Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-26

in democracy and In the common man
When doubts arise as to the wisdom
Of leadership the thought that gives me
courage and hope Is the certainty that
the present Is safe and the future as
sured in quiet, everyday work of the
average men and women who constitute
! the foundation OF society the world over.
| The farmer, the miner, the mechanic.
the common man, wherever he is and
wherever he is employed, is doing his
! work day by day in all countries
throughout all this turmoil Nothing
can long resist or destroy that individual
effort! The man in the street the man
in the field is not troubled with tangled
nerves or disturbed amid conferences
and international entanglements, but
moves serenely along in his workaday
world"
Whenever something happened to stop
the work of this common man Herrick
would eXpostulate with the truly Anglo
Saxon hatred Of the knocker
In Gods name" he broke out at a
luncheon some years ago, "if we can't
do something constructive, let us be
quiet about the fellow who is doing his
utmost to serve the common good"
In contrast to many of his country
men. Herrick came to comprehend. dur
ing his years abroad. how difficult it is
for certain peoples to embrace repub-
lican institutions when neither the ira
ditions nor the routine is native 10
them:
1T requires generations for a people
to become educated. to implant the in
stinct for elf-government," he said.
You cannot build a tree, you must
plant it."
Trusted BY France.
Herrick understood his continentals.
If he had not. how could he have won
their confidence and their respect. M.
Barthou, the French minister Of justice,
once said that Herrick was the only
man whom the French government not
only loves. but trusts which is a
statement the more notable in the opin-
ion of one of my friends from the en-
bassy. because when the French gov
eminent trusts anybody they've gone
over the top"
The prestige that Herrick enjoyed in
France during the first months of the
war was enormous. The Wanton propa-
ganda of the belligerent nations was
distorting every issue, sometimes In
spite of the efforts of their respective
intelligence departments. In his me-
moirs L. L. Klotz, minister and chief
of the French censorship, gives one in
cident which shows how more than
once the Ambassadors name was In
voked to good purpose.
A prominent paper de Figaro pro-
posed to publish front page article
signed by two noted savants stating that
they had seen with their own eyes
without specifying when or where-100
French children with their hands
chopped off by the enemy. Finding
the article made up and all ready to
be printed, the chief stopped 1t, saying
that If the story were false 1t could but
spread needless horror. while II 1t were
true it should be given circulation far
greater than any Paris newspaper could
touch The editor fell in with his
proposition that the savants should be
confronted by an impartial judge, and
Herrick was the arbiter chosen. With
his aid the stories we're proved false the
sort of misguided aid which many
patriotic Europeans offered for their
governments when hates ran highest.
Was Not a Halter.
Hatred was never one of Ambassador
Herricks strong points. During his
European experiences he tried to under
stand all peoples, large or small, pro-
pressive or conservative. In preparing
his book on rural credits he touched
every province and state remotely aSso-
ciated with the reforms he viSualiDed.
He tried. after the war, to abolish the
visa fee, that effectual wall round the
United States and most of Europe. He
always celebrated Washingtons birthday
with q luncheon to the South American
Diplomats in Paris. His admiration for
Germanys banks and factories and
rural economy made him state en-
phAtically the necessity of her rehabili-
tation:
Germany is . cog in the wheel and