Evening Star Newspaper, April 9, 1937, Page 15

FOREIGN POLICIES MODIFIED BY ROOT Attempted to Guide Nation long Paths With Few- est Hurdles. The story of Elihu Root—the Jawyer “whose lifelong client was the United States,” who, for more than 40 years before his recent death at the age of 92, was the man behind American history—is told here in a series of articles, of which this i& the jourth. The writer, eminent as editor and author and professor of international law at Columbia University, had many elose contacts with Mr. Root. BY PHILIP C. JESSUP. “To keep the country out of trouble n the right way,” Secretary of State Root wrote to St. Loe Strachey in 1905, “is the main object of diplo- macy.” But Root, unlike some other Secretaries of State, was not content merely to avoid the hurdles as they appeared in his path; looking long ahead, he planned paths in which there were likely to be fewer hurdles and devised methods for removing hurdles when they appeared. Onme of his first concerns was with Latin America. “The South Ameri- cans now hate us,” he wrote to Sen- ator Tillman in 1905, “largely be- cause they think we dispise them and try to bully them. I really like them and intend to show it.” His predecessor, John Hay, for all his charming and able qualities, thought of the Latin Americans as “dagoes.” To Theodore Roosevelt, the President of Venezeula was a “vil- lainous little monkey.” Root himself | was frequently exasperated, partic- | ularly by events in Central America, | but he never let his exasperation be | transiated into hasty action and he | avoided the common error of lecturing | our neighbors to the south on our own virtues and their defects. Pather of “Good Neighbor” Policy. With Joaquim Nabuco, the Brazil- fan Ambassador, as his stanch ally, he set about to lay the foundations for what is in these days called the “good neighbor” policy. He began by | shifting the social emphasis in Wash- | ington so that the Latin American diplomats were no longer slighted. He continued by restraining the fiery T. R. from using the big stick when- ever, as Root described it, “the Cen- tal American children” had “an- other attack of infantile disease, whether scarlet fever, mumps, or revolution, 1t is difficult to determine.” He reached a climax with his tri- umphal tour of South America in 1906, the first Secretary of State to show that attention to a pan-Ameri- can oconference and to set the prece- dent which has since been wisely fol- lowed. “The keystone of our Latin- American policy,” he said later, “is anti-imperalism, and if we set one foot off that basis we are gone.” Root had had his first taste of in- ternational problems when he was Becretary of War. Due to the illness of Secretary of State John Hay, he had borne the burden of much of the negotiation attendant upon the in- ternational measures to reecue the le- gations at Peiping during the Boxer rebellion. He was largely responsible for arranging the remission of the American share of the Boxer indem- nity, a gesture for which the Chinese people are still grateful. He took over the War Department mainly for the purpose of administering the islands which we had acquired from Spain—Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Created Cuban Republic. Relying heavily on Gen Leonard ‘Wood, he brought the Cuban Republic into existence, still tied to American apron-strings, to be sure, by the Platt amendment, but nevertheless free and no colony of the United States. He wrote for the Philippine commission the instructions which are a model charter for colonial gov- ernment. Here again he displayed rare administrative ability by full delegation of power and responsibili- ty to William Howard Taft, then president of the Philippine commission. Theodore Roosevelt had a flair for International affairs, and before Root took over the State Department had already won for himself the Nobel peace prize by ending the Russo- Japanese war. Root was never bothered about his share of the credit if the job was done as he thought it ought to be done. He continued to guide the President by humor, per- suasion and irrefutable argument. | Roosevelt was irritated by the presi- dential duty to send “absurd and fatuous™ congratulations to his “great and good friends” who ruled other nations. On one such occasion Root wrote to him: “I observe by & specimen of your eorrespondence which is passing under | my eye that you are much excited over the fact that her imperial highness | the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavriki- evna, consort of his imperial highness the Grand Duke Constantinovitch was, on the 11th of this month happily de- livered of a daughter, who is receiv- ing the name of Vera. Cites Wadsworth Bill. “Permit me to call your attention to the difference between your treat- ment of this interesting and important topic and the letter written by you tion is indicated by the fact that a leading representative of the Congo Reform Association wrote to him: “I have spoken of you in highest terms to thousands of pecple all over the United States in my Congo meetings.” In another part of Africa, Root did not foresee the future importance of Abyssinia. Roosevelt wrote him about appointing a Minister to Addis Ababa. Root replied: “I never could see any- thing for a Minister to Abyssinia to do. * * * I understand that Prester John never wes reelly there and that their only Theodore killed himself after grossly violating the constitu- tion.” Then there was the important ques- tion of the persecution of the Jews in Russia. John Hay had struggled with this problem, but had been par- ticularly influenced by domestic po- litical considerations. Root was more interested in doing something for the poor vietims of frequent and savage pogroms. In sending & check to the relief fund, he wrote: “We have little power to help them; but for some of the homeless and de- spoiled money may be helpful, and for some who are in despair the knowledge that there is friendliness and sympathy in the world may be an | encouragement and the expression of abhorrence and condemnation by the civilized world for the cruelties which may have been practiced may in time come to have some little re- straining effect.” Principle of Diplomacy. “One fundamental principle of di- plomacy,” he once said, “has always been never to do or say anything which will prevent your having frank and confidential conversations with people.” While he sent confidential instructions to the American Ambas- sador to Russia urging that the Czar's government take some steps to check the atrocities, he was opposed to pub- lic official action by any branch of the United States Government, be- cause, as he wrote the chairman of | the House Committee on Foreign Af- | fairs, “They would tend, by produc- ing firritation and antagonism (on the part of the Russian government) | to aggravate the dangers of the un- fortunate people whom they are in- tended to aid.” It is a lesson which might well be relearned today, even by municipal officials. Perhape the thorniest problem with which Root had to deal while he was in the State Department was the | question of Japanese-American rela- | tions. As in the case of South Amer- | ica, he did not try to go the whole way at one bound, but merely laid | the foundations for future policy. | Through his “gentlemen's agreement” with Japan, he obtained that govern- ment’s co-operation in checking the flow of immigrants to this country. It was not a solution which satisfied the Californians and it did not wholly stop the inflow, but it eased the problem from the domestic point of view in the United States and laid the base for friendly relations with Japan. When Root, at the age of 76, was called back to Government service by President Harding to be one of the delegates to the Washington Disarma- ment Conference in 1921, the Japan- ese and the Chinese delegates turned to him as a friend. Upon Mr. Root's death 16 years later, Japanese, both officially and privately, were among | the foremost in their sympathetic homage. But the passage of the Jap- | anese exclusion law in 1924 dealt a blow to Japanese-American relations from which the world has not yet re- covered; it was a step over which Root | grieved greatly. | Won Nobel Prise in 1912, Of all the international matters with which Root dealt, those looking toward the perfecting of the interna- tional system for peaceful settlement of disputes will longest be connected with his name. For them he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912. His experience in that field could not have been more varied. As Secretary of State he negotiated a series of arbi- tration treaties which are still known by his name. Meager though they were, they were a first step. As a Senator he fought for the ratification of further treaties. He sat as a judge in two international tribunals and pleaded as counsel for the United States before & third. He fathered the establishment in | 1907 of the Central American Court | of Justice—the first permanent tri- | bunal of that nature. He strove val- | iantly, but without success, to have | The Hague Conference create a real permanent international court. How- ever, as he wrote at the time, he did not put much weight “upon the evil consequences of a defeat * * * In a good cause a good fight bravely lost is | always a victory.” Thirteen years later, | LOOK AT THESE Fine «-FEATURES - ELASTIC QUSSETT ASSURES SNUG FIT.... GUSSET (HARMONI2€S WITH COVER FABRIC when his royal highness the Hon. | James W. Wadsworth, charman of the | Committee on Agriculture of the House | ~ of Representatives, was delivered of a | beef bill.” | ‘When Root received a presidential | order forbidding work on Sunday in the | State Department, he wrote back: “Would it be deemed proper if we were to do work on Sunday regard- ing the affairs of the Far East, where it is already Monday, and transfer our labors as Monday comes around and Sunday recedes westward through the Near East and Europe?” ‘We were long ago told on high au- thority that “there is no new thing under the sun.” The similarity be- tween the problems which Root faced | in the State Department and those | which Secretary Hull faces now are | an evidence of this truth. Take, for | example, the problem of protecting persecuted peoples abroad. In Root's day the people of the United States were wrought up about the atrocities in the Belgian Congo. It had been the same with the Japanese annexation of Korea. “Many people,” Mr. Root remarked later, “‘are still angry because we did not keep Japan from taking Korea. ‘There was nothing we could do except fight Japan; Congress wouldn't have declared war, and people would have turned out the Congress that had. All we might have done was to make | threats which we could not carry out. | It was the same in the Congo. People | kept piling down on the department demanding action on the Congo. We | ‘le'nt the limit, which wasn't far.” q Root’s kill in handling the agita THE EVENING STAR., WASHINGTON, D. C., FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1937. in 1920, as a member of a committee of jurists appointed by the League of Nations, he solved the problem which prevented the establishment of the In- ternational Court in 1907 by inventing & satisfactory method for the election of judges. He was urged to take a seat upon the bench of this World Court which he helped to create, but he declined on account of his 75 years. “I am too old to transplant,” he wrote to Chief Justice Taft. Fought for World Court. Ardent and loy2l Republican as he was, he never shared the view of the bitter-enders in their fight against ‘Woodrow Wilson and the League of Nations, but worked patiently, seeking & solution which would lead to the ultimate ratification of the treaty with reservations. There was another “good fight, bravely lost,” as was his con- tinuous campaign for the participation of the United States in the World Court. With Republicanism flowing into the channels of isolation, Root stood out for what he knew to be sound policy. So in his Senate days he fought against the majority of his party for President Wilson's repesl of the Panama Canal tolls. On his 79th birthday he responded again to the call of duty and took ship for Geneva, where he designed a plan to meet the objections of the Senate and bring about ratification of | the World Court treaty. It was a hard blow for him in his 90th year to have the Benate vote again for the Court's rejection; it was a much greater disappointment to him than anything which ever affected his personal fortunes. He was in at the last ditch, sitting up in his dressing gown long after his usual retiring hour, the night before the final Sen- ate vote, to write an appeal to Presi- dent Franklin D. Roosevelt that he change the administration tactics on the fight in the Senate. The President acted on his advice, but too late—the damage had been done through over- confidence. (Copyright, 1937, by the North Ameriean Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) Patronize Members of Dealers’ Associ NEW CENTER MARKET 5th to Luxuries or L Sts. Necessities AT FAIREST PRICES TWO FREE PARKING LOTS “hee Chas. 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