Evening star., 1938-03-18
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM HILR

Despite the fortnight tone that rang
through Secretary Hulls scholarly ad-
dress on Our Foreign Policy" at the
National Press Club, many of his visible
audience could not help feeling that the
Tennessean was pulling his punches
They found it far more unrealistic.
pussyfooting performance than they as
sociate with Judge Hulls known attitude
toward the reign Of International ban
ditry now prevailing in Europe and Asia.
After all, under our system OF Govern
ment. the Secretary Of State is nothing
more than the mouthpiece Of admins
tration policy. The now transparent
purpose Of President Roosevelt is to do
nothing capable OF riling pacifist and
1solationist sentiment in Congress and
the country. An election for the House
and Senate is just around the corner.
The New Deal has plenty Of troubles OF
its own in the domestic field without
stirring up the animals in the even more
delicate realm Of foreign affairs Under
the circumstances, Mr. Hull went pretty
far In lambasting extreme isolationists
-isolationists at any price" but he was
caution and reluctance personif1ed In
refraining. except In plous generalities,
from specifying what the United States
gould, should or might do at this crisis In
human destinies
What the effect of Mr.. Hulrs pro-
nouncement abroad will be can be stated
in . single word of only three letters
nil. For all the actual influence his noble
words will have upon Hitler's plans in
CzechoSlovakia. Mussolini's designs on
Spain, and Japan's burglarious program
In China, the premier Of the New Deal
cabinet might just as well have mounted
to the top Of the Washington Monu-
ment and recited Longfellows Evange-
line. Honest, eloquent and straightfor-
ward as he always is, it was simply Cor
dell Hulls painful duty to tell the world,
democracies and relationships alike, that
America dislikes what's going on "over
there, but doesn't intend to do anything
about 1t. That was hts task and he full
filled 1t to the extent of his powers and
hmitstions-especially, his limitations.
History will not blame Hull for the con-
ditions which require him to enact pub
icly the role of an ostr1ch-he did not
even mention Austria. History rather
will condemn this peace-vorshippin
Nation for shutting its eyes and ears to
grim realities and ladling out soothing
syrup in an era Of blood and iron.
4
One day this week q visitor to the
marble palace inhabited by the board OF
governors of the Federal Reserve Sys-
tenn needed 4 quarter to pay his taxi,
but found himself with nothing smaller
than q f1ve-dollar bill. He dashed madly
around the $10OOO,0O0 temple of high
finance, within which billions are juggled,
asking where he could get change.
Finally. two economists, one statistician.
two guards and an elevator man pooled
their nuid assets and, among them,
agreed to unscramble the five dollars as
soon As one Of them could find time to
60 up the street to the delicatessen.
Now that all the shootin' is over, in
cluding the heavy barrage Of ridicule
and irony, it's the concensus that Gov.
Paul V. McNutt scored one OF the genuine
political successes Of the era during his
recent sojourn at Washington. That the
1ndianaa's stature a. presidential timber
was materially heightened is acknow-
ledged on all hands. Because Of the
modest. tactful and generally impressive
way he handled himself, he completely
overcame the handicap Of ballyhoo which
marked his debut on the Capital scene.
The McNutt 1910 boom II on-make no