THE NATION: In Suspense

The country was in the middle of an economic war of nerves.

Harry Truman could view the sad results of political expediency and appeasement, which began when he ended rationing after V-J day, granted labor its demands for wage boosts, and then tried to hold prices with OPA, hoping production would pull the country out of its hole. Congress axed OPA and, despite the President's pleas, was all set to drive a stake through its heart and bury it at a cross roads (see below). Harry Truman's fum bling efforts to control the economy had failed; now the country, nerves on edge, faced the prospects of a free economy.

In the electric atmosphere there was a rumble. Labor spoke.

Said the autoworkers' Walter Reuther: "If our fight against increased prices fails we will begin a fight on the wage front."That fight, said Reuther, would be under taken only as a "last resort." Labor now realizes that wage boosts mean price boosts, that another such game of leap frog can end only in the wild inflation that everyone dreads. Labor also knows how to use the weapons of a war of nerves. But labor might be using those same weapons against itself.

In suspense, last week, the people waited. Prices climbed up, although not yet as fast & far as OPAsters had predicted. Storekeepers and housewives by & large kept their heads. Storekeepers promised to hang onto their old price lines as long as they could (see BUSINESS). Housewives hung onto their pocketbooks. There was no country-wide buyers' strike, but there was a buyers' slowdown. Everyone held his breath.