THE H.B. TRIBUNE MONDAY, MARCH 6, 1933 THE NEW PRESIDENT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 71, 6 March 1933, Page 6

THE H.B. TRIBUNE MONDAY, MARCH 6, 1933 THE NEW PRESIDENT.

When, four seemingly long years ago, Mr. Herbert Hoover, as the outcome of a sweeping victory at the polls some four months earlier, was installed in the presidential chair of the United .States we were, like so many others, foolishly hopeful of some change in the attitude of the American Government towards its European “associates” in the Great War. Having in view his practically world-wide personal experiences of life, and especially his intimate knowledge of the conditions that obtained among the war-worn nations of the Old World, there seemed some fair reason for indulging in such hopes from his guidance of the affairs of a people then still appearing to enjoy assured prosperity. However, the new President, whatever may have been his own individual desires, found himself, like many of his predecessors in office, bound by a Congress of members entirely lacking in outward vision and with thoughts only for preserving the prosperity of their own country. It was thus not very long before the hopes that had been formed of a sympathetic Hoover Administration began to fail and then, when the depression spread over the land, they faded out altogether. The question now is as to whether anything better is to be expected under a fresh President of another political colour and taking office as the result of a victory unprecedented in the history of the Republic. The disappointment suffered with respect to Mr. Hoover warns us not to expect too much from Mr. Roosevelt, and the circumstances under which he takes up the reins do not promise the possibility of anything very much in the way of generous consideration. Nor do his distinctly flamboyant inaugural utterances give much promise of his looking, for some time at least, very far beyond the limits of his own people. For this, indeed, he has some present justification, for he enters upon his duties at a time when internal | conditions are such as to demand ! undivided attention. The only i chalice, therefore, of outside affairs receiving any at all lies in the possibility of a realisation that internal restoration must depend largely upon international co-operation. How far Hurt lesson ; has even yet been learned is very I problematical, but, judging from 1 what Mr. Roosevelt has as yd

had to say, it does not seem to have sunk in very deeply. However, we have to remember that he was speaking at a moment of tense crisis to his own people, who were looking to him to express regard only for their own troubles and give them some prospect of seeing them lifted. Like most new brooms, he has started out with a dramatic declaration as to the mess that has been left for him to sweep up and, in doing this, he has certainly not failed to lay on the colour, regardless altogether of the effect of the lurid picture he has painted upon the other nations of the world. This is already to be seen in the apprehensions which have been caused abroad and which are not at all calculated to assist him in raising his own country out of the slough. It has, of course, to be allowed that, from what we had already been hearing, lie has some fair warrant, in his own political interests, for thus emphasising the difficulties of his task. At the same time, it can scarcely but be thought that he would have served his ultimate purpose better had he given more consideration to the unfavourable reactions that must almost inevitably follow upon such dismal forebodings, coming on top of so many alarming reports from other quarters.

It is, however, one of the great defects of American orators that they allow their generally ample vocabularies to run away with them, and it is more than probable that among his own people his talk will be considerably discounted. But he should have recognised that other folk besides those he was immediately addressing w’ere also listening, and so have had some thought for the impressions left on them. What we cannot but wonder is why, with fair knowledge of what he would have to say on Saturday’s occasion, he had up to the last left it to be understood that consideration of international and world-wide economic problems would have his early consideration, only now to shelve them indefinitely. What we may perhaps hope is that, having relieved himself of this rather unexpected but characteristically American outburst, he may yet come to see that he cannot do anything very effective for his own people without consulting with others. He is asking to be entrusted with exceptional powers and, with a strong supporting majority in both chambers of the Legislature, they may perhaps be granted to him. Having thus secured himself in authority, he may take a wider look round for the means of bringing about the economic recovery that is his first objective.