Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-12-03
Simple American Sincerity
Was Greed of Secretary Hull

Department, almost simultaneously with
the attack on Pearl Harbor, and pre-
sented a note charging that the United
States was, in fact, preparing for war
against Japan, Mr.. Hull turned on him
with white-hot fury.
II have never seen a document" he
told the japanese, that was more
crowded with infamous falsehoods and
Observation-Disclosures falsehoods and
distortions on scale so huge that
never imagined until today that any
government on this planet was capable
of uttering them"
Kurusu beat a hasty retreat to the
sheltering walls of the Japanese
Embassy.
On the constructive side, Mr.. Hulls
diplomacy was dominated by two mo-
tives. First, he believed that tariffs or
any sort of artificial barriers to the free
flow of trade were the curse of the
world. In the dark days of 1888 when
he first took Office in the midst of the
world depression and when German mill
tarism was being reborn under the
aegis of the Nazis, he had sermon"
which he preached SO often in his press
conferences that, in time, both he and
the reporters began to joke about it.
The gist of it was that wars result from
human misery and that this misery, in
turn, was caused by the abnormal and
artificial barriers raised against the ex-
change of goods and services among
men.
Economic Ills
Mr.. Hulls main motive in accepting
the post of Secretary of State was the
opportunity it gave him to attack the
worlds economic ills. The failure Of
the World Economic Condemnation
which Mr.. Roosevelts planned devalu-
alton of the dollar was blamed-was a
deep disappointment to the new Secre-
tary. But he never criticized his chief.
He returned to attack with vigor the
problem of reducing tariffs by reciprocal
agreement, and at the outbreak of war
these had been signed with more than
a score of nations.
Second, Mr.. Hull, although he cap
tanned a company in the Spanish
American War, has an ingrained hatred
of the economic waste and human suf-
fering involved in warfare. The only
effective bulWark he saw against 1t was
in the international organization of So
ciety under law. the same sort of law
that protected decent men in Carthage,
Tenn.
Plan for Peaceful Area
The dead rot of internal strife in
Europe had advanced too far by 1888
to offer much hope of world organiza-
ton, but Mr.. Hull hoped to make a
peaceful area" of the Western Hem
isphere. That was the motivation be-
hind the six successive conferences at
Montevideo. Buenos Aires, Lima, Pam
anna City, Havana and Rio de Janiero.
War in Europe and the Far East found
the Western World, save for Argentina,
united in resistance to aggression
For the last year Mr.. Hull had cen
tered his hope on the organization Of
the sort of world security union whose
basis was laid at the Dumbarton Oaks
Conference. He left the direction of
that to his aide and successor, Edward
r. Stettinius, but had planned to take
over active control of the American del
egation to the full United Nations Sc
curity conference.
A Supreme Tragedy
Two months ago the ravages of age
and more than a decade of strenuous
work forced him to enter Naval Hos
pital He had hoped that it would
be only for a brief rest and there is no
doubt that, as he wrote President Roos-
evelt in resigning it was a supreme
tragedy to him that he had to yacate
the State Department just as his long
laid plans for postwar peace were near
ing fruition.
The President has expressed the hope
that the veteran Secretary of State will
preside over the first meeting of the
United Nations organizations to which
he devoted himself so fully Health
permitting, there is every prospect that
he will
Although Cordell Hull has left the
State Department. where he stayed
longer than any other man in American
history, there is no doubt that he will
continue as revered elder statesman,
to exercise large influence on Amer
lean foreign policy.