Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-28
HOOVER DELAYED
IN DEBT CRISIS
Maintained Eon-Intervention
Policy Until Convinced AC-
ton Was Necessary.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

By FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Just as Woodrow Wilson moved with
reluctance and after protracted delay
to throw the weight of the United
States into the scales of war, so Herbert
Hoover determined within the past week
upon American intervention in the eco
nomic aftermath of the war The
| inside history of the program upon
! which President Hoover has just en-
| barke bears an amazing resemblance. in
the circumstances which led UP to it.,
to conditions which prompted American
entry into the European conflict ID
| years ago. Then, as now, the Washing
| ton administration was loathe and hesi-
/ tant to act. 1t kept us out of war"
| for two and ene-half years. 1t be-
lieved there was neither need nor any,
thing approximating united public
| opinion in favor. of our going in"
| Then, when German depredations on
the high seas threatened to do violence
to American rights and interests, the
United States abandoned its attitude Of
indifference. Our Isolation from the
Old Worlds turmoil was translated into
full-fiedged participation in 1t, with a
view to ending it as soon as possible.
Strictly European Problems.
Substitute terms of peace and eco
nomic distress for terms of war. and
you have, in what has happened at
Washington this month, a picture al
most identical with the enc that pre-
vailed here in 1914, 1915 and 1915.
Three successive Republican admin
strations since 1921-the Harding,
Coolidge and Hoover Government
maintained that reparations and war
debts were entirely unrelated. Repara-
tons were q strictly European problem,
| 1t was eentended. The $4,000. 000,
900 owing the United States Treasury
was a strictly American problem. They
could not and would not be intertwined,
Washington for 10 years maintained.
The position was reasserted as recently
as May 4, when, addressing the Inter-
national Chamber of Commerce in
Washington. President Hoover blasted
a thousand European hopes by refusing
to dignity war debts and reparations
with so much as a mention. He empha
sized the view that swollen ornaments
expenditure was the canker gnawing
at the European economic heart.
Sackett Changes Views.
Then things began irresistib-y to hap
pen. Within a few hours after the
International Chamber of Commerce
speech, President Hoover received Fred
eric M. Sackett, American Ambassador
to Germany, who had just arrived from
Berlin. Mi Sackett'S week in Wash
ington was unobtrusive, but, as now is
known, was devoted to some Of the most
brass-tacks talk ever dinned into the
ears of the President and Secretary
Stimson. Sackett reported that brave
and determined a fight as the linden
burg Bruening- Curtius government was
lii Situation
steadily drifting from bad to worse.
The nation was in sullen mood. Hit
lerism and Communism were waxing
stronger from day to day. Hostility Ia
crushing tax burdens. necessary to meet
reparaton payments, was no longer
confined to the extreme radical groups
in the Reichstag and the country. The
sanest business heads in thu Reich. as
we'll as IN the government, were be-
coming more and more concerned over
their ability to stave off catastrophe
events. Unemployment was increasing,
rather than diminishing. And, most
nerilous factor of all, the flight of cap
ital from GERMANY, especially the ruin
Gus deplstien of the R1icasbank's gold
supply, was confronting the govern
ment with a crisis beyond all possibility
of exaggeration. That, in sum and sub
stance, was the narrative that Anlbas-
sador Sackett, who is a conservative.
shrewd and cautious lawyer and bust
ness man and not an alarnist, laid
before his chiefs In Washington.
Norman Brings Notification.
About a fortnight previous more or
less identical reports about Germany
were submitted in Washington by Men
tagu Norman, governor of the Bank of
England. They, too, made deep i'm
preston upon the President, Secretary
Ssimson, Secretary Mellon, Gov. Meyer
of the Federal Reserve Board, and other
authorities with whom Norman con-
ferreA. When Nerman's accounts of
conditions in Germany were substanti-
etod by Ambassador Sackett, Washing
ton probably for the first time, COM
menced, IN the terminelogy Of slang
to sit up and take notice" But the
administration was net yet ready to
move. There were various indications
that the American econemio situation
was on the upgrade. Washington was
i DESTROYS of seeing depression eyaporate