Evening Star Newspaper, November 15, 1936, Page 39

Editorial Page Special Articles Part 2—12 Pages WAR DEBT MAY PAVE WAY TO PARLEY PAYMENTS Foreign Powers Watch Roosevelt Peace- Making Course Intently, Seeing Chance He Will Join European Appeal. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. EVER has an election in any N country been followed with keener interest or more hope- ful anticipation than was this year'’s American presidential cam- paign. It was as if the people of the United States were selecting a leader of the world, and not merely their own Chief Executive. The French Chamber postponed, for a few minutes, the squabble among its Deputies to express its delight over Mr. Roosevelt's overwhelming victory. - Premier Blum issued an of- ficial statement—an unprecedented act—congratulating the world upon | the President’s reselection. Mussolini | spoke warmly about the great Ameri- can leader, while the more or less controlled press throughout Europe sang a song of praise for the new President, pointing out the important implication of the return to office of “a man who understands and feels sympathetically toward world affairs.” In a war-scared, strife-ridden Europe the overwhelming popular support of President Roosevelt means only one thing: He will be free from the shackles which have thus far hampered him in his international activities, and during the next four years he will be able to “do things.” European statesmen feel that Mr. Roosevelt’s “good neighbor” policy is not an empty expression. They know that he and his Secretary of State realize that there can be no possible return to normalcy—either in the economic or political field—unless the problems which divide Europe into two camps are solved, and that these cannot be solved unless there is an impartial grbiter with sufficient pres- tige to tackle them forcefully. And they believe that the President of the United States—the most powerful country, economically and finan- cially—can gather around a confer- ence table the leaders of Europe and suggest solutions which might prove acceptable to all. Arms Conference Outline, The outline of the coming Limita- tion of Arms Coriference, which must necessarily be linked with an eco- nomic disarmament, was given here | last week and fairly represents the view of the President and those of the principal European leaders. The idea of a new international dis- armament conference has gained ground in Europe since Mr. Roose- velt's victory at the polls. During the Summer some of the European prime ministers and dictators discussed the possibility with this writer and ex- pressed the well-known fear, “Suppose Mr. Roosevelt gets the European na- tions to accept a limitation of arms and puts his signature -on that agree- ment. What will happen to it when it gets into the hands of the Senate? Won't we see a repetition of the Ver- sailles treaty and the League of Na- tions protocel?” The argument that a limitation of armaments was not the same thing as a political entanglement with European nations was not con- vincing for the politically-minded Eu- ropeans. But the fact that the Presi- dent will have the next Congress in his pocket has carried more weight in Europe than anythingg else. The conference plans of the new Roosevelt administration already have been outlined in this column: 1. The Pan-American conference— with a revamping of the Monroe Doc- | trine to suit the sensibilities ‘of the Latin American countries. Either the United States delegation at Buenos Ayres or the Brazilian delegation will propose that the Western Hemisphere undertake to prevent the interference of non-American nations in American affairs by their own collective efforts instead of leaving that police duty entirely to the United States. 2. A conference for the mainte- nance of the non-fortification clause of the Washington naval agreement of 1920, leading to discussions for the neutralization of the Philippines. | moval of the war debt “apple of dis- | | problem—the pacification of Europe. 3. The revival of th€ limitation of | (Copyright, McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) arms conference, covering also the subject of economic disarmament. The success of the latter depends upon the outcome of the first two conferences. Meanwhile faith in the effectiveness of conversations in place of the force of arms must be revived among the European peoples. Efforts will also be exerted to restore among the American people confidence in the good will of the nations across the Atlantic. To this end American Am- bassadors in Paris and Rome are dis- cussing—very informally—plans for resuming payments on the defaulted war debts. Ambassador William Phillips, for- | mer Undersecretary of State and for | more than three years a close col- laborator of President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hull, is at present discussing the terms of a reciprocal trade agreement between Italy and the | United States. This agreement will | be based on resumption of Italian | debt payments. Mussolini feels keenly the effects of the Johnson act. Italy is in sore need of money for the development | of Ethiopia and for internal economic | reconstruction. Wall Street is willing | enough to furnish the funds, but it cannot do so because the Johnson act | forbids all loans to defaulting nations. | The debt installment the Italians | owe this country on December 15 does | | not_exceed $15,000,000—a sum which | | Italy can easily afford to pay. Musso= | lini intends to meet the payment—on | | certain conditions. Heretofore, the | Italian dictator claimed that he could | not continue his war debt payments | because such payments would bring forth from London a demand that| { | Italy pay her debt to Great Britain, | too. Moreover, Il Duce feels that pay- | |ment in gold transfers—even if the | amount is scaled down 50 per cent— | will badly upset the Italian treasury. | Ambassador Phillips has, however, opened a new possibility for overcom- | ing this problem by payment—indi- rectly, at least—in Italian products. There have been clear hints in Rome [ that settlement of this difficulty would considerably ease President Roose- | velt's role as peacemaker. The French, and particularly Leon Blum, are even more anxious that | President Roosevelt should help bring | about a pacification of Europe. For France the intervention of the United States in favor of a limitation, and | eventual reduction, of armaments, has | become a matter of life and death. Not only is Blum ready to take the ! initiative in holding such a confer- ence, but he, too. is anxious to regain | the confidence of the American people by settling the war debt question. It | hurts Leon Blum to be told that in | | the United States Prance is considered | | a8 “welcher No. 1.” | Blum Favors Liquidation. Blum, soon after coming into office, | made a declaration to the effect that | the war debts should be liquidated | soon. He repeated this statement, | unofficially, to Americans with whom | | he discussed the matter during the | course of this last Summer. His point | {of view is that payments must be | | made, part in gold and part in prod- | ucts, but, until the channels of in- | ternational trade are opened up again, it will be difficult for any nation to live up to these terms. This opinion | is shared by Edouard Herriot and a | number of prominent members of both houses of Parliament. | For the time being there have been no official or unofficial conversations with Great Britain regarding the eventual resumption of the war debt payments. But there is a feeling in the State Department that London cannot help but follow the other nations, once they start paying. And France and Italy may impel the re- i | cord” between this country and | Europe, mainly because they want to strengthen President Roosevelt’s hand in attacking a much more important Liechtenstein, Province of Peace, Now Is Battling Political Troubles VADUZ, Liechtenstein (#).—Liech- tenstein, the fairyland principality which peacemakers forgot, is having her troubles. She lies—all 65 square miles of her ~—between Switzerland and Austria on the upper Rhine. In 1866 her army | of 81 men helped Austria against Italy and Prussia. Because she was for- gotten in subsequent peace_treaties, she still technically is at war with") both those foes. Today Liechtenstein is, perhaps, the last intact remnant of Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire. But membership in the Swiss Cus- toms Union and centuries-old cultural relations with Austria mean that re- cently-heightened political currents in both those countries have become strong enough to reach her quiet pas- tures. Youth Movement Growing. A youth movement, too, is growing, and there is a conflict between old and new ideas, anti-Semitism, nationalism, national socialism, and money troubles. These concomitants of modernity seem strange in Liechtenstein, whose -11,500 residents are mainly agricul- turists much of whose public revenue comes from postage stamp issues, and whose capital, Vadus, has no night telephone service. ‘The 83-year-old reigning Prince Francis I—who belongs to one of Eu- rope’s oldest ruling families—has had the policy of “get along with our ‘The farmers thought it over, and decided they didn’t want a republic. For years the two main parties were by few outside influences. Now are exponents of Austrian and ideas. In addition, a movement : leaning toward nationalism has grown | up among the younger intellectuals in the last year; their policy moves to- wards national socialism, Besides politics, the economic situa- tion is growing more pressing, largely | because of the public debt, and ob- | servers believe party politics may some | time have to be dropped in favor of economic co-operation with Austria and Switzerland. “Everlasting Flowers” Are Boon to Farmers MONTARA, Calif. (#)—Farmers of this little coastal area have found a unique answer to agricultural prob- lems in the raising of “everlasting flowers.” Every night trucks lumber out of the peat lands here, once devoted al- most _exclusively to artichokes, bear- ing cargoes of a small chrysanthe- mum that never wilts. There is only a brief three-month season in the Fall but during that period about 20,000,000 flowers are exponflz: Most of the sales are in Estonia Lack of Iron Is Blamed on Vikings NEW YORK (P)—Seeking to plain the absence of iron in meteoric craters of Estonia, Dr. Pisher, curatér of the tarlum here, thinks carted off by the their swords and shields. “As is well known,” Natural History, “iron the vikings; and tr the founders of this (Estonia), had no iron in their E5ix 331 £} iéigé Ezgé‘fl Cape York meteorites, which Peary brought from Greenland, for the pur- pose of making knives.” '_EDITORIAL SECTION he Sundwy Stad How to Elect a President mD e e WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 15, 1936. Michelson, Democratic Publicity Director, Reveals Inside Story of Party’s Strategy in Campaign. The inside story of Democratic campaign strategy, which resulted in a record-breaking landslide vote for President Roosevelt, is told here by a well-known editor and writer who has been publicity director for the Democratic National Commit- ~tee since 1929. He has been credited with writing many of the speeches made by Democratic leaders during the campaign. He was formerly Washington correspondent of the New York World. BY CHARLES MICHELSON. HIS business of political press I agency, contrary, perhaps, to the general impression, is neither inspirational nor deeply subtle. It is wholly opportunistic, hence no all-embracing rules can be laid down, for every campaign pre- sents a different front, and that front is likely to change from day to day. In the recent campaign, for ex- ample, my department of the Demo- cratic organization began with the theory that the correct strategy— dating from the convention- at Phila- delphia—was to insure, if possible, that the then unnamed candidate of the opposition should not be built up to an inspiring figure. It was simple, by the processes of elimination, to determine that Gov. Landon of Kansas would be the Republican choice. With a party so divided between liberal thought in the ‘West and conservatism in the East, and the necessity of presenting a candidate who might appeal to—or, at least, would not antagonize—either of these two vital elements, Borah was eliminated, Col. Knox had neither political background nor popular fol- lowing, ex-President Hoover would not do, for obvious reasons. So it must ] be the Governor of “a typical prairie State.” Denies Phrase Satirical. That phrase, by the way, was anything but satirical or invidious. It had no more of derogation than would have be‘znnsa” :nfefenuhw a typical mounta! , or a charac- teristic New England State. When Chairman Farley ‘of our National Committee, used it, however, he was assailed as sneering at Kansas and s Bragd H ks compelled him to run for Governor— both for his first term and for his re-election—on a New Deal platform. So it was primary politics to dig up his gubernatorial speeches, and so, | I believe, we got across the idea that here was a man, who, granting all his good qualities, either had no definite views on the great problems of the time, or was willing to adopt any position that he, or his advisers, thought might attract votes. Naturally, his publicity people sought to avoid comparisons. There- fore they took as their targets Chairman Farley and Rex Tugwell; they invoked the communism idea on the basis of & New York Demo- cratic elector. Farley was not a conscienceless villain; Tugwell was not- a Socialist gone mad, and Dubinsky was not a Communist, but, if they could get us arguing on such points, they had & better chance than if the battle line remained straight. So Farley took it on the chin, and we made no replies to the collateral assaults. They had the advantage of the support of a majority of the big newspapers, so the stories along that line got wide publicity. But this advantage was more apparent than real. There were 7,000 small dailies and weeklies that took our clip sheets, printed our cartoons and most of them used what went out to them— articles that were modestly headed “editorial suggestion.” Use in Rural Papers. 1. don't know how deeply they were impressed by the matter of these articles, but I did know that ;an overworked country editor welcomes something that will save him time and labor, and those -editorial . sug- gestions had wide circulation. Even hostile newspapers gave them space— often under such headlines as: “This is the kind of rot the Democrats want you to believe.” ‘Then we had an even break on the radio, with the best radio voice in the world, whicl, added to the pres- tige of '-hedm_ icy, his gift of an nothing for granted. 8o doubtléss we spent s lot more money than necessary, in view of ‘We were hard up most of the time. | ‘The radio had to be paid on the nalil. | This was doubtless because in the '32 campaign we wound up several hun- | dred thousands of dollars in debt to the broadcasting chains and were a | long time paying it off. So my fre- | quent job was to confront Treasurer | Forbes Morgan—he with an accusing finger pointing to the inexorable pub- | licity balamce sheet, which was kept | up to date with fiendish bookkeeping assiduity. I had to convince him that | the world would come to an end un- less I could have five or ten-thousand more to fire into the air. Gov. Landon’s acceptance speech put us somewhat on the spot. It did not seem fitting .hat the President should answer it—for he could not take a defensive attitude. We finally decided on an hour’s program in which & chain of four Democratic Governors participated, chiming in, each from his own State House. This involved a vast amount of telegraphing and telephoning to insure against monotony, but the project clicked perfectly, with each Governor taking for his text a different angle of the Republican nominees speech. Incidentally, except for the Pres- ident’s speeches, there were more calls for copies of that joint address than any single bit of literature we sent out. And how much literature did we -send out? I should guess that 100,000,000 pamphlets, fly-sheets and other pieces of paper would be a modest estimate. I have been asked frequently about the colored vote. The Negroes had an efficient organization to get our stuff into their newspapers. Early in the campaign I had a meeting with the district leaders of the seven ‘Harlem wards, where the greater part of the New York colored population lives. I told them that I wanted their help to get our literature into the homes. Promises 95 Per Cent. “Well,” said the first of them, “T 23 % HH i g Iy zz ] { i It was my job to be scared. The or- | ganization end of the show could be satisfled that the election was in the bag, but the publicity department had | to proceed on the theory that am- | bushes lurked and forays threatened until the votes were in the ballot boxes. How did I know how much effect there would be in $1,000,000 worth of billboard advertising that a vote for Landon meant a vote for a job—when | 1 did not have a dollar to match the billboards? Then they came along with theh" social security and job insurance drive. With the Republican National Com- mittee sending - big establishments millions of pay roll envelopes—bear- ing a message that implied the Gov- | ernment was taking a piece out of | every weekly wage, and that it was doubtful if the employe would ever get any of it back—there was con- cern at Democratic headquarters. When from all over the country there came from indignant and alarmed work folks these envelopes showing that they were being dis- tributed by dozens in huge factories and mefcantile establishments, and reached the employe with inclosures of Republican campaign arguments— and the covert suggestion that it meant pay roll cuts if Roosevelt won— that concern became acute. From thousands of districts came urgent appeals for a counter-attack: and warnings of the serious effect of the drive the leaders were noting. Some- thing had to be done in a hurry. Week:to Meet Attack. Fortunately, we had a week to meet this attack, and the mails were flooded with our replies, exposing the disingeniousness, to put it mildly, of the Republican messages. That tottering radio budget looked like the tower of the Alcazar after the bom- bardment when we paid for all the time consumed in assuring employes that the insurance was sound and that the employer paid his share. EXPANSION |HULL’S TRADE PROGRAM IN PROSPECT Battle for Modification of Act Also Looms in Congr ments Are BY CRESTON B. MULLINS. XPANSION of the administra- tion's foreign trade program is in prospect as the result of ‘widgspread victories of its supporters in congressional and sen- atorial races. Popular mandate to continue de- velopment of reciprocal trade agree- ments along lines set down by Eecre- tary of State Hull during the last two years and a half has been read into the election returns. Reciprocal trade agreements were & primary issue in the campaign throughout the Middle and North West, and came in for secondary treatment on the Pacific Coast and in Florida. In Minnesota and Wis- consin opponents of the reciprocity program were returned to Congress. In Florida, too, two original opponents of the program were elected, but vic- torious candidates in Wyoming, Ne- braska, Iowa, Colorado and Idaho for the most part favor the trade policies now ruling. L Senators Carey of Wyoming. Dick- inson of Iowa, Hastings of Delaware, Metealf of Rhode Island and Barbour of New Jersey, all vigorous opponents of the reciprocity program, who cam- paigned against it, went down to defeat. Extent of Policy Unknown. Indicative of the intention to pursue the objectives of the New Deal even further was the cry of President Roosevelt in his Madison Square Garden speech near the end of the campaign that the fight had just begun in a series of progressive meas- ures, of which trade reciprocity is one. This was followed by Secretary Hull's post-election statement inter- preting the heavy vote as a mandate of the people on trade as well as neutrality and other foreign policies. How much further the directors of foreign policy intend to go in their efforts to liberate international trade of hampering restrictions will not be known until the bill for renewal of | the trade agreements act of 1934, which expires next June, is presented to the incoming Congress. That the scope of the program will be broadened beyond the 18 countries with which agreements are in force or | being negotiated has been repeatedly | indicated. Although winning over | such srict import regulating coun- | | tries as Prance, Belgium, Netherlands | and Switzerland has made a deep dent | | in Europe’s trade barriers, such poten- tially good markets as Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Eastern and Southeastern Europe remain outside the reciprocity program. In each case serious obstacles remain. Perhaps most likely of all these to be brought within Mr. Hull's circle of reciprocal traders is Great Britain, economic relations with which are being carefully studied at the State Department for the possibility of ar- | riving at a satisfactory basis for mu- | tual reduction of tariffs. | First among obstacles to such an | agreement is the Ottawa agreement | and empire preference and the fact that the commodities which Great | Britain can take from us in greater quantities—mostly agricultural prod- ucts—already are subjects of pref- erential arrangements with the do- minions, and their permission is nec- essary in abandonment of preference in order to enable England to buy more from the United States. Hope for Agreement. It is hoped, however, that a basis for agreement may be found even before expiration of the present act in June. Such an agreement, if care- fully negotiated, would be a major victory for Hull's trade policy. Germany presents a much more serious problem, with her persistent refusal to accord unconditional most- favored-nation treatment, a funda- mental tenet of the Hull program. Most-favored-nation treatment was abandoned more than a year ago at her request, and since then a minor trade war has been in progress, with the United States withholding tariff concessions as they are extended to the rest of the world, on the charge that Germany discriminates against American goods. That the Reich is approaching a crisis in her battle for national self- sufficiency has been indicated more | and more, particularly in denuncia- tion by Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, presi- dent of the Reichsbank, of barter as “barbarian.” The German problem is one of the most critical facing State Department foreign trade officials. Italy is in much the same position as Germany, and negotiations for an agreement have only recently been resumed here after the break caused by the embargo on arms shipments during the Ethiopian campaign. Field in Latin America. Expectations for expansion of the program lie chiefly in some of the Latin American eountries which sell us more than they buy from us, and which offer possibilities of enlarged trade. We already have agreements with seven. Most prominent among countries in the Western Hemisphere with which the United States has trade problems is Argentina. Special arrangements be- tween Argentina and a number of countries—notably Great Britain in the Runciman-Rocca agree- ess—New Agree- Indicated. presence of Secretary Hull and a large staff of American experts in Buenos Afres during the peace congress next month points to early conclusion of a reciprocal trade agreement, although only perfunctory studies have so far been made in this country. Besides expansion of the program to include a number of new countries in plans for agreements there is the like- lihood of tnodification, or at least an attempt in this direction, in the re- newal of the trade agreements act, which expires next June. Congress returns in January with & huge Democratic majority in both houses, amid projected plans for as- sault upon certain features of agree- ment procedure under the act. Chief among points of attack will be the role of business interests them- seives in negotiation of agreements in which American tariffs are reduced. In spite of provision in the act for | recognition of arguments presented by affected domestic interests, there con- tinues a protest against “star chamber” proceedings. Preparation of American proposals for bargaining is now centered in the Trade Agreements Committee, composed of representatives of the Departments of Commerce, State, Agriculture and Treasury, the Tariff Commission and A. A. A. Subsidiary to this body is a committee for each country with which negotiations are contemplated. This Country Com- mittee receives its data from several sources, the Tariff Commission, Com- merce Department and the Committee | for Reciprocity Information, and com- piles and digests it into a formal series of recommendations of conces- sions to be given and asked in bar- | gaining with the other country, These proposals go to the Trade Agreements | Committee for approval and are sub- | mitted to the President himself before | being handed to the negotiator who deals with the foreign representatives. Private Data Invited. Special interests are invited to sub- mit to the Committee for Reciprocity Information all facts they can marshal in support of their opposition to reduc- tion of tariffs protecting them, or their contention for reduction of foreign tariffs. These data are correlated with information from official sources in the final proposals. The argument of business interests is that they are not in sufficiently | close touch with the negotiator hime | self for proper protection of their | interests, and that under the stress |of bargaining for tariff reduction | they are likely to suffer. In preparae tion of legislative revisions of the | tarift affected interests have ample opportunity through final passage n Congress to present their cases in | ethical manner, and in such legislae tion the pressure for duty reduction | has not in the past been as great as it is in international bargaining, where the whole stress is upon reduce tion. Furthermore, it is contended, under the present system protection of one industry may be jeopardized by neces- sity of compensating for concessions to another industry. State Department officials, denying the need for closer contact between negotiator and special interests — granting that they conduct themselves in an ethical manner—point out their own interest in maintaining utmost | protection of the American market, imd insist that diplomatic negotia« | tions with a foreign power require | a united national front, unbroken by demands of affected private groups. Uncertainty May Be Relieved. Besides such objections, business claims continuous negotiations main- tain an atmosphere of grave uncere | tainty in those industries involved in | bargaining with foreign countries. Greater recognition has been accorded | such contentions in the State Depart- | ment itself, although fhe remedy is | likely to be found not in modification |of the act as it stands, but in re- | vision of policy to permit publication early in the proceedings of lists of commodities in which concessions may occur, thus reassuring producers of | commodities not mentioned therein of | fears that always accompany tariff alteration. It is also considered possible some steps will be taken to meet objections to constitutionality of the act in the absence of provision for senatorial “advice and consent” by permitting senatorial veto of any arrangement considered prejudicial to -American interests. Validity of the act has been chal- lenged in a suit by Florida fruit growers and is pending in the Cus- toms Court. Brought by a Florida fruit grower who imported a case of pineapples, the suit denies the validity of the Cuban agreement in the abe sence of Senate approval. Another possibility for modifica- tion of negotiation procedure is that for inclusion of a repre- sentative of the Labor Department on the Trade Agreements Committee. At present this body, as constituted under the 1934 act, is composed of representatives of State, Commerce and Agriculture Departments, the Treasury, Tariff Commission, N. R. A. and A. A. A, although the act pro- vides for participation of representa- tives of any other branches of the Government deemed appropriate. Labor Should Have Part. Labor has a large part in the prep- aration of a tariff bill in Congress, and, it is felt, it should also be rep- resented in the work of modifying tariffs. In expanding the reciprocity pro- gram the principle of “chief supplier,” whereby reductions are confined as much as possible to those countries which lead in supplying a particular commodity to this country, might well be modified to permit reductions to secondary suppliers in cases where an agreement is impossible with the chief supplier. This would widen measurably the range of possibility for negotiations with countries which otherwise might