THE CABINET: Cornfield Lawyers

Back in Washington after a fortnight at Pinehurst—during which he dabbled about with a putter, found golf almost as amusing as his favorite game of croquet, Secretary of State Cordell Hull last week found it necessary to play his way out of three delicate diplomatic hazards. The slow-speaking Secretary timed his strokes well and executed them neatly but, as golfers have a habit of doing, he felt inclined by week’s end to indulge in a dash of reasonably non-diplomatic language.

Hazard No. 1 was the visit of Dr. Hugo Eckener to see what was holding up U. S. shipments of helium to Germany. Since Secretary Hull had approved the shipments, the responsibility here went to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, who had not approved them (see p. 46).

Hazard No. 2 was a Senate resolution introduced by North Dakota’s Nye suggesting that the U. S. repeal the embargo on shipments of arms to Spain. Passed in January 1937, the embargo has been consistently criticized for doing less to effect U. S. neutrality than to assist Generalissimo Franco, by its disheartening effect on the Loyalist Government. Like the Scott Resolution three weeks ago, the Nye Resolution apparently had the tacit approval of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. With the President still off on his fishing trip, Secretary Hull decided to delay his shot—in the form of a note to be sent to the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee—until his partner could return to advise him in effect what kind of club to use.

Hazard No. 3, apparently the least troublesome of the lot, was the one that caused calm Secretary Hull to speak his mind more briskly than usual. In the Washington Merry-Go-Round (circ. 13,500,000) last week appeared a story to the effect that Secretary Hull and his “career boys” had been violating the neutrality law by allowing shipments of arms to Germany. Reason: The Neutrality Act prohibits arms shipments “in violation of a treaty” and the 1921 peace treaty specifically prohibits “importation into Germany of arms, munitions and war materials.” That day, Columnist Drew Pearson, co-author of the Merry-Go-Round, attended a State Department press conference at which his column instantly became the main topic of discussion.

Secretary Hull began by rebutting Columnist Pearson on the ground that though Germany might be violating the peace treaty by importing arms, the U. S. was not violating it by selling them to her. This left open the point of whether or not the shipments were still “in violation” of a treaty to which the U. S. was a party. Obviously, it would never do for the Secretary of State to admit that his Government, in however small a detail, * had actually committed a technical breach of a treaty, and Mr. Hull did not do so. Instead, he launched into a long reproof of Columnist Pearson which, contrary to all State Department press conference convention, was handed out for full quotation. Excerpts:

“We have not violated any treaty or any law and if you will send your lawyer in and talk to our lawyers here, they can settle it much better than some of our cornfield lawyers, like me and you, Mr. Pearson. . . .

“Germany repudiated every phase of the Versailles Treaty and went buck to functioning in her own way as she saw fit. That is what she is doing, and . . . you won’t find a syllable of any law or treaty which prohibits us from selling arms and ammunition to Germany today.”

* Total value of U. S. war material shipments to Germany since 1935 is $1,634,227—barely enough to kill 65 soldiers, since the average cost of a war death is estimated at $25,000. Last week, 20,000 bombs, sold by Atlas Powder Co. of Wilmington, Del. were hoisted aboard North German Lloyd’s freighter, Frankcnwald, before the freighter upped anchor for Bremen. The bombs, last of four shipments sold “to parties in the U. S.,” cleared by the State Department, were for transshipment when they reach Germany. Where the shipment would eventually wind up, no official would say but the best informed guess predicted a right turn into the racks of Spanish Generalissimo Franco’s bombers.