SMOKE SCREEN

For those who are worried lest a booming U.S. industry drag this country into war, two important executives have recently provided strong words of reassurance. Colby M. Chester, president of the General Foods Co., and Ernest T. Weir, head of the big Weirton Steel Co., have both issued statements within the past month to the effect that "American business does not like war because it knows that war is bad business." They went on to say that industrial leaders in this country realize that a war boom is disastrous in the long run, and that they would act accordingly.

To this symphony of common sense, a not quite harmonious note is added by stock market reports such as this United Press dispatch of October 22: "The possibility that the stock list may embark upon a new forward drive was enhanced over the weekend by Germany's decision to intensify the war. Last week stock prices climbed to within striking distance of the 1939 peaks on indications that peace moves had failed." Disillusion grows with the reading of a pamphlet of the New York investment firm of Bonner and Bonner: "We believe that sound steel stocks, purchased around current levels, will prove very profitable--repeating, in many instances, the spectacular performance of the last war.... We have prepared reports on three very attractive steel stocks."

Quite obviously, U.S. business is all set for a war boom. Dangerous as such a boom may be, it is unavoidable. American public opinion would not permit any embargoes to be placed on our foreign trade, not only because it is profitable, but also because it is almost entirely with the Allies, with whom our sympathies lie. As a Washington wiseacre commented, "For once, the dough and the ideals are on the same side." They certainly seem to make an unbeatable combination. We can only pray that the Neutrality Bill, which seems soon to be passed, will keep the resulting boom from completely wrecking our neutrality. If properly administered, it should be able to do so.

As for Mr. Chester and Mr. Weir, they must be accused either of being unacquainted with the facts or else of trying to conceal them in order to put the best possible appearance on their own activities. At best, they are the victims of the worst fallacies of wishful thinking. If their statements are taken at face value by the people of this country, a false and dangerous sense of security will be created. Mr. Chester and Mr. Weir would do the U.S. a great service by giving attention to piloting their own corporations through the troubled days that lie ahead, and ceasing their elumsy attempts to fit a pair of rose-colored glasses to the noses of the American people.