Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05
STATE DEPARTMENT
TAKES ON NEW LIFE
Becomes LiveIiest Cog in
Government Machine Under
Hoover and StimSon.
BY LEROY 7. VERNON.


Application of the Hoover foreign
policies through the medium of a re-
organized and modern foreign service,
behind which is the driving power of
President Hoover and Secretary of
State Henry l.. Stimson promises to
translate the State Department this
year from one of the "deadest" Gov
eminent departments into one of the
liveliest cogs in the Government ma
chine.
In close cooperation with the De-
partment Of Commerce the State De-
partment will look after American in
terests abroad as 1t never has before.
At the same time it will carry on with
greater efficiency both the routine ano
extraordinary matters which pertain
exclusively to the realm of world poll
tics, moral and spiritual relationships
and craftsmanship, which is more re-
mote from pure economics.
Confronted, as it is, by the meeting
of the naval powers at London this
month, the public is liable to forget, as
the State Department cannot, that the
problem of naval reductions is only one
of a hundred important items on the
calendar of international relations
which require the constant attention of
those who deal with foreign affairs.
With every power at that conference
and with many others as well, the State
Department is now doing business on
other important matters.
Other Major Conferences.
Nor is this the only major conference
which the United States must attend,
for the important subject of codifica-
ton Of international law will come up
at The Hague in March, probably be-
fore the London conference adjourns.
In the meantime the Presidents COM
mission to determine the future policy
toward Haiti will also go into action.
In building up his new diplomatic
service, it is noteworthy that the Presi-
dent has stressed business capacity as
well as other attributes commonly as
ISOLATED with international statesman
ship. One has only to consider AM
bassadors Dawes, Edge and Sackett to
understand that the President regards
the modern problems of diplomacy as
mainly, although not exclusively, eco
nomic. Believing. as he does, in the
policy of live and let live" it is evil
dent that his Ambassadors 90 forth to
their posts imbued with the idea that
strengthened economic ties, rehabilita-
ton, restoration and understanding, in
which the United States and foreign
nations share the benefits alike, con-
stitute the best kind of diplomacy at
this hour.
Press for New Treaties.
Coupled with his strong desire for
permanent world peace, for the removal
of suspicious and fears and for an OPP
timistic rather than pessimistic view
point, the President wants his repre-
sentatives to take their cue from his
own experience with Prime Minister
Macdonald of Great Britain and CO.
operate for world benefit on a wider
scale than has ever imbued the Ameri-
can foreign service before
For this season, this Government Is
pressing now for new arbitration
treaty with Great Britain, the old one
having expired a year ago; for a new
commercial treaty with France, COM
mercial and possibly a naturalization
treaty with Italy, for a new arbitration
treaty with Japan, for an understand
ing with China on the legal rights of
Americans there, for a waterways agree
ment with Canada and for the finan-
cial rehabilitation of Mexico. It also
wants q ratification Of the new debt
settlement with Germany
None OF these problems is particularly
complex except as to detail, with the
possible exception of the proposed nat
ural1zation treaty with Italy week
ago the Chinese problem looked bad,
but the latest Marking note on extrater-
r1toriality evinces surprising approach
by the Nationalist Chinese government
TO the American point of view, namely,
that the Chinese shall take over the
total administration of justice in China
gradually.
International Conferences.
This Government will participate in
at least dozen international confer
ences this year, of more or less inn
portance, but all requiring minute at
tention. Many Of them have to do with
Pan-American relationships in special
lied matters. At the same time the
United States will have something to
do with the settlement of boundary dis
putes between Honduras and Guate-
mala, Nicaragua and Honduras, Bolivia
and Paraguay, while Ecuador and Peru
have also resolved that if they cannot
settle their boundary differences they
will ask the United States to arbitrate
First and foremost in the pAblic eve,
however, are the coming Naval Confer
ence in London and the possibility that
the President may find an opportunity
TO bring membership in the World Court
before the Senate at this session.
Standing squarely on the platform of
the Kellogg BRAND anti-war pact, the
Presidents foreign policy reaches toward
judicial determination of all causes OF
dispute on the one hand and toward
reductions of arms and ornaments as
a moral and economic application of the
same principle on the other. The ex-
tent to which the United States is in
fact a world power is amply reflected
by the number, Importance and scope OF
the international problems now under
consideration by the President and his
advisers on foreign affairs.