Going Up

France and Italy were busy trying to put together governments; Spain wrestled in the dark with the uncertainties of succession; European diplomats lobbed back and forth the frazzled balls of contention; economists murmured about deficits and inflation. All their worries were real, but so is another Europe that thousands of holidaying Americans could plainly see last week--a free Europe that is prospering, its peoples living better and more richly than ever before.

The traveler, not usually the most acute observer, may notice it first in the new buildings his plane passes over, in the well-made goods in the shops, in the excellence of the food he eats. He sees a kind of order prevailing that crisis headlines had not prepared him for; he finds visas no longer necessary at most European borders, and customs inspections cursory. Currency restrictions are all but gone, and he no longer has to seek out the black-market moneychanger to buy his money at a reasonable rate.

On Its Feet. Today's Europe, revived by U.S. aid but no longer dependent on it, proudly stands on its own feet. From 1948 to 1955 Europe lifted industrial production by 76% (v. the U.S.'s 33%). West Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Finland and Turkey are producing 50% more than they did before the' war. In Great Britain, whose rate of productivity is generally discussed in gloomy terms, the gross national product is nearly one-third higher than in 1938, real per capita income up at least 10%.

The signs are visible everywhere. British--not U.S.--cars choke Piccadilly, British weekers jam vacation resorts at Blackpool and Brighton. Simpson's in the Strand is serving its famed roast beef, and in poor neighborhoods, stores whose stock in trade was once chiefly Brussels sprouts and potatoes now feature oranges and even avocados. Across the North Sea. Scandinavians are thriving. Norway has rebuilt its merchant fleet to twice its prewar tonnage, added 100 hotels since 1945. Norwegian housewives, who bought only 2,000 washing machines in 1950, snapped up 64,000 last year. Even in chronically impoverished Ireland, real national income is up 25% from 1937.

Thousands of Italians who once had meat only once a week are now eating meat daily. The evening peace of every stone-walled town is broken by the noise of motor scooters as the local youths tear up and down the ancient streets. Visitors to the Milan fair came away dazzled by the rich fabrics, handsome machinery that Italy can and is producing. Poverty remains a dismal view down many a dark alley--but compared to what it was like before, for many there has been an increase in hope and a diminution of despair.

Most spectacular recovery is resurgent West Germany. Last week, just across from the gaunt skeleton of the bombed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, West Berlin opened three gleaming, glassy new buildings of its new garment center, will open later this summer its fabulous Building Exhibition, to which the world's greatest architects, from France's Le Corbusier to Brazil's Niemeyer and America's Gropius have each contributed a structure. Mercedes-Benz cars crowd the Autobahnen, and so many workers are buying Kleinstwagen (small one-or two-cylinder cars seating four) that the motorcycle industry is suffering from the competition. Unemployment in West Germany is so small that even a high official in the Labor Ministry in three months of searching could not find a domestic servant.

In France, for all its crisis of government itself, industrial production has doubled since 1938. Citroen is 18 months behind the demand in production of its sleek new DS-igs; vacation resorts are booked solidly for July and August--not only with foreign tourists but with Frenchmen. In all France, though there are many poor, only 82,000 are unemployed. Every weekend restaurants and hotel dining rooms in provincial towns are crowded with whole French families eating a meal priced at no less than $3 a place.

Political crisis is Europe's portion after three wars (two world and one cold), but the crises would be of a different order if old Europe were not becoming a more comfortable place to live in than ever before, and this fact is a historical event as important as Stalin's death.

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