The Pittsburgh Press (February 16, 1946)
Editorial: We are unprepared
We are unprepared for war or peace. We are unprepared to play fully our natural part as a leader among nations. Our foreign policy is neither very clear nor very forceful. Our rapid demobilization of the world’s greatest army and navy betrays a lack of determination or serious intention to back up that policy as it exists today.
We are unprepared for orderly progress toward the goal of full production and full employment. The greatest industrial country in the world is a country dotted with idle factories, whose idleness is reflected in empty showrooms and empty store shelves.
The most prosperous country in the world cannot house thousands of the veterans of the world’s greatest army who are pouring in from the recent battle fronts.
A clash of economic philosophies within the president’s inner circle has added turbulence to the existing turmoil over price control. The president himself, unable to offer and enforce workable solutions, has been ignored, insulted and harangued by various self-interested groups.
We do not look very convincing today in the role of the world’s greatest nation. Fortunately, there is no immediate likelihood of war. But what would happen if there should be a sudden international crisis which demanded swift and strong action? Could we meet it, or should we suffer a sort of spiritual Pearl Harbor?
We are unprepared because we lack national unity. It may not be unusual or even unhealthy that Americans disagree on every vital issue today – the United Nations Organization, atomic energy control, Russia, loans to Britain, administration policies, congressional action, industrial disputes, and more. But it is discouraging to contemplate the indifference toward these issues that seems to possess so many of us.
Our sufferings, compared with those of our Allies, are insignificant. Yet Britain and Russia, at least, know what they want and where they are going and are pursuing their courses in spite of wartime disruptions. They may be going in the wrong direction, but we seem incapable at the moment of turning them toward the way of world peace and general betterment.
We united and prepared for war. We must unite and prepare now for world leadership and world preservation. That victory will be no less difficult, nor will it require any less community of effort.