THE CIVILIAN ECONOMY The Lean Years By the time Pearl Harbor was
attack, civilian claims upon the war economy had been severely
reduced. The national store of capital equipment employed in
purposes other than those directly concerned with the war was
diminishing through under-maintenance and lack of replacement.1
The civilian standard of living had fallen considerably. After
1941 there was no scope for further dramatic reductions in the
civilian share of the national output. Although it was still
necessary further to constrict civilian demands whenever
possible, it was no less necessary to make sure that the
standard of living and the maintenance of capital equipment did
not fall below the minimum compatible with efficiency and high
morale. There was of course no simple definition of this
minimum; policy was necessarily built up by a long-continuing
series of particular decisions. As regards capital equipment,
every application for a licence for machinery or building could
be judged on its merits. It was much