Evening star., 1938-04-02
.HOOvER'S SPEECH
ST|RS DISCUSSION
Capital Politicians Wonder
Whether Address Was
Nomination Bid.
Ey the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
Former President Hoover's vivid ac-
count of his observations in Europe
set political tongues wasging in Wash
ington, primarily over the question
whether his New York speech should
be construed as tentative bid for the
Republican presidential nomination in
1910.
Washington's increasing interest in
politics as the 1888 campaigning be-
gins made that of first importance to
Democrats, Republicans and mere
press gallery onlookers. About the
only agreement detachable was that if
Mr. Hoover actually intended his ad-
dress to be an invitation to his party
to consider his qualifications for re-
turn to the White House, he could
not have improved much on the speech
he made.
His remarks come when Republicans
in Congress are having the best time
they have known since their lean years
began in 1882 The strategy they
used in the court bill fight in the
Senate last summer is still working
well. Most of the shooting at Roose-
velt administration policies is being
left to anti-New Deal Democrats or
to other Democratic warriors who are
OF the Roosevelt reservation.
Stirs Party Trouble.
Revival of Republican discord over
presidential nomination maneuyering
platform-making, or anything else,
would be fly in the Republican oint-
ment just now. Mr.. Hoover's speech
could not help stirring up party trouble
on that score alone.
In quite another respect, however,
the former President faced q possible
volley of political backfiring. He sug-
gested that postwar relief debts owed
to this country by European nations
be dealt with in much the same way
the United States handled indemnity
from China after the Boxer uprising.
Mr.. Hoover was in China then. He
proposes now that money owed on
relief loans be used to promote cultural
relations through joint management
of the funds.
He appears to be aiming at an
American educational campaign in
Central Europe concerning the mean
ing and advantages of democracy.
his suggestion was
dropped into a political and economic
situation at home that is ripe for trou-
BILE over anything savoring Of inter-
national debt adjustments.
Contribute nto Precedent.
In the judgment of most observers
there is political dynamite in any such
suggestion at this time. Had it come
from the White House, an immediate
uproar in Congress would have result
ed, since the plan, in effect, would
cancel the relief debts in exchange for
more intimate cultural relations.
Brushing aside this and any other
political implications to be found in
the Hoover speech, it still is a re-
contribution to precedent
and current history. There is nothing
in the books to show that any former
President, who went abroad after his
term in office. ever came back to dis
cuss foreign relations as openly and
frankly as Mr.. Hoover has done.
In all the countries he visited, he
enjoyed honors. not only because of
mis- relief works before and after the
World War, but also because he had
been President of the United States.
That brought him into more in
innate contact with major figures in
the confused European scene than any
other man could have enjoyed. And
it is gloomy picture of the immedi-
ate future that he has strikinely
painted for American attention, al
though he does express belief that a
new world war will not break out soon,
War preparations are not yet COM
plete, he says.