G.O.P. Congressmen had vowed that one of their first acts would be to divest Harry Truman of many of his wartime powers. But on the last day of the old year Harry Truman did it himself. He declared "the cessation of hostilities."
His sudden action meant the end of 51 laws, although actually it was only a beginning in the process of dismantling the machinery of war. Selective Service still remained. Nearly 500 emergency control measures—covering everything from butter substitutes for patients at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., to death sentences for deserters—still stand. Before the U.S. has been restored to...
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