Hunger Postponed

In gloom, almost in despair, Novelist Louis Bromfield wrote last summer from his 1,500-acre farm near Mansfield, Ohio, "Though ours is the richest agricultural nation, our people are not going to have enough food. If it were possible, I would rather not think about next February." Last week Louis Bromfield survived the first week in "famine February" by eating well. So did the U.S. And War Food Administrator Marvin Jones, pooh-poohing Bromfield's prophecies, cheerfully boasted of surplus potatoes, eggs and canned goods.

But Bromfield as the sensational prophet last summer was hewing at the right tree, while Jones, the optimist, had lost sight of the forest. To eat well, the U.S. was drawing heavily on its food reserves carried over from years of abundance and underconsumption. But the stockpile of grains, the basic food, is getting dangerously small. And at week's end Louis Bromfield, prophet of famine, stubbornly set his alarm clock ahead, this time for April.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.