"We were, after the first exultation of victory had passed, an exhausted and confused people who wanted nothing except to be left alone, irritable in the face of decisions thrust upon us, reluctant to accept the knowledge that the problems of peace can be even more complex than the problems of war."

The passage of the New Year, supposed to bring new life to the economy and production with the elimination of the excess profits tax, would not be the panacea which everyone hoped it would be. The distress of the latter months of 1945 would spill over, it predicts with resignation, into 1946.

But, it adds, the prospect for the new year in peace was nevertheless hopeful.

"Certainly there is every reason to believe that the tender little New Year we celebrate today will not earn the epitaph so fitting for 1945: 'Thank God it's over.'"

But the confusion surrounding the process had suggested a need to revise the election laws in North Carolina to provide clarity in such an event in the future. And the skipping of a primary meant that the six-man committee had essentially made the appointment, meaning that Judge Ervin was not the choice of the people but would ultimately take the seat only by dint of birth.

The piece equates the MacArthur feud with the Executive Branch with that between General McClellan and President Lincoln during the Civil War. The General had, nevertheless, agreed to obey the orders of the President, at least until he could determine how things would go, but would walk out of the council at the first sign of an adverse decision.

"It's an imperial attitude, replacing the one abandoned by the Emperor, but it seems to be justified by the really excellent record of the American occupation."

Perhaps it conveyed the notion, as suggested in the Washington Daily, that General MacArthur was the only American who was as good as he thought he was.

Perhaps not.

The piece points out that it was not conducive to good government for the level of pay to induce only persons with private fortunes to serve.

He next presents a series of snippets, among which is a quote from President Truman, stating that often FDR had been accused on Capitol Hill and elsewhere of being a liar, but that, after being President for a few months, he did not know how anyone could occupy the position "without occasionally being a liar".

The column reports that race-baiter Gerald Winrod of Wichita had moved into the best section of the city, suggesting that "the Demagogue business must be picking up".

He also informs that, amid claims by G.M. that it could not afford to pay labor's demanded 30 percent wage increase, six G.M. executives were among the 15 highest paid persons in the country.

She found the compromised acceptance of the Soviet-backed governments in the Balkans disturbing, that the agreement to turn atomic energy over to the U.N. was still subject to the structure of the U.N. Security Council with a unilateral veto, thus only deferring indecision, and that the policy on China was merely a restatement of a policy already reached.

Meanwhile, no decisions were made with regard to the Western border of Germany and the claims of France that the Ruhr and Rhine be internationalized, the policy on the Middle East and the Azerbaijan conflict in Iran, or the Soviet pressure on Turkey to gain access to the Dardanelles. She equates the Soviet headlines during the conference with regard to Turkey to those of the German kept press under Hitler during the Sudeten crisis leading to Munich in September, 1938. Then, Voelkische Beobachter had printed the headline, "Small State Menaces World Peace". Now, the Russian press found Turkey menacing the Soviet Union by objecting to cession of part of its territory.

She concludes that Mr. Byrnes had come home, as had Neville Chamberlain from Munich, with nothing more interesting than "peace for our time". But she could not blame him for what she considered weakness and failure, for it was difficult to represent a country as America had become in the months since the end of the war, squandering quickly its good will built up during the war. She cites the report that a hundred G.I.'s had marched on the General Headquarters in Frankfurt, in full view of the Germans, in protest of their not being sent home. Never mind that the job of occupation remained to be done to fulfill the commitment made by those who had fought and died in the war.

"Our Army and fleet disintegrate. Our internal affairs disintegrate. No one can powerfully represent a country in such a state at any conference."

Ms. Thompson, whose editorialization before and during the war was, for the most part, exceptional, was not going to be happy in the post-war world, it increasingly appears, until she had managed to ignite World War III.

Nevertheless, the President had shown stubborn loyalty to Mr. Snyder and therefore accepted his appointments.

Mr. Bissell, active with the O.S.S. during the war, would go on in 1948 to become an administrator for the Marshall Plan in Europe. Eventually, he joined the C.I.A. and in 1954 was appointed the head of development for the U-2 spy plane. In 1958, he became Deputy Director for Plans and oversaw, beginning in March, 1960, the development of the plan for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba under President Eisenhower. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April, 1961, President Kennedy fired Mr. Bissell, along with C.I.A. Director Allen Dulles. Mr. Bissell was replaced as Director of Plans by future Director Richard Helms.

To try to get the White House back on a smooth running track, continues Mr. Childs, the President was attempting to persuade F.C.C. chair Paul Porter to become one of the President's administrative assistants. He had a good working relationship with Congress and understood politics, having been the director of information for the DNC. But Mr. Porter did not want to leave his post as F.C.C. chair.

Mr. Hannegan understood that the coming year would likely cause further strain between the White House and Congress and he wanted to strengthen the White House staff with pro-labor liberals for the coming Congressional elections in November.

—Son, let me tell ye. Without them dang wheels and that doggone fuel pump, you ain't goin' nowhere fast. You can throw a lot of that hardware overboard and still make a run fer it, air filter, hoses of one sort or another, exhaust pipes, a few of the bolts even, a couple or three of the jugs. Heck, you might even stretch a few miles without the radiator or oil pump. But with no fuel pump, she's gonna stop deader 'an a doornail on a cold night in July. Ye got to have the fuel pump and the wheels, son. Don't forget it.

—How much? Well that depends entirely on how much you need it.

—Two thousand miles from home, huh? I hope you got the money.

Presently, estimated automobiles on the highways stood at 24 million, four million fewer than in 1941. The cars had an average of 56,000 miles on the odometer and the average age of the vehicle was eight years, with 25 percent being ten years or older. The estimated shortage from lack of production since February, 1942 was eight million. Pent-up demand was estimated at between five and ten million during the ensuing three to five years. The highest annual production, in 1929, stood at a bit more than 4.5 million.

To meet the demand, the manufacturers were planning to produce the 1942 models anew. OPA had set prices only for Ford, Mercury, and Studebaker, the Fords set to cost somewhat more than the 1942 models, perhaps because of a slight increase in horsepower of the Ford engine. G.M. cars would likely be priced about the same as in 1942.

So, the automobile industry would remain in its "fourth phase" for awhile, the first having been the experimental phase before the turn of the century, then the luxury-ownership phase around 1900, then the planned price-reduction, mass-production phase ushered in by Henry Ford around 1908. At the time, it was customary for dealers to demand half the payment in cash with a couple of time installments for the balance. The fourth phase, starting in the Twenties, was one of price stabilization and financing purchases. During this fourth phase, automobile ownership had risen dramatically in the country, from one car for every 11.2 persons in 1920 to 4.6 in 1930, to 4.12 in 1940.