formance of the American economy in the years following
World War II is a fact. There were some two million farm
families, many of them in the Southern Appalachians, who
continued to live in a primitive and anonymous squalor not
surpassed in any country west of Turkey. There were urban
slum dwellers and racial minorities, notably the Negroes, who
could not view their lot with satisfaction. The same was true
of those whose salaries, pensions or dependence on past sav-
ings committed them to life on a fixed income. Elsewhere
there was little hardship. Nor, so far as one can judge, did
the generality of Americans feel that their personal freedom
had been seriously abridged. The ideas which caused the
present to be viewed with such uncertainty, and the future
with such alarm, were not operative. My purpose is to see
why -- and perhaps to learn how, if we are spared -- these
ideas can be kept inoperative in the future.

That there was deep uneasiness over the economy in this
time is a point that need hardly be labored. Undoubtedly it
was greatest among businessmen. The five years following
World War II were ones of high production and generous
profits. Business had recovered much of the prestige it had
lost during the depression; except at election time it was
again being treated with marked courtesy by the govern-
ment.

Yet there was little evidence that businessmen, or more
especially their leaders, viewed their prospects with equa-
nimity. On the contrary the tone of business statements dur-
ing these years was often that of a communiqué promising a
last-ditch stand against disaster. Thus, in early 1948 the

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