The American Mood

The feeling was in the air, like the first, tingling foretaste of fall.

Lloyds of London offered 5-to-8 that V-day would come by Oct. 31. Americans even began to think of Paris again as something real. Some day soon Americans would be going there again.

This mood of optimism, borne up on the good news flooding from the worldwide battlefronts, was the real U.S. news again last week.Washington, concerned with war-production weak spots, fought hard against the feeling—but it was a losing battle. Despite orders, regulations, speeches, newsreels, propaganda of all kinds, thousands...