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SESSION V
255
DOBSON: While the creeps inthe Palomeres episode were not so
essential, even the tomato crop, This was not the Spanish tomato
crop; it was a relatively few patches, So there waa no national
threat...
EISENBUD: Yeas.
DOBSON:
No imagined rational threat,
WARREN [t waan't there for a vhile until the saord went down
from headquarters that they'd better buy up the tomatoes in the
south because there was nothing wrong with them, It was there for
a few days or so.
LANGHAM:
Yes.
You saw elements.
WARKEN: Of the possibilities.
LANGHAM: You saw the clements of such a development as
were seen in Japan, That's the only thing I'ilagree to, This was of
great economic importance: for the local area. (don't think
was
of economic importance to the nation neccaracitiy except for toutsam,
which was definitely concerning the high officials of the Government,
But there was great economic hardship brought to bear or the whole
area insofar as that goes. So that element was the same and you
could see indications of thie causirg considerable treuble. but it sas
kept so localized that it never attracted any attention, particularly
as compared to what the Japanese did.
MILLET:
I think the question of the relation of the populace to
the leaders is a terribly important thing here, [was very much struck by the statement that these persons believed in their leaders
and so were not victims of pamc. [Uf the leader, whom everybody
truste, comes cut before the panic gets started and seys,
‘You're
going to be all right, don't werry., Now you go about your business,
we'll take care of the crcp for you, ' that's one kind of thing. Hut,
on theother hand, in the Japanese instance, you've got some criminals here to begin with and you've got a very dubious relationship
between them and the governing group in Japan, to say the least,
So there are a fot of parychological differences here that make it quite
clear that there would be « different hind of reaction, I think.
tnepen e