Thinking Small

Even Dr. Pangloss would scarcely contend that this is the best of all possible worlds in the U.S. summer of '75. Though the economy shows some signs of recovery, 8.5 million Americans looking for jobs cannot find them, including nearly half the black teen-agers in the tinderbox ghettos. Inflation, though abating, continues to gnaw at the income of those who have work. Oil prices will go up; state and local governments seem in danger of going broke. From the Middle East to Korea, the world remains a hazardous place. And yet there is in the land a sense of letting go, of looking up, of thinking small, of improving prospects and perspectives.

It may simply be that the crushing weights of the Viet Nam War and Watergate have at long last been lifted, enabling Americans to concentrate more on their own private concerns. The press has rediscovered the local story and local people. Big news in Omaha last week was the planned construction of a plant to produce synthetic bat manure in near by Kansas; in St. Louis it was whether to expand the parking space for the Blues hockey-team fans. Odd and unexpected signs of tolerance are appearing: at a New York Mets game, grizzled Met fans actually cheered when the Scoreboard showed the once reviled Yankees moving into first place. The new U.S. mood -- some might call it a return to normality -- may or may not prove too fragile to endure. But even Washington, for a change, had some good news last week: the Agriculture Department predicted a record harvest for the U.S., and bumper crops for much of the world around.

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