Nice

At Augusta, Albany or Annapolis, the state legislature drones along for weeks without much apparent advancement until the closing days. Then committee reports come in, chips go down, deals harden and the sergeant-at-arms stops the clock, while bills are passed by the basket-load. In the closing week of the U.N. Assembly and the Council of Foreign Ministers, a lot of Americans failed to recognize this familiar final phase of political bargaining.

All was not suddenly sweetness & light between the great powers; they were, however, registering in a single week the very considerable progress toward compromise made quietly over the past few months.

Much of the progress came about through Russian concessions. The Kremlin had not abandoned its very ambitious long range program (see below) in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere; it had recognized a point of diminishing returns. Every act of diplomatic aggression had cost Russia good will in public opinion; the Kremlin had been ready to pay that cost as long as it was making tangible gains. September 6, when Secretary Byrnes made his great Stuttgart speech, outlining a constructive, firm U.S. policy for Germany and Europe, is probably the date which will mark the new Russian line.

Harmony. Last week at Flushing, Byrnes, Bevin and Molotov, for the first time in their long association, all spoke before a public audience--and all spoke, if not in unison, at least in fairly close harmony. Byrnes's high-pitched words were dignified and clear. Bevin spoke in a furry, throaty rumble, but his obvious sincerity drew warm applause from the U.N. delegates. Molotov spoke conversationally from notes he had prepared a few moments before, while pacing out a 100-foot course, up & down the main lobby, with Andrei Vishinsky beside him. The only person who dared interrupt these peripatetics, pregnant with decision, was Eleanor Roosevelt. She beamed a farewell: "It was so nice to have seen you here." Then Molotov made his speech.

Checking up, as the diplomats scattered homeward, the world found it had a beginning of disarmament, Persia had regained its lost province, the satellite treaties were about ready for signing; even the German question looked soluble.

It was nice.

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