First Words

First Words

Colonel George Harvey has made his first editorial appearance under the banner of Edward B. McLean. In his new capacity as "editorial director" (TiME, June 2) of The Washington Post, he filled four large columns with the product of his pen--a product not so virulent as it was four years ago, but not without piquancy. His chief topic was the Japanese exclusion feature of the Immigration Act. Said he: "Responsibility for the faux pas that played hob with the pleasant relationship with Japan and the United States rests in about equal proportions upon the Secretary of State, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate, and, we re--(Continued on Page 24) (Continued from Page 20) gret to have to say in fairness to others, the Japanese Ambassador. We may as well be frank about it. Mr. Hanihara unwittingly made an error, Mr. Hughes guilelessly made a blunder, and Senator Lodge made unwarranted use of both error and blunder.

"There was no occasion for the disagreeable happening, no difference in principle requiring it, and no exigency excusing it. Any one of the three statesmen mentioned could and should have averted it. Unfortunately none of the three did; and yet, oddly enough none can be held justly to very severe account. The Ambassador was no more than inadvertent in the picking of English words, the Secretary seems to have been quite innocent of the implication that might be attached to them, and the Senator merely gratified his exquisite taste for meticulous diplomatic expression. So at least we prefer to believe. . .

"Not only is Senator Lodge the Nestor of the greatest legislative body in the world, and justly proud of the renown of his remarkable career, but he appreciates to the full the admirable qualities of Mr. Hanihara, he holds in highest esteem the splendid attributes of Mr. Hughes, and, in the course of his supplementary speech on May 8, while regretting his inability to grant the President's request for an extension of time in which to negotiate abrogation of the agreement with Japan, did not he say, with courtliness approaching enthusiasm, of Mr. Coolidge:

"'I have the utmost respect and admiration for the President; I believe in him thoroughly!. . .'

"To pronounce the outcome a failure of the Administration is to falsify the fact. It was a triumph over inexpertness, maladroitness and mischievousness, in sound principle and in straightforward diplomacy, for Calvin Coolidge."