war effort.
Through this dangerous optimism the
report of the Tolan Committee cuts with
the cold precision of a surgeons knife.
1t is not the first time that this able
group Of Congressman, first organized to
investigate national defense migration,
has produced a thoroughly dispassionate
and therefore constructive piece of criti-
cism. And the present incisive COM
ments give further illustration of the
great value of congressional committees
as independent governmental agencies,
competent to fulfill the vital function
of strictly factual analysis.
The report of the Tolan Committee
assails "the absence of program of
production and an organiza ton to CO.
ordinate it." 1t asserts that the war
effort in its present form is only "a
series of individual competing produc
ton projects" Unfortunately, the Off
cial statistics of national production
serve to add substance and meaning to
these charges.
Production Index Rises.
The Federal Reserve index Of indus
trial production has risen steadily from
161 in September, 1941, to an estimated
1875 last month, on a scale where the
average physical volume of output from
1885 to 1889 inclusive is called 100. A
sharper increase than this could scarcely
be expected, though it should be noted
that the rate of gain during the past
IL months is only about two-thirds that
of the pre-war year preceding.
This climb in industrial production,
however, must be balanced against the
sharp declines in other fields, such as
residential building, which emphasize
statistically the grim fact that war pro-
duction can only continue to expand as
normal operations are curtailed.
That guns or butter is now the
inescapable choice for us, as we'll as for
the Axis, is clearly revealed by composite
business indices, which show business
activity as a whole somewhat lower at
the beginning of this month than was
the case just before Pearl Harbor. 1t
shows, further, virtually stationary
level for the past six months.
Output at Peak.
The indication is that the United
States, as the first year of war draws
on to its close, is already at or near its
maximum total productive effort. In
crease Of war production can henceforth
be made certain only by parallel curtail-
ment in other lines. Or, as the current
issue Of the Federal Reserve Bulletin
puts it:
with a large and increasing proper
ton of economic activity being devoted
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