Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-24
Candor-Borah Brand.


Candor, proclaimed by Premier Laval
himself as the keynote of his visit to
the United States, was invoked by
Senator Borah yesterday in a truly
heart-to-heart interview with the
French journalists accompanying the
head of their government. The scribes
from the Seine sought Of their own
volition to beard the senatorial lion in
his den, as their Washington colleagues
are won't to do as a daily professional
pastime.
Borah's fame, though he himself has
never shifted the salt of the sea, is as
wide ~ ia globe itself. The Partisan
newspaper men wouia IS soon have :ett
Washington without seeing nix as fall
ing to make contact with the PrrsrSaat
of the United States himself Gae of
the wreckers in chief Of the Versailles
treaty in the Senate, the name Of Borah
Is one to conjure with on the boulevards,
II not one which impels Frenchmen to
throw up their hats at its mention.
The chairman Of the Senate Com
mittee on Foreign Relations asked his
Gallo callers If they wanted him to
speak freely. That was exactly what
they desired. Thereupon Idaho's IA
vorite son promised to give them both
barrels-"to be frank, if not diplo-
matte" AS a man of his word, Senator
Borah proceeded faithfully to carry out
that threat. He insisted always that he
was ventilating his own mind, not the
views of the Senate.
But 100000 Frenchmen know that
on more than one occasion what Borah
says today the Senate frequently ap-
proves tomorrow. So even M. Laval
probably had a certain mental reserva-
ton when, in response to an invitation
to comment on the foreign relations
chairnan's statements, the premier sug-.
gested that mot too much weight
should be put on the words Of one Sen
ator whose speeches reflect only him
self" Mr.. Borah is one of the few
members of Congress of whom it can
be said that he represents vastly more
than a single vote or an individual
viewpoint. He is man with follow
ing, like M. Laval himself.
There is, happily, no reason to sls-
pect that any of the Idahoan's unre-
strained outgivings to his newspaper
guests will cause rift in the lutte upon
which President Hoover and Premier
Laval are stunning. The precise
tune of their theme song has yet to be
made known. Following their pro-
longed confab in the history hallowed
Lincoln study at the White House, it
was officially bulletined that world
economic recovery is the subject upon
which they are solely engaged"
That generality can be interpreted,
II one pleases, as meaning that purely
political questions, as such, are not
under discussion-hat subjects upon
which Senator Borah expressed himself
with familiar vigor, including security,
reparations, Versailles treaty revision,
the Polish corridor, Upper Silesia, Rus
sian recognition and disarmament, are
taboo in the Hoover Laval conversa-
tions. The White House communique
declares that the President and the
premier are talking only about such
policies as each of the two govern
ments can develop to expedite recov-
cry from the world economic depres-
sion"
Sooner or later, it must be hoped,
the American people will be acquainted
in more categorical terms than these
with just exactly what is going on.
They will not be indefinitely satisfied
with diplomatic circumlocution. No one
has a right to expect premature dis
closures, but in due course the public
interest will be served, in France, in
the United States and in the world at
large, by candid revelation of the Hoo
ver-Laval discussions. The revelation
need not be as soul-baring as Senator
Borah believes in. 1t will fall far short
of what the American people are enti-
tied to know If it does not bring out
into the full glare Of pitiless publicity
the true inwardness of a conference
concerned with affairs of vital msgni-
tude for all mankind.
If the French and American view
points on cardinal questions are irrec-
oncilable, the atmosphere will be
cleared by frank exposition Of them.
Public opinion, which, after all, is the
supreme arbiter in both countrie-, can
not be intelligently modified until 1t is
in nossession of all the facts let the
chips fall where they may.