Something for Everybody

Tom Dewey charged that the Administration was too late with its reconversion plan, that it was afraid of the peace. Last week in Washington, on Election Day-minus-60, the planners scrambled furiously to show that Mr. Dewey was wrong. They minted a new phrase, "VE day" (Victory in Europe), for the time when Germany quits. Manpower Boss Paul V. McNutt bustled up Capitol Hill to tell a Senate committee what he will do, come V-E day. WPB's acting chairman, Julius A. Krug, was already sure of what he will do.

The Administration began to unwind the rationing program. Gin was already flowing out of distilleries in place of war alcohol; whiskey was back on the dealers' shelves, in plain sight of the voters. And then Sept. 17 was set as the day when all processed foods except canned fruits and a few other items will be unrationed.

But it was Home Front Czar Jimmy Byrnes who wrapped up all the hastily formed plans into one glittery package, and in some 6,000 politically well-chosen words, revealed the whole Administration plan for V-E day. Jimmy Byrnes announced that when those happy days were here, there would be something for everybody.

Had businessmen chafed under straitjacketing controls? Away with all such shackles, said Jimmy. Had housewives grumbled under rationing? There would be mountains of food. Czar Jimmy promised plenty of everything, and the removal of all possible controls. The Byrnes statement looked like politics but also good sense, for it was now plain that the U.S. had pulled in its belt tight enough and long enough to have a surplus of almost everything when Germany quits.

For Businessmen. War production will be cut back at least 40%. The Controlled Materials Plan (known to businessmen as "Gripes! More Paper") would be dropped. Most manufacturers will be virtually free to make anything they want. War work, as much as possible, will be concentrated in Government plants, to free privately owned plants for the manufacture of civilian goods. But said Czar Jimmy soothingly, the Government has no thought of operating its plants in postwar competition with private business. And, said Byrnes, dipping deep in the Santa Claus bag, "with the ending of the war there should be an end to the excess profits tax."

For Labor. Virtually all manpower controls are to be abandoned. The 48-hour week should be cut to 40, except in tight labor areas, to spread the work. Czar Jimmy once more begged Congress to pass legislation aiding the states to increase jobless benefits to a minimum of $20 weekly.

For Housewives. Prices on newly made civilian goods will be kept under ceilings; the 8,000,000 tons of surplus food will soon cause prices to drop, make ceilings unnecessary.

For Farmers. Since the U.S. is producing far more food than needed, Congress must continue to buy up surpluses, thus keep a floor under farm prices. As a starter, Czar Jimmy suggested that Congress appropriate $2 billion for this job.

And for businessmen, labor et al., there would be an increase in gasoline rations (Washington gossiped that A coupons would be doubled).

In this inviting picture, there was only one little glimpse of the war with Japan. Czar Jimmy mentioned it only casually.

Said he: "The fear of prolonged unemployment following V-E day has been exaggerated. The war against Japan will demand the continued production of war materials . . . [and] we will speedily return to civilian production."

Out Old Policy. WPBster Krug was more specific. As a starter, he junked the carefully nurtured policy of WPB's China-junketing chairman Don Nelson. Boss Nelson had held that WPB, which wound up the U.S. economy for war, should unwind it, coil by coil. Said Krug: let industry unwind itself into peacetime production in its own way. "Our private economy has to carry the ball. . . . It's not WPB's function to make work but to remove obstacles ... so that the ingenuity of management and know-how of the worker can go ahead. . . . There'll be so much production of civilian goods after Germany quits it will be unnecessary to plan civilian items in detail."

In these words, WPBster Krug got ready to move WPB out of the driver's seat. After V-E day, WPB's job will center on the comparatively small segment of industry still turning out materiel for the Japanese war. The bulk of industry will go its own way.

In with the New. When will the new cars, refrigerators, radios begin to pour out? Said Krug confidently: "I know of one leading automobile manufacturer who figures he can be producing new cars approximately three months after Germany collapses."

Detroit's auto makers were less sanguine (one of the biggest predicted that if Germany quit tomorrow, he could not turn out cars till March). But in the new spirit of "give business what it wants," WMC under Krug's new policy prepared to sit down with the auto makers this week and give them what they want.

Said one WPBster, sniffing the air of sweet reasonableness that suddenly filled Washington: "The password is love."

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