the plan for elections was premature, dangerous, and potentially disastrous

Chapter 19 XIX Potsdam Germany
Four days later, orders went out to German Land governments to write election codes and to the military districts to prepare for elections in January 1946 in communities (Gemeinde) of less than 20,000 people, to be followed in March and May by elections in Landkreise and communities with 20,000 to 100,000 people. Elections, as it turned out, were announced ahead of the procedures for licensing political parties. The procedures did not reach the detachments until the first week of October.Apart from Clay and his staff', the consensus of the Americans and Germans was that the plan for elections was premature, dangerous, and potentially disastrous. Clay, in fact, told McCloy that some of his own advisers were urging him to postpone the elections. Doctrinally, Clay's decision appeared to be flaming heresy to most of military government. Although no such program existed, it had been a fundamental assumption of military government that the Germans would be subjected to an extensive period of education and training in democracy. President Roosevelt, after all, had talked in terms of a whole generation. To hold elections after eight months and without the German character having been remolded in any significant way could only be judged frivolous or cynical. Furthermore, as a practical matter, early elections appeared to offer nothing but disadvantages.