Evening star., 1942-02-22
BY IVES GALLAGHER,
Wide World News.

NEW YORK, Feb. 21-An Ameri-
can returning from war-worn Eu-
rope feels like he is in wonderland.
No haunting. hungry, war-weary
faces. No long lines in front of
empty cigarette stalls or butcher
shops. No half-heated or unheated
rooms. No muttering rag-clad men
and women with bomb shattered or
horror etched minds.
But pretty girls in fur coats and
silk stockings. With lipstick, rouge
and powder. Tables laden with good
food. Full store windows with piles
of beef, fruit, bacon, eggs and or
anges-now worth a mans soul in
stricken Greece. belt tightened Ger
many or harassed Norway.
No fear-only confidence.
No heel-clicking arrogance nor
conqueror's crushing the self respect
conqueror's tread crushing the self
respect of the little people. No sly
whispers in darkened corners with
midnight arrests and dawn firing
squads.
But free people looking the corner
policemen in the eye. Newspapers,
radio and soap box orators demand
ing, criticizing and praising.
A wonderland of lights, music and
well-dressed people contrasting saw
agely with that land Of darkened.
shabby cities-seething with hates
which tester in crowded tenements
-ersatz clothes. e1satz soap, ersatz
shoes or no shoes at all.
No frantic rush to AFRAID shell
ters for sleepless rights when planes
roar overhead.
No crowds waiting by the hour to
find standing room on an over
loaded bus after IA hours in a mu-
milton factory.
Thousands of automobiles and
taxis-signs of Americas production
genius-compared with the 30 po-
lice controlled cabs allowed Berlin's
100000 each night.
Stores stuffed with clothes from
show window to garrett-clothes OF
wool and silk. And all for sale.
Not the stores of Berlin's Unter den
Linden which display glittering win
dows backed by empty shelves.
So much for Nazi-controlled
Europe.
Then there is. London-giant
British cousin of New York.
First thought that strikes trav-
eler fresh from Britain is
Can this country be at war?"
Living on Reserve Fat"
At first sight America appears to
be taking the war lightly.
The New York of February, 1912,
Is the London of November. 1899.
A city living on its reserve fat.
A sign of power yet untapped-not
because of lack of purpose, but
because it isn't in full swing.
London in two terrific years has
been stripped of her fat, layer by
layer. until she stands today lean,
stringy and tough.
Glass by class, the manpower has
been drawn off until it is city of
men in uniform, women streetcar
conductors and grey-haired taxi
drivers.
Month by month, luxury goods.
cosmetics, hair tonics. fur coats and
candy have been drained from re-
serves.
Food rations have been slasfed
and adjusted until Londoners get by
comfortably, but that is all.
Night clubs glitter behind blacked-
out windows. movies do a landslide
business and a half dozen musical
comedies play to standing room only
London lives, works and plays
hard.
New York, too. may undergo this
stripping of the layers of fat.
Luxuries Will Disappear.
AS tires and gasoline become
scarce, automobiles and taxis will
melt into garages. Girls will paint
their legs instead of enclosing them
In silk stockings.
Perfume will dwindle from an
American necessity into luxury.
Fifth Avenue Beau Brummels will
make last years overcoat do an
other year, or exchange it for a
non-stylish Army coat.
Perhaps, a few high-fying specks
In the sky will turn Broadway into
q twisted bloody mass of agony.
Then overnight New York will dig
In and take on the war cloak of
London with sidewalk shelters and
sandbagged doors and windows.
1t was London's tapping of her
reserves of fat which enabled her