A PRACTICAL MAN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 103, 12 April 1933, Page 15

A PRACTICAL MAN

NEW U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE AUTHORITY ON TRADE PROBLEMS. A LIFE OF SERVICE. WASHINGTON, March 8. When the Ambassador of Moldavia marches into the massive and musty State, War and Navy Building to call on the new Secretary of State, he will | be popping with curiosity and prepared for change. But as he leaves, along with his interest and his surprise, it is safe to say there will be genuine satisfaction. And he will say, “Well, here is a man with whom I can do business. ’ ’ For, above bis other personal qualities, Senator Cordell Hull inspires confidence. Where is the diplomat—or President for that matter —who would not pour his troubles into Cordell Hull's sympathetic earl No supermanness, no rarefied audience-chamber aureole, no cocksure brilliance or overirorffident legalism characterise Senator Hull. He is calm, sympathetic, friendly, unassuming. In one dominant respect, the new Secretary of State is an authority. He has mastered trade and tariff problems as have few men. This is his approach to all the problems which will confront him. He summarises his views in these words: “World peace depends largely upon the sort of economic policies maintained by the important nations. The world to-day, under American leadership over the last 10 years, is in a virtual state of economic war. There can be no real progress toward confidence and peace nor permanent trade recovery while retaliations and bitter trade controversies rage. NO SURPLUSES PILED UP. “Any practical person must now realise that if this and other nations could have profitably exchanged their respective surpluses since 1921 there would have been no surpluses piled up, no stagnation with resultant widespread unemployment, no agricultural collapse, no vast concentration of gold in one country, no German crisis, no domestic and world panic.” From this philosophy, Senator Hull concludes that war debts are but one ■aspect in a much broader problem. He would first find a way around or through the world trade impasse. Then he expects the debt problem to be soluble. His strategy has been accepted by President Roosevelt, and is expected to guide the critical negotiations which will occupy the early months of the new Administration. Interest centres on the practical side of Senator Hull’s equipment. His first great achievement was to write the income tax laws of 1913 and 1916. A practical job, in a technical field. Then he had a desk in the Collector of Internal Revenue’s office during the latter years of the Wilson Administration as a practical consultant on revenue problems. He is credited with planning America’s financial war-time structure. Also technical work. He wrote the Sinking Fund Act, the Inheritance Tax Act. Still technical. Only after the 1920 election, when Democracy went forth into the wilderness, did the new Secretary of State enter a field which may illustrate his ability in broad practical politics. In 1921 he was Democratic chairman, by 1922, in the first congressional by-elee-tions, his organisation work reduced the Republican majority in the House from 169 to 17. It cut the Senate majority from 24 to 6. WON ON TARIFF ISSUE. The chief issue on which Mr. Hull swung the country in these by-elcctions was the I'ordney-Macomber Tariff' Act, at that time the highest in American history. By 1924, as a result, the stage was set for a sweeping Democratic victory, on the heels of the Harding Cabinet scandals. And then the Democratic National Convention hurled all these bright hopes to ruin in Madison Square Gar Zen. Immediately after that convention, in which Senator Hull had supported the AlcAdoo faction, he resigned as national chairman. In 1928 the Tennessee Congressman was still opposing the Alfred E. Smith wing of the party, standing by his guns as a staunch dry and a low-tariff man. And not long afterward, looking ahead to 1932, he began to work quietly for Franklin D. Roosevelt. This paved his road into the Cabinet. At Chicago, still working for the dry cause, he lost. But he was with those who turned back the Smith faction and put the low-tariff plank back in the Democratic platform. During the subsequent campaign. Senator Hull was consulted more frequently by the winning candidate than any other member of Congress. His knowledge of Democratic Party organisation was useful to Governor Roosevelt and his manager, Mr. Janies A. Farley. A stout working alliance was built which bodes well for Cabinet harmony in the future. Senator Hull was in the thick of it, and learned something of harmonising discordant elements. PRACTICAL POLITICS. Throughout all this party hurlyburly, Senator Hull was having an intensive course, in practical politics. Thus he may be equipped for the give-and-take which prevails between nations. Aud this equipment is by no means to be despised. It compares most favourably with many previous Secretaries of State. Mr. Stimson has admittedly a first-class intellect: he is an Al attorney, engaged by the United Stales to conduct, its foreign policies, with u broad opportunity to initiate policies. His predecessor, Mr. Frank B. Kellogg, had a similar legal approach wi'»;>ut Mr. Stimson’s sense .of per sonal responsibility. But Mr. Kellogg was able to take advantage of the brilliant plans of others, as witness the Kellogg pact. President Wilson’s later Secretaries of State were also competent lawyers, given the job as if it were a'difficult case. In this galaxy, Senator Hull is unique. He has declared views on world economic problems, which the scries of lawyers lacked. Ho does not bring the expert method of a practical attorney which characterised fre-

decessors, though he once practised law and sat on the bench. Instead he is a parliamentarian and student. For the first time in many years, the United States will try this combination at the helm of its foreign affairs. HAS NO HOBBIES. Mr. Hull has no standard recreations or hobbies. He plays no games particularly. He goes in for no sport. All his leisure time is spent in digging into some fascinating new or old subject Thus his mind has become well stocked with a wide range of information. Coupled with these present qualities is a background which is particularly American. Cordell Hull w'as born of a medium-prosperous farmer on the Cumberland plateau of north-ecntral Tennessee. His was not the country of great plantations, with large Negro populations. It was a rugged, timbered and farming country, sparsely settled, and then as now his birthplace was more than a score of miles from a railroad. His father prospered by trading land and timber. At bis passing a few j ears ago he left a comfortable estate. He floated logs down the Cumberland river from Carthage to Nashville. The boy spent many a night floating down stream on a log raft. He was, however, always studious and his father was proud of this quality. The boy studied in district schools, distinguished himself, and W'as sent to Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, an institution well known all over the South. After getting his law degree, the voung man settled down to practice, moved to Celina, Tennessee, went to the State Legislature, went to the Spanish-American War as a captain of volunteers, spent several years as a circuit judge, and finally graduated into the House of Representatives in 1906. From then until the present, excepting only 1920-22, ho has served in Congress.