BRITISH INTEREST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16797, 9 November 1928, Page 10

BRITISH INTEREST

SYMPATHY FOB HOOVER The editor -of the ' National Review having expressed the opinion -that wit does not matter any fraction of.’a farthing to Great Britain whether the Republicans or the DemberatS reign" in Washington, a Canadian- contemporary,the Vancouver -Province’'declares'■;

“It matters a- great-' 'deal, to" the vvhold world who rules at Washington. It' mat- • tered in the Great War; Wes don’t lincmi what the course; of history would have been if Theodore Roosevelt instead of Woodrow Wilson had Been President ill those days, but we know it would 'have been different from what “it wasY'WS don’t know what the 'course of” historyis going to bo if either "Herbert Hoover of Alfred Smith is president for'' the next .four years, but we know pretty well, whichever of them is: elected, that 'things will be .different in'the'woiid than if the other had Been* elected. Whatever the complexion of the next government of the United-States, iHs *oiiig to be headed by a very remarkable man; Neither Hoover hbr Smith' is anything of a rubber stamp. Whoever goes to the White House, as a result of 'the Voting next November, the White House 1 is bound to play a big part, in world affairs. There‘is. a perlfmctory. sense Hi which it is nopd/of 'unpeople of the British Empire. There is a larger sense in which ft,is .very much our business. ' ''V “There is a sense,/too, in“which we have no cau§e for, wo fry, either way. You can say that Hoover, with his Jong American ancestry and his Huguenot, extraction, his work as. a imnjiig"'eh : giticer in Australia, lps old assopjations with London, is likely to bo friendly to the British Empire- , Ypu can ’ not say that Smith, grandson of Irish immigrants, child of Tammatly,, who came up from the sidewalks of New York city to bo four times governor of New York State, is likely to Lb." unfriendly r By widely divergent pathways, these two men have grown to .Jho stature of a.real statesmanship- They,are libefaL-minded men, both of them, men of "tolerance and understanding, men. who .would not bo likely to lbt -prejudice 'w Mheir minds iii any concern of the United States with the rest of (fie world.. .They would both of them be for peace and understanding with the Empire, we can be very certain of that. “But you have to look at something more than the characters and temperaments of men, to gauge their possibilities in a position of high executive responsibility like that of the American presidency. You have to look theii* training and their records. And if’you look thus at Hoover and Smith, you will see that you can predict more about one than the other. Hoover has had tramiug and experience in wond affairs, Smith has had none whatever. Hoover, as President might not be .any more, willing or able than Harding-or Coolidge to lead the United {States into tlie League of Nations; but he .is known to he personally friendly to the League. The United States,-with .Smith as President, might not pursue its present path of isolation from the League; but to far as anySvord dr Hint fronv-Al Smiths record is concerned,, you could not hazard a guess about it at all. Hoover knows something- about Europe. There is no evidence that Smith has . ever troubled himself to know anything of any problem of government outside ilio United States. " Without theory, and without philosophy, be has always refused to cross any bridge until lie came to it, and he has always shown an extraordinary wisdom in , dealing with events as they arose. This is not an unfriendly estimate, of Governor Smith. But it is a way of saying, what, is very true, that vjhile we hope and believe lie would improve the friendship, of ‘the United States with the British Empire, if he should be President, we have no assurance of it out of -his record. And we are sum of that with Secretary Hoover. - ‘