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Cushion for Casualties. Yet soon or late, and probably soon, more concentration will be on the way. To carry it out much will depend on the good sense of the Government and the small businessman himself. For the latter the hardest lesson of all is that though he is fighting for his life, so after all is his country. For Government the biggest problem is to provide some means of compensation, without engaging in monumental subsidies, so that businesses which are squeezed out now can reappear later. Best notion yet advanced is Donald Nelson's recommendation to Congress last fall that it set up a war liabilities adjustment agency (TIME, Oct. 12). Last week, in a letter to the Senate Small Business Committee, Don Nelson reiterated his plea:
"As I see it, we are all vitally interested providing for a sound economy when the war is over. To me a sound economy calls for ample opportunity for small enterprises to enter particular fields and add their imagination, initiative and drive to the competitive struggle to provide more & better goods—at continually lower prices. But to me this objective should not involve putting machinery or labor or management brains in cold storage for the duration of the war."