Evening star., 1946-05-26
Number of Problems
Is Problem in Itself
Complex of Issues Puts Special
Strain on Understanding
By William Fl. Harrison,

u
lew words that lend themselves readily,
II somewhat ornately, to much broader
held than his own. THE situation"
| ne said, gives one furiously to think"
and so saying, although he did not mean
| 1t quite that way, he offered as good a
text as any for our problem laden
times.
II there were only Mr.. Lewis and coal
to worry about, life in America would
be relatively easy on the mind. But the
situation that gives one furiouslv to
thlnK' Is made up of so many issues of
such variety, complexity and magni-
tude-natlonal and international-tha
most human beings, if not all, can
scarcely escape a feeling of bewilder-
ment. That states the case mildly. Ac-
tually, there has never been a period in
history quite like this, when the verv
number of problems has become an
acute problem in itself and when men
and nations are seemingly incapable
OF proceeding step by step, in orderly
progression, from the solution of one
pressing matter to the solution of an
SNAANA' oiAA So Oli 1loiIl 10 SOI1-
ton to point of reasonable world sta
bility.
There is a maxim to the effect that
everything should be put in its place and
One thing tackled at a time. but this is
more easily reclted than applied While
one thinks furiously of the coal crisis.
Tor instance
too, OF paralyzing railroad strike and
OF labor troubles in general. One must
tnlnk turiously-in a for, an against or
neutral spirit-of a great multitude
OF questions that have come upon us
all at once, all competing with almost
equal pressure for attention, and all
defylng anybody to reduce them to
simple black-and- white terms. Worse
still, in many cases they overlap to such
degree that the effort to find the
answer to one can hardly succeed with
out simultaneous effort to find an
sWers to the others.
Compared with the things We must
think OF now, the issues of the war
days were fairly simple. Then it was
objective of victory. but with that won,
Americans and other peoples as we'll
hnd themselves riding a mental vhirli
gig. Thus, in the United States. news
paper headlines and radio broadcasts
clamor for everybodys attention, all at
! the same time, on vital matters like
extension OF the draft, the British loan
+ tho 0F
the Foreign Ministers at Paris, the
United Nations proceedings in New York.
the world food crisis, ter-Allied occu-
, patton strains in Germany, Korea and
Japan. deteriorating relations with Rus
sla. strife in Manchuria, the atomic
bomb, and whole host of other prob
lens and developments anything but
restful to the mind
Obviously it is not coal, the railroads
OF lnfatlonary dangers alone that cause
one furiously to think 1t is nearly
everything, and from time to time. as
IKE as not, the Whirligig will receive
an extra tWlrl, as it did recently when
the President. on top of all the other
issues, sent message to Congress call
ing for the establishment of a historic
and highly significant inter-Amelican
security system. The situation, in brie.
ADDS up to one in which there is so
much to consider, study, worry about
and debate simultaneously that there
seems little chance of coping with a
single problem easily and well Cues
tions have been fired at the world in
(
that 1t is difficult in the extreme to con-
centrate solid thought on any one of
them The British loan, for example.
abstracts attention from the draft, and
vice versa. In the morning the minds
eye may be attracted to Iran, in the
afternoon to India. Manchuria or sew
eral other places and things together
and in the evening to something like
the chaos of the rail strike.
Thus. seeing everything at once and
nothing clearly, the average earnest
follower of current events Is lucky if
he avoids having his thoughts and en-
ergles scattered in the wilderness of
issues. AS far as the general public
goes, the effort to keep up with the
situation involves a real measure of
physical and mental fatigue, so that
people cannot be blamed too much
should they tend now to seek escapist
diversions. But neither our own nor
other governments can run awav from,
the problems that are crying for solu-
ton everywhere. nationally and inter-
nationally, even though the task of
dealing with them tries patience and
saps strength. There may be too much
to consider at one time but the United
States, Britain. Russia and the United
Nations as a whole still must act. There
is no escaping that.
1t is question, of course. whether
the different powers might not be able,
somehow, to give special priority to the
most pressing matters, holding back
those that can be held back now. But
it is simpler by far to make such
suggestion than to put 1t in practice
particularly because so many of today's
issues are too interlinked to be handled
separately. The fact seems to be, in
deed, that the maxim of one thing at
time, no matter how practical 1t NAV
sound, does not offer handy way out
at this stage, which is another aspect
OF the situation that gives one furiously
to think
Apparently in sum, as with each indi-
vldual problem, there is simply no easy
solution to the overall problem of the
multiplicity of problems 1t is condi-
ton that will probably trouble the world