The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1943-12-04
Washington Column
BY PETER EDISON

The recent furry of peace rumors, even
though entirely unfounded, emphasize the need
for speed in the formulation of definite gov
ernmental planning. The parallel for that is
from the last war, when the 1918 armistice
coming months before ii was expected, caught
the President, the Congress and all the war
agencies entirely unprepared tc deal with the
situation.
Contemporary accounts of tbs confusion in
Washington after the 1913 arnistice are highly
amusing, though terribly scandaous. One OBJ
server had it that of the 23I dollar-a-year men
then in Washington go wanted to go home
at the earliest possible minute. Some of them
apparently did, leaving on their desks un-
signed letters. The catch phrase of the day
was that, the night of Nov H. the War In
dustries Board caught the midnight tr n
home"
The War Industries Board itself, which I'M
der the craftsmanship of Bernard NJ Baruch
was the War Production Board of it's day.
really faded from the picture i'll three weeks
While it had ample powers for wartime it
lacked authority for postwar operations Be-
lated proposals to give the Board this post
armistice authority met with no support what
ever from Congress. The new Congress elected
IN the November 1918 election was Republican
and the lame-duck Congress remaining in Of
flee would have no part of any proposal that
came from the Wilson administration. A day
after the armiStice, Congress had before it
proposals to cut back all expenditures.
Such was the psychology OF the times for
the immediate return to normally.
Today all this reads like handwriting on
the wall The same forces that shaped the
course of events in 1913 are shaping up now
II there is any moral in this potential repe-
tltlon OF history, it should be found in the
record of what happened after the 1918 armi-
nf oir{xy li,1ct, ,o,,+
shifting gradually INTO d year of initiation and
then the costly deflatiop of the early 1920s.
fortunately, something does seem to have
Deen learned from this sd experience. Where
as, In September and October Of 1915 Presi-
cent Wilson was counseling against an too
oe1lnlte postwar planning anc MIR. Baruch
hlmsef was too busy running the war produc-
uon effort to give time to POSITIVE planning,
today the President and Congress and the
war agencies have all made start towards
postwar planning
And Mr.. Baruch, as head of new unit in
the Office of War Mobilization under Justice
James F. Byrnes, is IN this war concentrating
all his attention on these readjustment prob
lens he did not have time for in the last war,
tackllng them one at tin?e in the order of
their importance, beginning with termination
of contracts, then the disposal Of inventories
of surplus materials, disposal of government
owned war plants and machinery, and so on
right down the line.
Private industry itself S more alert to the
requirements of postwar planning and the
need for orderly rehabilitation than it was
in 1918. That is perhaps the most encouraging
aspect of all.
The dangers of postwar initiation are per-
haps greater than the dangers of wartime
initiation. Release of wartime savings in a
national spending spree could easily result in
great price rises. Rationlng OF prod,1c+io
might be necessary to avoid running up prices
Seemingly minor problems like these car,,o
to emphasize that postwar readiustmen+ VIZ
be one OF the most difficult periods the United
The idea that no one shoulc waste time
now, planning for the future, is thus fa1,a
-V- iiocy.
have the feeling voice the sentiments
of the average American In STATING 49,
can be good neighbors witaou; raa,,; .lia' we
our neighbor's house.-Eric A Johnston ng nr INTO