The Wilmington morning star., 1945-11-10
Country Uncertain
BY ERWIN ID. CANAAN

In four days, rldlng on the train between
BOSTON and Iowa and talking with people en-
route, you can only gain cursory impressions
of affairs and opinions in the great midland
territory But the impressions are vivid. The
United States is uneasy. It is uncertain, It is
drifting (the word is too mild unwillingly
and bitterly into labor strife. 1t is starving
for real leadership.
People are finding, believe, that an elo-
ouent and clear voice is needed That there
must be some center of gravity. some focus
of leadership That to drift, in days like these,
is to disintegrate.
This is not to say that if Mr.. Roosevelt
were still President things would have been
any better. In all probability, the postwar
reaction and letdown, plus friction between
the Executive and the conservative majority
in Congress, would have produced a deadlock
far more dangerous thar the present drift
What is needed is leadership in the Ameri-
can tradition, leadership attuned to the needs
of the hour leadership which will be based
on the aroused support of Congress, but lead
ership which will spring straight from the
people.
There are great many things the Amer-
can people want said 4oday, and they are
not being said. They want the selfishness of
labor strife condemned and outlawed. They
want chance to get ahead with major re-
conversion. They want clear statement of
the implications of the atom bomb, and action
upon these implications. They want leadership
to rise above factions, and to call them to
arms as effectively as they were called after
Pearl Harbor. For they have gnawing fear
that we stand at another Pearl Harbor Of
peace, without the warnings.
Nobody said all these things explicitly. on
trains and in business and editorial offices,
flected them. els Truman slipping?" they
asked. And 'How can we reach fair labor
settlement?" And "Aren't the physicists right
about the atom bomb? What can we do about
it?''
In the labor situation, both sides are on the
strategic offensive but on the defensive against
public opinion. Union leaders know they are
already unpopular. and run the risk of should
ering the major blame for a great economic
breakdown. Employers know they could pay
somewhat higher wages - probably consider
ably higher-but they don't know how long
they could continue doing So
One big chain retailer told me that his
suppliers were already dating all his bills
JAN 2, 1946 They have already got enough
profits and enough business for 1945 Besides.
they expect the excess-profits tax to be off
in 1916. Equally shady practices could be list
But that clear voice must speak something
ed on the labor side.
Both sides would respond to a clear voice
besides generalities. 1t must have conviction
policy, and principle. These qualities are not
extemporized They are not derived from
second-rate minds, nor good-fellowship. They
come, so to speak, by prayer and fasting
They come out of the depths.
The need is here. In the days after the
passing of President Roosevelt when the coun-
try was not sure of the character and capacity
Of President Truman, vast surge OF national
support went out to the White House. AS it
has ever done 1t uplifted its occupant to
worthiness of the hour. For it manifested the
basis in spiritual law and government which
the institution Of democracy and its leadership
have right to demonstrate.
Now the time has come for another national
demand and national wave of support. The
need is even greater than it was last April.
We seem in some ways to be very near Dun
kirk.
Can we not too, make this "our finest
hour? Can we not show what we demand
and expect in leadership? Can we not say:
"Away with drift! Away with mere compro-
mise! Problems will not solve themselves. Let
our national leadership speak for the people.
Let it say that we expect solution, we expect
action. We will not agree with everything that
is proposed or done. here will be sharp diff
ferences of opinion, but let us have determina-
ton, let us have resolution, let us have ma
tional policies. Let us 60 forward. ."-Christian
Science Monitor.