THE CABINET: Eyes & Ears

(See front cover)

Resolutely across the Pacific last month plowed the Dollar liner President Cleveland, bearing as its proudest passenger tall, straight, handsome Secretary of War Patrick Jay Hurley. With his beauteous blonde wife Ruth, he was traveling on the highest executive mission of his Cabinet career. When the Hurleys reached Tokyo. U. S. Ambassador Forbes entertained them Japanese style. They took off their shoes and sat on the floor. Between courses they watched geisha girls dance. While Mrs. Hurley, well-traveled daughter of an admiral, nimbly manipulated her chopsticks, her Oklahoma husband had to fumble with a fork. At Shanghai, despite the season’s worst typhoon, Secretary Hurley went ashore at the jetty, reviewed a battalion of U. S. Marines, got soaking wet. Under a Chinese umbrella Mrs. Hurley shopped in Nanking Road, marveled at bargains due to the low exchange rate. And finally last week after 24 days’ journeying the President Cleveland steamed into Manila harbor, set Secretary Hurley down at his official destination.

Eyes & Ears. Throughout the Philippines, millions of little brown and yellow men thought that this tall, tanned visitor from across the sea held in the hollow of his hand their political destiny. All summer long their politicos had whipped up their excitement and expectation about independence from the U. S. They had been told that if they only stood together they would soon be free. They had marched until their feet ached. The)’ had cheered until they were hoarse. They had listened to harangues until their ears rang. They had been inspected by junketing U. S. Senators and Representatives until they passed from self-consciousness to selfimportance. But Secretary Hurley’s visit, they were assured, was different from all these, because no less a person than President Hoover had dispatched his War Chief to their islands as the eyes & ears of the White House, to see, hear, learn and know all. Upon his report about them, they were told, would depend whether or not they get independence.

When the President Cleveland docked, therefore, 10,000 curious and excited Filipinos turned out on their best behavior to welcome “Eyes & Ears.” Governor General Dwight Filley Davis had proclaimed a national holiday. With Vice Governor General George Butte, he was at the pier to welcome his superior. As the Secretary of War came down the gangplank, the Filipino throng stared admiringly at the soldierly figure, the clean-cut features, the ready smile, then up went a great cheer which oldtimers said was more friendly, more cordial than any heard around the Manila docks since Secretary of War William Howard Taft landed there with his great smile in 1907.

To the crowd Secretary Hurley delivered a message, explained his mission: “I bring! you the greetings and best wishes of the President of the United States. … By his direction I have come here to secure first-hand information concerning the political, educational, social and economic conditions which now prevail in the islands. … I shall converse with the people themselves. . . . On the facts established the Administration will base its future policy. . . .”

“Remarkably Impressed Under a guard of honor Secretary and Mrs. Hurley were escorted to Malacanan Palace where they were the guests of Governor Davis and his daughter Cynthia.* Thither in the afternoon headed another independence parade, with 15,000 marchers, 80,000 spectators eddying along in its wake. Better tempered and less hostile was the demonstration than the one re-viewed by Senator Harry Bartow (“Beets”) Hawes last July (TIME. July 20). As the paraders swung up to Mala-canan Palace, Secretary Hurley, accompanied by Governor Davis, strode out to the front gate to watch it pass. Wild with delight at this unexpected courtesy, the marchers broke ranks, pressed about the gate, stalled the parade. Secretary Hurley climbed up on a truck to give the demonstrators a better look at him while the police vainly tried to get the parade going again. When the congestion became hopeless, he clambered down, went back into the palace. With nothing more to see. the parade got started again, continued for an hour and a half.

With goodwill established at the start. Secretary Hurley was feted by Senator Sergio Osmena and Speaker Manuel Roxas, independence leaders. After a two-day rest he set forth on his inspection trip by special train to the province of Tayabas where more independence demonstrations awaited him. Along the way natives threw armfuls of flowers in upon him through the car window. Said he: “I’m really learning something. I’m supposed to be finding out something and not giving things out but I must say I’m remarkably impressed. . . . I like the way Filipinos ask for independence.”

Puzzled Sultan. Particularly anxious was Secretary Hurley to meet the Sultan of Sulu, leader of the islands’ non-Christian population. Last week the Sultan of Sulu also had good reason to want to see the Secretary of War. At a public function Senator Hawes had presented the Sultan with a 45 calibre revolver inscribed ”Hawes” The Filipino constabulary, an adjunct of the War Department, ordered the Sultan either to get a license to possess the weapon or else surrender it. What the Sultan could not decide was whether to bow to the law and get a gun permit or to keep the gift in defiance of the constabulary’s orders. Secretary Hurley might advise him.

Sugar v. Sugar, Oil v. Oil. The independence sentiment which Secretary Hurley encountered on his “eyes-&-ears” tour sprang, as he well knew, not from any major development within the Philippines themselves but from a sudden and significant shift of economic and political opinion when the U. S. Rocky Mountain beet producers two years ago began to complain that duty-free Filipino cane sugar was depressing their industry. Louisiana cane-growers felt the same way. Concerns with $800,000,000 invested in Cuban sugar production lined up with them against the Philippines. From the North-west came the cry of dairymen that Filipino coconut oil was competing unfairly with their farm products. From the South cottonseed oil men joined the chorus of complaint. This outcry against the Philippines as an agricultural competitor was centred on Congress. There the representatives of the different groups coalesced, formed a sizeable bloc in favor of casting the Philippines loose for the prime purpose of putting them outside the U. S. tariff wall.— Reality or Reflection? This turn of the economic wheel in Congress on Philippine independence, long a dead issue, gave the islands’ politicos fresh hope. This they transmitted to the Filipino populace which in turn began to demonstrate for the benefit of visiting U. S. Senators and Representatives. What President Hoover had really sent Secretary Hurley out for was to learn whether this native clamor for freedom honestly arose from the people themselves or whether it was just an artificial reflection of the agitation by agricultural self-interest in the U. S.

In the jist Congress a variety of sniping proposals was advanced by the Philippine independence bloc. One was that sugar imports should be limited. Another was that Filipino immigration to the U. S. should be sharply restricted. A third was that the islands should be put under the coastwise shipping law which would have prohibited all but U. S. vessels from plying between the Philippines and the U. S. All these ideas President Hoover stoutly resisted and on one occasion Secretary of State Stimson, as the islands’ onetime Governor General, marched to the Capitol and told Congress to stop plaguing the Philippines. In Manila last week Secretary Hurley recalled these Ad ministration efforts to protect the Philip pine market, declared: ”We’ve been some what confused amid these victories by the [Philippine] cry for independence. It seems hard to believe your people really want a tariff on products and it is difficult to carry on the battle if one is not sure of one’s allies.” A Bill. Widespread is the belief that the 72nd Congress will act in favor of Philippine independence. It was to pre pare for such action that President Hoover sent Secretary Hurley to Manila for facts. The measure which commands the most united support among the farm-freedom bloc in Congress is that prepared by Senators Hawes and Cutting and reported favorably to the Senate last year. Under this bill a Philippine constitution would be prepared at Manila and approved by Congress. The U. S. would retain administrative control for five years during which trade relations would gradually change through an increasing tariff. After the is landers had tasted economic freedom, a plebiscite would be held which would ac cept or reject complete political inde pendence. And Hoover. Not until Henry Lewis Stimson went to Manila in 1927 was much done to prepare the Philippines for independence. Governor General Leonard Wood ruled with a mailed fist, antagonized the natives, scoffed the idea of ever letting the islands go. Governor Stimson took a different tack, emphasized the necessity of economic growth before there could be any talk of freedom. Governor Davis has largely followed the Stimson policy, with good results. Local government is virtually all in the hands of the natives, with the U. S. holding a check on the purse strings through the Governor General. President Hoover, during his two and a half years in office, has not given the Philippines much serious thought. Last year he stirred up a hornet’s nest, when, without forethought, he nominated Nicholas Roosevelt to be Vice Governor (TIME, July 28, 1930 et seq.). Mr. Roosevelt had toured the islands as a newsman, written his impressions of the people in a not too flattering book (The Philippines, A Treasure and a Problem). Filipinos raised such an uproar that their protest was heard in Washington. Mr. Roosevelt helped the President out of a hole by declining the appointment.

President Hoover’s Philippine assignment was hardly a welcome order for sportive Secretary Hurley, the youngest and most social member of the Cabinet. He had planned to go to Dublin for a gay August at the horse show. He always liked horse shows. At a pre-War one he met for the second time tall, attractive Ruth Wilson, daughter of Rear Admiral Henry Braid Wilson, as she was portraying Diana leading the chase. He remarked to a surprised friend: “Some day that girl is going to be Mrs. Hurley.” The third time he saw her, he proposed. They were married in 1919, have now three daughters and a son, live in a big house on Belmont Road near the Eugene Meyers. There they entertain frequently and well. When they gave their first Cabinet dinner to President & Mrs. Hoover, a Pullman-load of friends were also invited from Oklahoma to share their social glory. These friends marveled among themselves at how far “Pat” Hurley had come since 1883 when he was born among the grass roots of what is now Coal County, Okla.

Pierce Hurley, “Pat’s” father, was a poor Irish immigrant. In Texas he married Mary Kelly. They had a brood of children. Pierce Hurley was thrown from a horse, crippled for life. Mary Hurley slaved to keep the family together, died when Pat was n. Said he years later: . “Mother’s death hit me terribly. I was dazed for weeks. What I have made of myself has been due in no small measure to her, to my sisters and, in later years, to my wife. I’ve been mighty fortunate with my womenfolk.”

What “Pat” Hurley did for himself, however, is known to every poor boy of Oklahoma. At eleven he drove a mule in a mine. At 14 he was cowpunching on Lazy S ranch. He worked his way through Bacone College at Muskogee. He studied law at night in Washington. He returned to Tulsa to make $15,000,000 in real estate, banking, oil.

In 1928 he delivered half the Oklahoma delegation to Herbert Hoover at the Kansas City convention and helped mightily to carry the State for the Republican presidential nominee. When in 1929 President Hoover asked him if he would serve as Assistant Secretary of War, “Pat” Hurley flashed his warm Irish smile and replied: “Mr. President, I’d crawl on my hands and knees to get that office.” When the Hurleys arrived in Washington they were so overawed by the capital’s society that they used to practice their entrances and exits at a mirror before dining out.

His promotion from the sub-Cabinet followed the death of Secretary of War James William Good. For the post he had ample qualifications: 1) an A. E. F. War record that won him a citation for bravery; 2) a good knowledge of War Department routine; 3) a smart political head; 4) a bright and engaging personality to color an otherwise sombre Cabinet.

As the civilian head of the Army, Secretary Hurley has kept the wheels turning quietly without adding any new cogs or altering the mechanism. He has visited practically every Army post in the land. His most unhappy hours have been spent between the insistence of President Hoover that the Army economize and the assertion of the Department’s Generals that any cut in expenses will jeopardize national defense. Next winter he will have a chance to show his real strength when he tries to get Congress to eliminate two score obsolete Army posts (TIME, May

25).

For fun the Secretary of War collects hats. All on Fridays he was born, graduated from law school, married, made Assistant Secretary of War, Secretary of War. By Army plane he does most of his overland traveling. Jesse James is his secret hero. His critics declare that his personality, not his ability, has advanced him to his present high position. They say that he “struts sitting down.”

Secretary Hurley’s immediate ambition is the Vice-Presidency. He counts on American Legion support to win him the nomination if Vice President Curtis steps out. He goes about the country declaring that Charles Curtis should be renominated. Extreme and vociferous is his loyalty to President Hoover. Though no member of the Cabinet is more gentle and less aggressive with the Press than the Secretary of War, he nevertheless exclaimed last month as he was sailing from Seattle:

“A deliberate campaign has been instituted to malign the character of the President with dirty mean little insinuations. It’s gotten so bad that he can’t even snap his fingers at his dog without somebody saying he didn’t do it right. If the President would talk at his press conferences as I do at mine he wouldn’t have any trouble. If he’d come right out and brand one or two of the propagandists as liars, he’d put a stop to it. But he goes his own patient way and remains ever the gentleman.”

* Mrs. Davis is in poor health, lives in Paris. * The 1902 tariff act taxed Philippine imports 75% of the normal rate. The 1909 act removed all duties but limited sugar imports to 300,000 tons per year. The 1913 act lifted all restrictions, which have never been reimposed.