Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1943-04-01
Planning For Peace

The following summary re-
garding the main schools of
thought on postwar planning in
the domestic economic field and
in the international economic and
political field has been prepared
by George B. Galloway, member
of the faculty of the American
University, Washington, D. c.,
whose latest survey of one hun
dred and fifty organizations deal
ing with postwar planning in
the United States, is being pub
lished by the Twentieth Century
Fund, $50 West And Street, New
York City.
This is being distributed under
date of March, 1943, by the Peace
Section of the American Friends
Service committee as a useful
summary of this extremely COM
picated field.
The Second World war had barely
begun before individuals and groups
in many countries started to specu-
late about the shape of things to
come and lay plans for brave new
world after the war. Postwar in
terest and activity have grown apace
in the intervening months and years
until today it seems as if postwar
planning has become the ruling in
tellectual passion of the times
The aims that underlie all this &C
tivity are clear enough. People want
to learn the lessons of last time, to
avoid repeating the mistakes of the
post-l9l8 period to prepare their
minds for the new responsibilities
of the United States in the postwar
world. They want this time to win
the peace they lost last time. They
also wish to prevent or at least miti-
gate postwar depression such as
has followed, sooner or later, after
every great war in our history
There are many who also desire to
preserve the private enterprise sys-
tenn in the American postwar econ
omy. Perhaps there are also some
who seek in specializing about the
of the tragic present.
Planning for peace is also char
acterized by some more or less COM
mon assumptions. A United Nations
victory is generally and confidently
anticipated among the democracies.
The possibility of an Axis victory
enters hardly at all into the calcu-
lations of American postwar re-
search, although it would render all
our planning abortive. The desira-
bility of preserving the private enter
prise system after the war is taken
for granted by many private and
public agencies, coupled usually with
the admission that private enter
prise, alone and unaided, cannot pro-
vide full employment or guarantee
security and abundance for the
masses. 1t is assumed that the war
program will effect full employment
of our manpower and resources which
it will be possible to maintain after
the war. 1t is also assumed that full
employment will yield national in
come of upwards of S110 billions
during the war and that it will be
possible to maintain this level after
the war by the proper combination
of policies. 1t is assumed that war
time unity (such as it iS) will carry
over into the postwar period and that
all the rival sectional interests of
American life will collaborate fully
in the execution of postwar plans,
an expectation belied by prewar ex-
perience. 1t is also recognized that
the problems of war and peace are
inseparable and that war and post
war planning is continuous and
indivisible process.
Operating under the influence of
these aims and assumptions are
scores of public and private agencies
in the United States. They are car
rying on research, educational and
action promoting programs at all the
levels of government, economy and
society. The problems with which
they are wrestling are national and
international in scope and economic,
Social, pOlltlCdl, duIllIllStIdtlVe, legal,
military and psychological in char
acter.
Since June, 1941, have been max
ing a series of intermittent surveys
for the Twentieth Century Fund OF
the postwar activities of these agen-
cies. Their number has increased
from Is in June, 1941, to 100 in De-
cember, 1941, to about $50 in Decem-
Der, 1912 Of this total, 80 are gov
ernmental agencies and 100 are pri-
vate organizations. About one-halt
of the latter are doing research and
educational work on postwar prob
lens, 81 are commercial and indus