U.S. At War: Enter Grimly

To succeed volcanic Leon Henderson as Price Boss (see above), Franklin Roosevelt last week chose a man who seldom erupts: able, steady, slow-burning Senator Prentiss Marsh Brown of Michigan, 53, a Democrat and—through no fault of his own—a lame duck. Senator Brown did not want the job: after his defeat by Michigan's popular Judge Homer Ferguson last month (TIME, Nov. 16), he was ready to go back home to resume his law practice. But when the White House put the job up to him as a patriotic duty, conscientious Prentiss Brown had no choice.

As a member of the Senate's Banking and...