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Show LAPSE OF LEADERSHIP Walter The Civil War was followed by 10 years of the worst government the country has ever endured. The first World War was followed by the Harding Administration. The second has been been followed by the Truman Administration Administra-tion which, though it is certainly a good deal better than the Harding Administration, is not what any one would describe as inspired, or even as good enough. Why does this happen after a war? Why does government gov-ernment deteriorate for a time? The explanation is, I think, fairly clear, and in a way reassuring. It is that a war uses up one generation of leaders, and some time must elapse before be-fore the new generation is able and ready to take ovr. In that interval affairs falls into the hands of men who were not needed or did not feel they were needed to play the kind of part in war which uses men up. The men who organized victory in this war, and laid the foundations of what was to have been the pace, are for the most part gone out of public life. Only a few remain. Some, like Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins, are dead; some like Mr. Stimson, Mr. Hull and Mr. Ic kes, have resigned. |