Overdose

To defeat Hitler may take so much of U.S. raw materials that it may not be possible for the economy to supply the essential needs of the civilian population, let alone their wants.

Years of threats, appeals, persuasions by advertising men had almost convinced the U.S. citizen that he had halitosis, dandruff, fallen arches, falling hair, worn-out furniture, out-of-date bathrooms, obsolete washing machines and ineffective tooth paste in his inferior home, at his side an inferior wife whose hands were dishpan-red, whose linen was tattletale-grey, and who would be left in want when he was run over by a car with inferior brakes.

But war agencies have superseded the advertising men. For many months U.S.citizens have been taking daily doses of strong medicine from Washington: warnings, threats, appeals, horror stories, stern advice devised to wake a man up to the danger of World War II, to arouse his patriotism, make him work longer hours, buy defense bonds, write his Congressman, give up luxuries, hand over his wife's kitchen aluminum; to fork out for the Community Chest, the Czechs, Poles, Dutch, Belgians, French, Spanish, Chinese, Greeks, Yugoslavs, Finns, the Red Cross, Norwegians, British and the U.S.; to pay more taxes, use less gasoline, strike less often, have his wife go without silk stockings. Federal officials punched the needle into him with alternate injections of numbing anesthetic (to keep him quiet while taxes were extracted) and hyper-stimulant (to get up his dander against Hitler).

To a microphone in Washington last week stepped Donald M. Nelson, the man who is executive director of U.S. defense (although he has no actual power--another thing that drives plain citizens crazy). What he said would in ordinary times have rocked the country like an earthquake. Said Mr. Nelson: The defense program is taking about 17% of the national income. To defeat Hitler in the next three years, the U.S. will probably have to put about 40% of its income into defense. It is quite possible that the U.S.people will have to do without necessities as well as luxuries.

Mr. Nelson did not say that it would happen. He merely said that it may happen. The newspapers buried his words on an inside page. The Average Citizen, his breath dubious, dandruff scales on his shoulders, his feet hurting, his son in the Army, his paycheck riddled by taxes, charities and higher prices, his dinner cold and leftover because his wife was out British-Bundling or Red-Crossing, picked up his newspaper, mechanically noted that, as usual, things would soon be worse, and turned to the football scores.

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