From the S&S archives: U.S. municipal aides hail German rebirth

FRANKFURT — A group of American municipal officials visiting major cities in West Germany Friday expressed amazement at the nation's remarkable economic recovery from the devastation of World War II and the "new look" of some of the cities they have visited in their two-week tour.

The officials — Mayor Gordon S. Clinton of Seattle, Wash.; Mayor David Lawrence of Pittsburgh: Dr. James C. O'Brien, deputy commissioner of the Department of Commerce, New York; Mrs. Blanche Parent Wise, Detroit Common Council member; and Victor A. Schiro, New Orleans councilman-at-large — were just as impressed with the attitude of the German people.

"The progress Germany has made is the most astonishing, the most amazing thing I have ever seen," said Mrs. Wise. "Americans have to see it to believe it."

Lawrence said he found a genuine appreciation on the part of Germans for what the U.S. has done for their country and he gave considerable credit for the splendid understanding the Germans now have of America to the U.S. Armed Forces.

Clinton found the problems confronting American and German cities identical, with planning as the major factor.

"Those people here have made great strides," he said. "Our big problem at home is planning. They have partly solved it over here."

O'Brien declared the party would return home in about two weeks with "a better understanding of the German people and their problems." This thought was echoed by other members of the group.

Thus far the party has visited Dusseldorf, Cologne, Duisburg, Dortmund, Hanover, Brunswick, and Frankfurt. They plan to visit Wuerzburg. Bamberg, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg and Heidelberg before they return to the States March 26.

The group answered questions put to them by reporters at a session in the Frankfurt Press Club Friday.

Mrs. Wise was asked how she would compare German and American women. She said, "American women can learn a few lessons in discipline from the German women:" Otherwise, she added, there is no difference between them except for one other thing: "The average German woman is not as stylish as the American woman."

From what he has thus far seen of the German people, Lawrence told the press, "it will be a long time before anyone can sell hem the idea of war."