Evening star., 1937-03-17
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WIFE,

It's doubtful If any single utterance
on the Supreme Court issue, outside of
White House fireside chat, has been
awaited with keener interest than the
coast-to-coast address which Senator
Carter Glass will broadcast over the
Columbia network or Monday evening,
March %. The Virglnian has not yet
fixed upon title for his talk, but he is
sure to deliver a sledge- e-hammer attack
on President Roosevelts program. New
Dealers have the healthiest respect for
the Old Dominion statesman when he
dons oratorical war paint. His famous
broadcast of November /, 1892, on the
eve of the first Roosevelt landslide, was
universally acknowledged to have been
the most effective speech made on F..
D. RS behalf during the entire cam
paign. The President-elect joined in
that view. Mr.. Glass was overwhelmed
with congratulatory letters and tele-
grams, among the first to arrive being
grateful message signed Franklin D.
Roosevelt. Several hundred of the more
prominent communications later were
bound in volume. They comprise about
the most distinguished batch of fan"
material in radio history. The Virginian
is understood to have resisted to the
last all overtures to do reelection
broadcast in 1896.
In the shake-up of the diplomatic
service now undergoing consideration by
President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull
foreign trade is receiving primary
thought. From the administrations
standpoint improvement of commercial
relations-Wider markets for American
goods-is of paramount importance in
our foreign policy. Ambassadorial and
ministerial changes will be made largely
with this objective in mind. Some time
ago the President, in authorizing a
transfer of career diplomats to Consular
posts-a procedure that used to rank as
demotion-observed that he might want
to appoint the men in question to be
Ministers or Ambassadors one day, and
believed that practical experience in the
trade field would make them better
diplomats. At recent congressional hear
lngs on foreign service appropriations,
Secretary Hull's lieutenants pointed out
that State Department representatives
abroad nowadays concern themselves un-
remittlngly with ways and means of
promoting American business. They are
occupied with reciprocal tariff agree
ments, trade quotas and embargoes, ex-
change controls and other practical af-
fairs once considered beneath the dignity
of diplomats
Notwithstanding the present policy of
emphasizing trade relations, to the
practical exclusion of peace, disarma-
ment, war debts and correlated interna-
tional issues, the view persists in foreign
diplomatic quarters that President
Roosevelt is definitely planning an in
ternational conference to deal with one
or all OF these subjects. Norman H.
Davis impending arrival In London to
represent the United States at the World
Sugar Conference is widely interpreted
as an initial, if veiled, move to explore
the possibilities of bringing the powers
together under Yankee auspices for
political, economic or military and naval
purposes. Because of his far-fung Euro
pean contacts, Uncle Sans Ambassador
at large is we'll qualified to feel out the
situation. Mr. Davis soundings and
findings, 1t is thought, will largely de-
termine Mr.. Roosevelt's decision whether
or not to make some dramatic interna-
tional move. The President will be
guided, too, by what he has just learned
ut Warm Springs from Ambassador Bull