ROOSEVELT CRACKS THE WHIP: CONSERVATIVES TAKE COVER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 931, 29 November 1933, Page 6

ROOSEVELT CRACKS THE WHIP: CONSERVATIVES TAKE COVER.

To-day’s Special Article

The Reactions to the Humphrey Case; Extending a Cautious Hand to Russia.

By

Paul Mallon.

WASHINGTON, October 23

Conservatives on the independent non-partisan commissions around town have developed strong pro-Roosevelt leanings on the inside lately. Intimates of these gentlemen report that the President’s dismissal of William E. Humphrey, a Conservative Republican, from the Federal Trade Commission has had a widespread psychological effect. They believe Mr Roosevelt will have no trouble whatever hereafter with Conservatives on the inter-State commerce and tariff commissions, as well as Federal trade. After all, 8500-dollar jobs do not grow on trees these days. Even Conservatives and Republicans have wives and children who must be thought of.

MEN have heretofore considered themselves beyond the reach of the President or anyone else. Their jobs are semi-judicial. They have resisted Presidents on many occasions. Their terms have a specific time to run under the law. What the Humphrey case showed them was that the law does not count for the present. Courts will ultimately determine their standing in reference to the President, but that will be months hence. Meanwhile Humphrey is in the position of a man put in gaol for doing nothing. Humphrey said the President could not put him out without cause, but he is out, and his salary has stopped. Palpitations of his fellow conservative commissioners in the Government will run high until his case is decided, and perhaps after. Hull and Bullitt. State Secretary Hull was not entirely left out of the Russian recognition programme, although his part in it was inconsequential. The real inside negotiations were handled by William C. Bullitt, special assistant to Hull. He is the man who made a secret trip to Europe last spring. You may remember that the Senate became quite excited about it. Republican Senator Robinson smelled a war debt deal and shouted charges all over the chamber. Bullitt’s real mission abroad was to sound out the European Governments as to how they were getting along with the Reds. His report was favourable. Hull’s personal contact with the subject was largely confined to conferences in London with M. Litvinoff and Sir John Simon during the late lamented economic conference. His report is supposed to have been less favourable that Bullitt’s. That was because Sir John Simon filled Hull full of troubles about British engineers being tried for sabotage. Hull’s incidental part in the Russian programme is being coupled with the fact that war debts were taken away from him several weeks ago and given to the Treasury. Gossips are concluding this means Hull is on the shelf. That is hardly a fair statement. A better way of saying it is that Mr Roosevelt is his own Secretary of State. If his confidence in Hull has been weakened recently, none of his associates know it. The Treasury Department was the logical place to handle the debt problem. There the debts would be considered on a business basis and not as

an international diplomatic problem. Likewise the Russian policy is one of Mr Roosevelt’s own pets. He was thinking about it and working on it long before he thought of Hull as Secretary of State. The Japanese Factor. Russian recognition may stop the threatened war between Japan and Russia if nothing else does. Mr Roosevelt did not have that idea in mind. He was more eager to quiet the farmers here. But his programme means Russia will get credit in the United States to purchase munitions and armaments if she needs them. Japan’s credit right now 7 would hardly enable her to buy a cap pistol without laying cash on the line. Moderation of Japanese Far Eastern policy may result. The Administration strictly cautioned newsmen, not to interpret the President’s Russian' programme as Russian recognition. One reason for that may have been to leave a way of retreat open if public reaction to the move should be bad. That is good generalship. Within the past month the American Legion, A.F. of L. and many leading Catholics have opposed recognition. However, it is inconceivable that the coming negotiations will fail. The matters at issue are too trivial to be serious obstacles if both sides really want action. Most insiders are betting on recognition within two weeks after Litvinoff arrives. That means a month from now. Shrewd Horse Traders. # The funny side of Mr Roosevelt’s Russian move is that he based it on the idea that we could not communicate practically with Russia. And he made that the main point in a communication to Kalinin which seems to have reached Kalinin all right, because a prompt response came back. Litvinoff is a very clever fellow who has won the respect of what he calls ” the bourgeois statesmen ” of Europe by his shrewdness. He will meet a horse trader of equal shrewdness in Mr Roosevelt. The boys in the Protocol Division are in a flutter about what to wear when Litvinoff comes. The height of the hat is supposed to mean something of diplomocy, and it becomes quite a complicated problem because we have no diplomatic relations with Russia The boys probably will decide to receive the Russian with austerity gauged about half way between the politeness granted a regular diplomat and the snub given an ordinary mortal.— (N.A.N.A.)