Evening Star Newspaper, March 10, 1935, Page 29

PRESIDENTIAL DEALINGS WITH DIPLOMATS SCORED State Department Is Termed Proper Medium for Carrying on Negotia- tions With BY WILLIAM R. CASTLE, Jr, Former United Stgies Undersecretary of ate. E USED to worry, in the De- partment of State, when- ever the President had a private conversation on official matters with the representative of a foreign nation. We did not have to worry often, because it practically never happened. After that famous discussion on a log at the Rapidan Camp we talked over the possibilities of trouble that might ensue, not because either Mr. Hoover or Mr. MacDonald would have intentionally said anything to bind his government, but because each man might so easily misunderstand some quite innocent remark of the other Out of such inevitable misunderstand- ings serious consequences sometimes arise. Everybody was relieved when it became known that the talk, although earnest and ranging over every pos- sible topic. had been general and not a discussion of specific subjects. What is not always remembered in this country is that the words of a chief of state are always looked on as being somehow oracular, as having | good international understanding is | significance—especially if | concerned. profound they are uttered by the chief of some other state. Much of the sacred char- acter of the words of a King has car- ried across to the word of his succes- sor a President. In the old days Kings undoubtedly discussed affairs of state with each other, but when they spoke with men of lesser rank they did not discuss—they pronounced judgment. Their spoken word was considered as binding on the nation. Talks Not Binding. For this very reason it became | necessary to have foreign offices. For- | eign Ministers and Ambassadors could | really discuss matters and thresh out | the points of possible controversy; | what they said did not bind their gov- ernments until the result of their dis- cussions had been reduced to writing, | had been signed and passed on by the chief of state—in very modern times by the Parliament as well. Danger of any serious misunderstanding was thus minimized because inferior offi- cers could admit mistakes and could sound out various methods of reaching conclusions in a way that was impos- Foreigners. desire to impress the world and the American people with the fact that the most important men of the most important nations would hurry to Washington at the President’s re- quest; or how much it was a genuine desire to settle certain questions in advance to assure a successful con- {;xjence—it is futile to speculate upon is. If, in the conference, the United States planned to take the leadership, there is justification even in the first explanation of the invitation; but the almost utter lack of preparation would suggest that the second explanation, however compelling the desire to make the conference successful may have been at first, was forgotten. At any rate MacDonald came, and | Herriot, and Ishii—to mention only | three of them. They saw the Presi- | dent alone and with others, appar- | ently did not attempt to reach any | conclusions, had a more or less agree- | able time and spent a great deal of money. The later conference was, as we all know, a dismal failure. | Let us look, then, at the unfor- | tunate results of these visits, so far as The good that should lhave issued from them, leaving out positive results on the work of the conference, was that those who came would get to know and appreciate | American problems and that thus future relations would be simpler end | more cordial. What actually hap-' pened? Planned Stabilization. | MacDonald returned to England seemingly convinced that the prin- cipal result America hoped from the | economic conference was an agree- ment on measures to bring about | some kind of international stabiliza- | tion of currency. MacDonald knew that the British government was not | ready to stabilize, but was sure that to do this was better than to lose American co-operation. Plans were | | worked out to that end. | | But in the meantime, back in the United States, N. R. A. and A. A A, had changed the picture and it looked | as though stabilization would affect the far more important domestic pro- gram adversely. In consequence there sible for their chiefs. Soon after his inauguration I was talking one day at the White House with Mr. Coolidge. In his comments —and those who knew Calvin Coolidge knew that when he wanted to talk no one could be more fluent—he con- fused the identity of two men about whom we were talking and, in conse- quence, said something very sharp of one of them—something which was entirely untrue. Before I had a chance to point out the mistake he corrected himself, and then remarked, “I have got to learn that hard lesson that every word the President of the United States says weighs a ton.” Perhaps that was one of the expla- nations of Mr. Coolidge’s famous si- lences. There is no doubt that his reticence prevented many a mistake, and there is no doubt that he realized how much more potentially dangerous ill-considered remarks would be when made to foreigners. Nation’s Head Must Take Care. The head of a nation has to be more and more and more careful as to what he says as his country grows in importance and power. Whereas John Adams or Thomas Jefferson | could send for a foreign minister to talk over affairs of state, it would have caused a sensation abroad if Coolidge or Hoover had done the same thing. Even at the beginning of our history it was realized that for the President to carry on his own nego- tiations was a little undignified, defi- nitely inappropriate and might be definitely dangerous. This method is exactly on a par with having legal issues passed on first of all by the Supreme Court: There is no possibil- ity of appeal. George Washington realized these | things and created the office of Sec- retary of State. From that time on the successive Presidents have seen less and less of the diplomatic corps or of high officials of foreign govern- ments visiting in Washington, except, of course, in a purely social way. ‘There have been one or two excep- tions. Theodore Roosevelt is the most notable. He was a law unto himself, had his strong personal likes and dis- likes, rode and tramped with Ambas- sadors just as he did with fellow Americans, and said just about what he pleased to those with whom he ‘was on very friendly terms. Swept Away by Friendship, ‘They understood him, however, ‘happened to be men of common sense and were swept away by the Presi- dent’s genius for friendship. Their atrictly official dealings with the American Government were through the Secretary of State, and they re- peated to him what Roosevelt had told them, just as the President tried 1o remember to do himself. Furthermore, the two men whom Roosevelt placed in the Department of State—John Hay and Elihu Root— were extraordinarily competent and experienced men who gleaned much from situations which less able men would have found demoralizing. It is fair to say that, certainly since the Civil War, the excellent custom has become established that ell official dealings with foreign gov- ernments are to be carried on through the Department of State. The main purpose of this is to avoid misunder- standings. Its subsidiary purposes are to throw international negotiations, so far as possible, into the hands of experts; to make it certain that ade- quate records shall be kept of all im- portant conversations:; to concentrate the conduct of foreign relations in one organization, thus minimizing the danger of -contradictions, which are otherwise unavoidable. ‘The objection might be raised that ‘Woodrow Wilson, for example, was far more capable of understanding foreign affairs than was Williem Jen- nings Bryan, with his solicitude for the Swiss navy: but true as this may be in the individual case, it is not true in the long run; and even in the individual case it is probable that Wilson was not as capable as was the whole Department of State with its experts, with its men of real learning and real wisdom, like John Bassett Moore and Frank Lyon Polk. In destroying this custom the pres- sent administration has seriously weakened the Department of State and has endangered our good relations with the rest of the world. Parley Preliminaries Cited. This seems a strong statement— yet I believe the record bears it out. Let us examine just a small part of that record. In preparation for the World Eco- nomic Conference which was held in London in the Summer of 1933 the American Government invited various foreign statesmen to Washington for discussions with the President. How much of this was showmanship, the went from the Presider.c a very sherp | cable refusing to consider any | stabilization plan whatever. That | killed the conference. | Herriot came to Washington almost | hopeless of securing any useful re- | | sults, because America had just gone | off the gold standard. But he was de- lighted with his talks with the Presi- | dent, after all. What he thought he | learned was that in the matter of | German rearmament America was entirely on the side of France and | would exert its power to prevent such rearmament. Because he believed | the President had said this and said | it with great vigor, Herriot ignored the fact that this was exactly the kind of European political question :in | | which America had always refused to | become involved, | When Viscount Ishii was talking with the President they discussed Japanese policy in the Orient, but, so ‘Iar as any one knew, without com- mitment on either side. A few moriths later the Department of State be- | lieved it to be necessary to send a | sharp note to Japan about its action in Manchoukuo. Immediately Viscount | Ishii issued a statement that the note was unfair because in Washington the | President had told him that he recog- | nized the special position of Japan in the Far East. The President re- torted that he had said no such thing. i Litvinoff Met Roosevelt. | Or, to take a more recent example, | not connected with the economic con= | ference. When Litvinoff came to | Washington to negotiate the recog- | nition of the Soviet Government. he, | like the others, had several private | talks with the President, although |most of the detailed negotiation was !carned on with the Department of | State. When he left, with recognition in his pocket, it was understood that definite arrangements would speedily be made to boom American export trade with Russia—the reason people had favored recognition—and for the settlement of American claims against the Soviet. A short time ago the Secretary of State was compelled to admit that the negotiations had failed, that there would be no revival of trade except in the ordinary course of business, and that there would be no payments on the American claims. Immediately Litvinoff issued a statement that the failure was due to the fact that the American Government would not make good on the President’s promise of a substantial loan to the Soviet. MacDonald, Herriot, Ishii, Litvinoft —Great Britain, France, Japan, So- viet Russia—believe that the Presi- dent of the United States made prom- ises which he did not keep and thus the good faith of the Nation is im- pugned. This proves how infinitely wise was the old rule that negotiations with foreign nations must be concen- trated in the Department of State, that the President must keep out of them until the time came for him to approve or disapprove the conclusion —except, of course, in so far as he might discuss progress with his own Secretary of State. No subordinate officer binds the Government unless he signs a written statement. Neither does the President, legally—but in the minds of foreign- ers there is no doubt that the spoken word of the President is considered as binding as the written word of any inferior officer. Absolves President. I do not for & moment assert that the President made to Litvinoff and Ishii and Herrlot the statements they attribute to him—at least in the sense in which they took them. In fact, I believe the contrary. But just asim- portant as what we Americans believe 15 what the foreigners believe. It does not increase our respect for them to believe that their spokesmen are not telling the truth, any more than it increases their réspect for us to believe that the President deceived their dele- gates. Any one of us can work out a form of words the President might have used, quite unconsciously, which could ]e;aly and honestly be made by his ners to mean what hoped he did mean. el b The heart of the matter is this: In these days when international rela- tions are everywhere in a perilous state the American = Government should lean over backward to avoid any possibility of misunderstandings. The President is the court of last re- sort in foreign policy. He should never be dragged in or permitted to force his way into preliminary discussions of foreign problems. It is not his place. It detracts from his dignity and his authority. The of State.is his adviser in these matters [4 and the sole responsibility of the Secretary should be promptly reaf- firmed. » THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 10, 1935—PART TWO. D—3 WOMEN’S VOTE GROWING ISSUE FIFTY YEARS AGO The New Deal in Canada Prime Minister Bennett Throws Bombshell Into Conservative Party Ranks PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS AT BY H. CARL GOLDENBERG, Lecturer in Ecomomics, McGill University. HE New Deal marches on. It passes the confines of the United States. It finds an ex- ponent in England in the per- son of Lloyd George and is the model of new industrial legislation in France. It now comes to Canada. Its | broad outlines there have been for-| mulated in a series of radio broad- | casts. It is built on the following premises: | “Capitalism must change to meet | the changed conditions of the New | World, if it is longer adequately to serve yc 4 “The profit motive has served the people these many years and it will continue. But could you leave it un- restrained, uncontrolled, free to do as it pleases? That is license.” “We must now have a social ideal as distinguished from what we con- ceived to be individual right.” “I am for reform, and reform means government intervention. It means government control and regulation. It means the end of laissez-faire. There can be no permanent recovery without reform.” Bennett's Views. The speaker is not the leader of Canada’s small Socialist group, nor is it a “brain truster” delivering an academic lecture. It is R. B. Bennett, Conservative prime minister of Can- ada, nailing the New Deal plank into the election platform of his party. It is Mr. shell into Dominion politics. This is an election year in Canada. The terms of office of the Bennett government is now expiring. It must seek a renewal of the mandate which it received at the polls in 1930, when | it defeated the Liberal administration of Mackenzie King. It attained power on the crest of the wave which in de- pressions upsets governments indis- criminately. Its platform contained nothing unusual, nothing radical. It was elected on the traditional Conservative policy of higher tariffs. It summoned a special session of Parliament immediately after the elec- tion in order to put this policy into effect. It raised Canada’s tariff to the highest point in its history, and then negotiated an empire trade agreement. Beyond this it relied on “natural” processes of recovery. But as the depression became more serious, the “natural” forces did not seem to assert themselves. High tariffs did not banish unemployment. In fact, the situation grew constanly worse. Forced in Modification. Mr. Bennett was compelled to mod- ify some of his principles: he began to administer direct relief to the un- employed; he came to the rescue of the credit of the near-bankrupt west- ern provinces. The small Socialist group in Parliament urged drastic re- form measures, but they were re- ceived with contempt. State inter- vention and regulation were heretical to the Conservative party. Then came Mr. Roosevelt and the New Deal. The facts of geography had created close economic relation- ships between Canada and the United States; 1t was inevitable that the new program would affect the Do- minion. At the outset Mr. Bennett declared that there was no room for an N. R. A. in Canada; that Canada was recovering without state inter- vention. His theme was seized upon in anti-Roosevelt circles in the United States; financial journals pointed to “recovery” in Canada as an example of the operation of natural forces, un- hindered by state interference. But a change was soon to come; the facts of economics and politics are all-pow- erful. ‘The distress of the producers of pri- mary products in Canada, deprived of their foreign markets and the defeat of the Conservative governments in two of the provinces led to a partial conversion of Mr. Bennett in 1934. The legislation enacted by Parliament last year manifested the first influences of Mr. Roosevelt’s policles in Canada. The provisions of the Dominion com- panies’ act were made more stringent. Monetary legislation was modified by reducing the required gold reserve against notes, with a consequent ex- pansion of the currency. A moderate public works program was initiated. The farmers’ debt burden was reduced by the enactment of farmer-creditor debt adjustment acts. The natural products marketing act was passed, with extensive powers of government control and regulation; it was the most radical and the most bitterly de- bated measure of the session. Such was Canada’s first installment of the New Deal. It was not ushered in with the enthusiasm displayed by \ Bennett throwing a bomb- | by Espousing OTTAWA. CANADA. LEFT INSET RIGHT INSET: RICHARD B. Mr. Roosevelt's supporters; it was not even called a New Deal or a reform program. It was followed by crushing defeats of government candidates in by-elections, and by the defeat of two New Policies. MACKENZIE KING. BENNETT, PRIME MINISTER. (more provincial Conservative govern- | ments. In Saskatchewan. as previous- ly in Brtish Columbia. the Conserva- tive party did not teturn a single member. In Ontario Mitchell Hep- SAN SALVADOR ELECTION SHOWS UP U. S. POLICIES BY GASTON NERVAL. NEW government was jnaugu- | rated a few days ago in San Salvador—a government which was not the result of violence, but the expression of popular votes. What should prove even more sig- nificant than this evidence °f gov- ernmental stability to readers in this country is the fact that the new regime is headed by the same man whom the United States refused to recognize during two whole years when he. as legally-elected Vice Pres- ident, was completing the term of for- mer President Araujo. | Of course, the experience is not un- known to the men in charge of inter- American relations at the State De- | partment. Many times in the past | they have denied recognition to pop- ular governments, and even supported | unpopular minorities in the opposi- end by the verdict—freely expressed at the polls—of the very masses whose judgment they had misrepre- sented. The case of Nicaragua is typical. In two consecutive presiden- tial elections, supervised by officials | of the United States, the two Liberals |who had been antagonized by Wash- ington, even with armed forces, while they were trying to show the world that the Conservatives had usurped power against the will of the people of Nicaragua, Moncada and Sacasa, were successively elected to the presi- dency by large majorities. The case of Cuba, where a little over a year ago the State Department refused to recognize Grau San Martin, alleging he lacked popular support, and even helped his overthrow, and where Grau San Martin is now the strongest presi- dential aspirant, is still in the lime- light. Shows Peril in Policy. Nevertheless, even though the ex- perience with respect to El Salvador is not new, it emphasizes once more the dangers involved in allowing the State Department to pass upon the legitimacy and the strength of Latin American governments and to deter- mine which one is popular and which is not. Gen. Maximiliano Hernandez Mar- tinez, the new chief executive of El Salvador, had a difficult time con- vincing the State Department that his previous tenure of the presidency, having succeeded to that office as the elected Vice President in the absence of the incumbent, was either consti- tutional or popular. More than two years elapsed before the United States agreed to recognize the government of Gen. Martinez. To justify its action, the State Department, besides stressing the “unpopularity” of the Martinez re- gime, availed itself of a treaty tech- nicality which not only did not bind the United States, but was inap- plicable to the case. The experts at the State Department argued that the United States had promised to follow the policy laid down by the Central American treaties of 1923— to which they were not a party— stipulating that no person who had taken part in a successful revolu- tion, or who had held a cabinet port- folio in a government overthrown by force, could be extended recogni- tion as the head of a new regime. They claimed that Gen. Martinez, as minister of war of the Araujo government, which he succeeded, could not be recognized. Martinez Not Revolutionary. Besides the fact that this promise had not been strictly adhered to in the past, there were several reasons why the rule, if it was such, did not apply to the case of the Martinez regime. In the first place the Martinez gov- ernment was not a revolutionary one. It had been established in accordance tion, only to be contradicted in the | Refused Recognition by State Depart- ment for Two Years, Gen. Mar- tinez Retains His Power. | with the constitution of El Salvador. which provides that, when the chief executive absents himself from the country without congressional per- mission, the Vice President auto- matically becomes his successor for the remainder of the term. Gen Martinez was the legally elected Vice President of El Salvador when Presi- dent Araujo abandoned his post and left the country at the outbreak of a military uprising in the capital. At the beginning Gen. Martinez was suspected of having taken a part in the uprising and. though no one contested his right to succeed Araujo, public opinion showed itself hesitant to uphold him. But soon afterward. when the Salvadorians became aware that the Vice President not only had remained aloof in the contest between Araujo and the military leaders, but had also prevented the complete breakdown of the constitutional status by taking over the reins and restoring order, they rallied to his support | almost without distinction of political | creeds. Later on the Salvadorian | Congress formally sanctioned the new regime, thus removing any doubt as | to its legal nature. | United States Not Party to Treaties. As for the argument that Gen. Martinez held a portfolio in Araujo's cabinet, those who used it overlooked the fact that, besides being a cabinet officer, Gen. Martinez was also the legally elected Vice President. If as a cabinet officer he could not be rec- ognized by the other Central Ameri- can republics—not by the States, which was not a party to the 1923 treaties—as the constitutional denied recognition. More less so than by any other American republic, could he be denied recognition by the United States. The Central American governments had, at least, the right to interpret the 1923 treaties in a way that might have justified non-recognition, but the United States was not a party to the treaties. The United States had merely promised. of its own will, to follow the spirit of constitutionality embodied in them, with respect to the recognition of Central American re- gimes. The Martinez government of El Salvador was not in conflict with that principle of constitutionality. It had been set up in accord with the constitution of the country and, more- over, it counted upon overwhelming popular support. Recognition Delay Criticized. When it is further realized that, outside of the legal aspect, the eco- nomic as well as the political inter- ests of the United States advised recognition, it is hard to understand why the State Department took two years to recognize the Martinez re- gime in El Salvador. Economically, not only were the debts contracted by previous Salvadorian governments im- periled by lack of recognition, but this, also, obstructed commercial re- lationships between the two coun- tries. Politically, the persistence of the non-recognition policy could not be harmonized with the promises of non-intervention and respect for the sovereignty of Latin American peoples, with which the State Department was trying to regain good will in the Southern Hemisphere. But, more than anything else, more than any one of those arguments, what illustrates most plainly the er- ror of that delay is acknowledging the legitimacy and the popularity of the previous Martinez regime, is the fact that Gen. Martinez, after having resigned voluntarily from the post six months ago, has just been given by his countrymen, in compli- ance with constitutional provisions, a popular mandate to head the Salva- dorian ship of state for another four years. (Copyright, 1935.) { FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA. United | Vice President he certainly could be ‘ Carpenter Describes Work of Susan B. ~—Underwood Photos. burn became the first Liberal prime | mihister since 1905. The prospect was | dark for Mr. Bennett: it was appar- | ent that he was destined for an in- glorious defeat. He decided to call the | New Deal to his rescue. A royal commission has been inves- tigating Canadian business practices for many months, following the lines of congressional investigations at Washington. It has disclosed highly unsatisfactory conditions—low wages, long hours. child labor. sweat shops | and exploitation of the primary pro- ducer. Its chairman was H. H. Stev- ens, minister of trade and commerce in Mr. Bennett's cabinet. When Mr. Stevens in a number of speeches com- mented in rather forceful language on the disclosures of his investigation, | he brought down upon himself the wrath of certain corporations; Mr. Bennett virtually dismissed him from | the cabinet. This move threatened to split the Conservative party. Which already was apparently doomed. Then something happened. Wields Thunderbolt. On the night of January 2 Mr. Bennett delivered the first of a series of five radio addresses; it came as a thunderbolt. He took up the torch of Mr. Stevens—and more. He poured out his wrath upon the evils and | abuses of the capitalist system: he | saw it doomed to extinction unless subjected to governmental control and regulation. In succeeding broadcasts | he outlined a legislative program to carry his reforms into effect. The legislation is now being drafted and. it is understood, will be presented to the present session of Parliament. It will embrace the following meas- ures: (a) Unemplovment insurance; (b) Health insurance; pensions; (d) Federal enforcement of uni- | form minimum wages and a uniform | maximum working week; (e) Termination of child labor and | of sweat-shop conditions; (f) Amendment of the income tax | | law to correct inequalities as between | | earned and unearned income. (g) Company legislation to prevent | stock-watering and to prohibit no- | | par value stock: | (h) Regulation of “concentrations |in production and distribution” and | the prevention of unfair trade prac- tices; } (1) Appointment of an economic | advisory council. Not Revolutionary. This reform program is extensive, | but it is not revolutionary. It em- | bodies provisions of Mr. Roosevelt's IN. R. A. and his projected social security measures; it proposes nothing which has not been tried in Great Britain. In so far as it introduces social legislation it will merely raise Canada to the level of a normal modern industrial nation. It is 8 typical liberal program in the present economic state of society. It is out of the ordinary only in that it is proposed by the traditional party of conservatism in Canada, presented in forceful language denouncing the evils of capitalism by Mr. Bennett, wealthy bachelor, brilliant corpora- tion lawyer and former bank director. In enunciating his new deal plat- form, the prime minister has amazed his own party no less than his op- ponents. Orthodox Conservatives have always believed in making haste slowly. * They have witnessed with suspicion and fear the growing tend- ency toward state interference. ‘They have attempted to stem the tide, but now find their leader abandon- ing them. They don’t understand it Anthony in Interv iew With Famous Suffragist Leader. This is the forty-fifth of a series of weekly artiiles on interesting persons and events in the Nat‘onal Capital during the 80s, by Frank G. Carpenter, world-famous author and traveler. The next chapter in the series will be published nert Sunday in The Star. CHAPTER XLV. BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. USAN B. ANTHONY is here at | the Riggs House, carrying on | her usual woman's rights cam- | paign. She is looking well and | tells me she expects to have considerable agitation this year in Congress. | “Twenty-five Senators,” she says, “have already told us that they are not opposed to us, and I do not per- ceive the ridicule of the past in the attitude of public men toward woman suffrage. The cause is growing, and especially in the minds of women of the South. Men from the Southern States invariably say that the women of their sections want nothing to do with woman’s rights. They know less about the opinions of their women | than they did about the desire of the | Negroes for liberty. One of the high school teachers of New Orleans is a niece of Jeff Davis; she is woman's rights to the very backbone. There are 400 female teachers in the schools of New Orleans to about 8 male teachers, yet the Governor will not appoint wem- | en to places on the school boards. There is a growing sentiment against this. | women as the Territory of Wyoming.” Miss Anthony is now engaged upon the third and last volume of her his- tory of woman's suffrage, which will soon be ready for the press. It will comprise three large volumes of 1,000 pages each, finely illustrated with steel engravings of the leading people connected with the cause. Col. Hay. Col. John Hay has shown in his new Washington house the triumph of architeture in brick, and in his par- lors and in those of Mrs. Whitney, the wife of the Secretary of the Navy, | you may find the triumph of comfort- able furniture in wicker work. gilded so that it appears to be made of golden wire and upholstered in rich brocaded satin of many colors. There are sofas, easy lounges, tete-a-tete chairs and tables of this rich material, and while visiting Col. Hay I noticed little foot- stools of golden wire with satin tops. The satin and the gold give a warm tint to the furniture, while the elastic nature of the wicker makes the whole the most comfortable of seats and loafing places. Perry Belmont. Perry Belmont is one of the smallest and youngest men in this Congress. He is 35 years old and he does not weigh more than 125 pounds. He is of medium height and so slim that as he walks up the hill to the Capitol. with his frock coat buttoned closely about his thin form, it is a wonder that our strong Potomac breezes do not blow him away. He stands very great deal of dignity. To look at him mustache and his nose above it curls with a misanthropic air. He is one of is said that his tongue can be bitter and sarcastic upon occasion. This young man's father. August the Rothschilds started and in which the people still point out their old banking place in the Jewish quarter. August Belmont attracted the atten- was sent by them to Naples. In 1837 when he was 21 years of age, he came Austria in the latter part of the 40s and he has been Minister to The Hague, where he was engaged in a he walks with a limp to this day. August Belmont married Oliver H. Perry’s niece and it is thus that Perry Belmont gets his first name. The Bel- mont family is one of the richest and | most aristocratic of New York, and on both sides of the house, Perry Bel- mont has a great deal of political in- fluence to back him. Sleighing in Washington. Washington is having its first good spell of sleighing in vears. Pennsyl- vania avenue is alive every afternoon with sleighs of all kinds, and their occupants, the ladies in sealskin sacques and the men in fur overcats, form a strange sight in this Southern city. All the dignitaries are out daily. There is many a double sleigh with its coachman in livery, and sleighing parties are all the go. Southern beauties of this new administration are taking their first sleigh rides. Everything imaginazle that can be turned into a sleigh has been util- ized and the combinations of some of the rigs are as wonderful as the most intricate inventions of the Patent Office. A friend of Tom Scott, the noted president of the Pennsylvania railroad, told me last night how Scott's choos- ing of railroading as a profession hung on the flipping of a penny. “Tom Scott told me the story him- self,” he said. “He was the toll collec- tor on the Pennsylvania Canal at Co- lumbia when the railroad authorities, hearing that he was a bright young man, offered him the position of sta- tion agent at Altoona. Scott was pop- ular and when he told his friends of his offer, they urged him to refuse it, they don't like it. Some may have hoped that the torch of laissez-faire and “freedom” would be carried on by Mackenzie King and the Liberal party. Mr. Bennett hoped so, too; he devoted his fifth radio address to a slashing attack on Mr, King as the apostle of reaction. He hoped to provoke him into violent opposition. King Political Strategist. Mackenzie King was prime minis- ter of Canada for almost nine years. He is a student of the social sciences. He initiated important social meas- ures, such as old-age pensions. He is a past master in the art of po- litical strategy. And so, when Parliament met, Mr. King took the offensive. He did not to stay on the canal. He resisted their importunities, but finally taking a big red copper in his fingers, said, ‘Boys, I'l let the fates decide. Heads Al- toona and tails Columbia!” He threw the copper into the air with a twist that sent it through a dozen somer- saults. It fell heads up. His friends then said that one trial was not enough, it must be two out of three. Scott threw again, heads turned up once more, and the railroad won. Had the copper fallen on the other side, who can tell what his future would have been.” Trolley Rides. Some of the street car scenes of Wi n are worth as much as the theaters of another city. The great- est of the great ride in the street cars oppose. He challenged Mr. Bennett to introduce the projected measures immediately. He offered to co-operate in the enactment of all legislation conforming to Liberal principles. He suggested that the proposed reforms were in large part copied from the Liberal platform. He is not going to (Continued on Tenth Page.) § here, and it not an uncommon thing to find yourself wedged in between a Senator whose presence would bring thousands to hear him speak and a general whose deeds will live in his- tory as long as time lasts. Today your companion may be a noted lawyer. tomorrow you may sit beside a dis- tinguished litterateur, and on the next ) day you may hob-nob and chat, if you will, with a cabinet minister. I rode home from the Capitol lsst | night in a car in which there were a | half dozen justices of the Supreme | Court, and when off the bench you | will not find a jollier set of fellows anywhere. They had left their gowns in the disrobing room, and came into the car in overcoats and mufflers. Stanley Matthews led the procession; he took his seat away up near the fare box, where during the trip he bobbed up and down putting in fares and getting change for the people be- hind him. Just opposite Matthews sat Judge Miller, beside him the Chief Justice. At one stop a little ruddy-faced boy of perhaps 6 years of age got into the car but failed to find a seat. Chief Justice Waite took him by the hand and said, “How do you do, my little man, let me have your fare and I will pass it up.” Stanley Matthews put the boy's fare into the box while Justice Miller took hold of his little hand and. drawing him up between his fat legs, gave him a seat on the edge of the bench. Confederate Money. In a street car the other day I saw a fine looking, gray-haired, white- whiskered Congressman giving away $10 bills to his fellow travelers. More than this. I was one of the men who received two of them. The giver was the Hon. Otto R. Singleton of Mis- sissippi, and the bills bore the stamp of the Confederate government. It was stated on their face that the United States and the Confederacy. Mr. Singleton had been in Congress six years before the war broke out; he had left Washington in 1861 to take a seat in the chamber of the Confederate Congress at Richmond; after the war he was again elected to ltht House; and he is now serving his | sixth term since then. I had asked Mr. Singleton a question about the Confederate Congress, and while an- swering it, he drew forth a great roll of these Confederate bills from one of the outside pockets of his overcoat. Like many another noted southern- er, Mr. Singleton had a lot of Con- federate money when the war ended, and a short time before the final crash, he sold a fine plantation for $17.000 in this money. He has pre- served these bills well and he has them now in the same fresh $500 bills which he received away back in 1864 or '65. Mr. Singleton is not the only man in Washington who lost a fortune by investing in such Con- federate money. I doubt not but of the score of Confederate soldiers now in Cfvngrr~.= there are many who have trunks full of this paper which was once worth so much and is now worth nothing James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell has been here during the past week talking to the Senate on the need of an internation- al copyright. I watched him closely as he spoke to the Senate committee. He is a round well-formed man of medium height with a big head cov- | straight and carries himself with & ered with brownish gray hair which ' he parts in the middle and combs as | no one would suppose that he had all carefully to either side as if he were | the Rothschilds at his back and that 'a society belle. He has a remarkably |he was one of the most influential long | young men of the country. His hair shape, the most striking feature of and eves are dark. He wears a thick which is the silky iron-gray beard of face, almost rectangular in a curious cut that covers the lower part of it. This beard is bushy and | the most pleasant men at times, and it the mustache has been so trained that it covers Mr. Lowell's upper lip and jutting out at each side moves on downward. It pushes its way down | Belmont, is a New York millionaire. | to the beard and extends for 2 inches | who was the son of a German farmer | below it, each end kissing, as it were, | near Frankfort, the city from which the notch in Mr. Lowell's coat collar. These whiskers of James Russell Lowell are as wavy and curly as though the crimping irons had been used upon them. and Mr. Lowell is, on |tion of the Rothschilds. and after the whole, a not unhandsome man. | working in their bank at Frankfort' He has a broad, high, full forehead which rises from his eyes to his hair in the shape of an almost perfect | to the Unitedt Sla(gs whe}r{e he dhas half moon, and which has four lines A 3 | since represented them. e under- | of wrinkles running diagonally ac: (c) A revised system of old-88€ | Gangq his business well and has kept | it. T ofite The eyebrows at the base of the | in close touch with diplomatic circles. | forehead are bushy and the twinkling | He was appointed consul general to|eyes which shine out of them are full of the fun which was given to the world in the Biglow papers. | Mr. Lowell was dressed in black, | duel. Belmont was wounded so that |and his coat seemed to fit badly. He | talked easily in a low. soft tone with a slight English accent. gesturing a | little and urging by all means the en- | iitlment of an international copyright | law. Though he does not look to be over 50, James Russell Lowell will see his | 66th year on the 22d of this month. | He was born on Washington's birth- day and 47 years ago was the clase | poet at Harvard College. The Biglow | papers made him famous away back in the days of President Polk, and since then he has been one of the literary lights of Washington. In | England, as Minister, he has been | feted and honored and he received similar treatment when he was our | Minister to Spain. — | Wales® Visit to Vienna More Than Mere Trip (Continued From First Page.) museum brought results, and I found myself in the presence of that incom- parably beautiful blending of pure gold and eramel. Through all the misery and disas- ter of the last 20 years, Austria has preserved not only her art treasures, such as pictures, jewelry, etc., but also the buildings and grounds which surround them. That a people so hard pressed could have done that seems hard to believe, but the beau- tiful evidence of it is on all sides. Vienna is still a jewel city. Strangely enough, the people of Vi- enna have emerged with their old spontaniety and light-heartedness from all their misfortunes. They are sustaining operas, theaters, music clubs and all the things that go with joyful living. In so doing they are, of course. stimulating the revival of that tourist business which, for the present, seems to be their chief hope. It is as yet, however, a very slow gain, counted in thousands today in- stead of the tens of thousands of better days. More than 60,000 small apartments have been built in recent years here, in spite of the fact that whole acres of living quarters in former palaces are unused. The answer in this case is probably to be found in the fact that the immense, high-ceilinged rooms of the older buildings would be too costly to heat. As for the Hapsburgs, who were | supreme here for nearly 1,000 years, |1 find no remnants of support on their behalf. The only recent use of | the name has been in advertisements of the “Habsburg Hand Laundry” on the outside of the 1932 telephone di- rectory—which is proof enough of the impermanence of even imperial glory. A