Waiting

The greatest air-bombardment week in history and Britain's unprecedented closing of diplomatic communication channels (TIME, April 24), made D-Day seem almost at hand. Yet the nation, though jittery with waiting, still waited confidently. Some of its leaders thought it was waiting too confidently.

In Manhattan, Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson said bluntly: "Many here have settled into a frame of mind far different from that we were in on Dec. 7, 1941. Then we had unity. . . . Our need to recapture that unity today stands above all other needs. . . ." He declared that the prime source of trouble was a "smugly optimistic assumption of assured victory" on the part of civilians.

In Washington the civilian heads of the armed services announced that the manpower problem is still unsolved--and growing worse. In a joint statement War Secretary Stimson, Navy Secretary Knox and Maritime Boss Emory Land pointed out that before year's end the armed services must have 1,400,000 more men, almost all to be drawn from essential industries. Meantime, they pointed out, critical industries are short of manpower right now. Aircraft plants need 200,000 workers, navy yards 5,000 for construction of submarines alone, radio and radar factories 30,000, synthetic-rubber plants 19,000.

Said Messrs. Stimson, Knox and Land: "This nation sacrificed 60 bombers and 600 men to cripple the German ball-bearing plant in Schweinfurt, but it cannot obtain the workers here at home to fill the production lines of our own bearing and foundry industries. . . ."

The statement touched on another sore spot--labor turnover. In February, out of every 1,000 war workers, 65 quit. Only 53 could be recruited to take their places, a net loss of twelve men per 1,000 in the nation's war-plant labor force.

Messrs. Stimson, Knox and Land again urged a national service act. But last week the House Military Affairs Committee flatly declined to report a bill which would force 4-Fs into war work or Army labor battalions, asserting that the Army already has all the authority it needs to draft 4-Fs for noncombat service.

The next move was still Ike Eisenhower's. The nation plainly wanted to wait & see the result before making any further sacrifice of life-as-usual.

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