Stream Crossed

When is Europe's business the business of the U. S.?

Steadfastly since the Versailles Peace Conference (1919) the Republican Party has answered, "Never, except in such specific matters as naval equipment and narcotics control.'' But the U. S. has $1,350,000,000 invested in Germany. And Herbert Hoover has moved around the world enough to appreciate how, increasingly, Europe's business affects U. S. business. As France well guessed, it was not pure altruism that made a Republican U. S. President call for an international debt holiday to save Germany from fiscal chaos. Through the breach in U. S. Isolation thus made, and encouraged by almost solid national sentiment behind him. President Hoover last week marched another, longer step away from G. O. P. tradition. He sent his Secretaries of State and Treasury formally to London to confer with the ministers of Europe on Europe's crisis (see p. 14).

The President's move was in response to an invitation from Great Britain to confer with the six major signatories of the Young Plan--Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Germany. President Hoover's debt holiday plan had started the rescue work but more was now needed. Germany wanted a big loan. Private bankers were reluctant to advance her cash until her political and economic stability was more assured. France was haggling for "political guarantees" before she would agree to a German loan. Apparently it was thought that the presence of the U. S., reluctant to discuss European politics, would cut short France's haggling. Apparently sensing this, France preceded the London conference with one of her own, in Paris.

When President Hoover read the London invitation, he quickly called to the White House Acting Secretary of State Castle and Acting Secretary of the Treasury Mills. Had they needed a picture of the U. S. position to help them arrive at their decision, they could have done no better than to send out for a copy of London Punch, whose main cartoon often has all the authority and conciseness of a leader in the august London Times. Punch had depicted a kindly President Hoover carrying nice old Dame Europa in his arms across the waters of world-wide Depression (see cut). Beneath the cartoon were these lines:

Dame Europa: I hope I'm not taking you out of your way, sir.

President Hoover: Not at all, Madam. Your way is my way.

Having decided not to drop the old lady in midstream but to trudge on to shore, President Hoover had more trans-atlantic telephoning to do. Statesman Stimson had arrived in Paris from Italy. Secretary of the Treasury Mellon was still resting at Cap Ferrat, after his arduous nocturnal negotiations on the debt holiday. After three long calls to Paris, President Hoover announced:

Secretary Stimson will attend the conference in London to consider the present emergency problems in Central Europe. I have asked Secretary Mellon, if consistent with his plans, also to attend in order that we may have the benefit of his advice. It is our understanding that the conference is limited entirely to questions of the present emergency.

Secretary Mellon was walking in his daughter's rose garden when Secretary Stimson telephoned him from Paris, gave him his President's message. The old gentleman was surprised. He said to newsmen as he started wearily for Paris: "I didn't think I'd be needed while Mr. Stimson was there." Undersecretary Mills, in Washington, was sorry and worried. "If this thing goes on," he said, "they'll be bringing him home in a box."

In Washington, newsmen clamored for more detailed information from the White House as to what U. S. participation in the London conference meant. Acting Secretary Castle explained as well as he could. Of course there would be no "foreign entanglements," but the discussion would be very broad. Would Secretaries Stimson & Mellon be limited to economic topics? No, they were free to talk world politics. Their role would be that of mediators and harmonizers trying to work out a ''reasonable plan" whereby Germany could receive a loan and thus help bring the Hoover debt holiday to fruition. Over & over it was reiterated that President Hoover's only motive was to bring better times to the U. S. by alleviating the world-wide Depression.

Once in, President Hoover gave himself up wholly to the London conference. He sent word to Ambassador Dawes, vacationing in Evanston, Ill., to get back to London immediately. By telephone Secretary Stimson reported two or three times a day to the White House on the preliminary negotiations in Paris between the French and German ministers. When he detailed a French plan whereby, to get a loan, Germany must declare a political truce for ten years against the Versailles Treaty and the status quo of Europe guaranteed by the other powers, President Hoover looked glum, said something about such an idea being "unacceptable" to the U. S. Nor, he indicated, would the U. S. act as guarantor on any German loan, because that could be done only by act of Congress.

Two days before the London conference, Ambassador Edge telephoned the White House from Paris that "things look all right." President Hoover packed up and went happily to the Rapidan for the weekend. With him he took Governor Eugene Meyer of the Federal Reserve Board to discuss U. S. participation in any German Loan. Also taken along for an emergency was Miss Anne Shankey, one of the President's alert stenographers.

President Hoover stayed on an extra night at his camp when his telephone line was cut in on a call from Paris to the State Department and he heard Secretary Stimson report: "The atmosphere here is good. There is nothing at the moment to be pessimistic about. The meeting of the French Premier and German Chancellor was perfectly pleasant and agreeable."

President Hoover's flat-footed entry into the European emergency put Old Guardsmen into something between a shiver and a sweat. They openly hoped Secretaries Stimson and Mellon would use ''discretion." Democratic Senator Caraway of Arkansas, always a political stingaree, mocked: "It's perfectly consistent to have Stimson and Mellon take part in a conference on European political matters. Isn't this a foreign administration? Isn't everything in the Government being run from Paris and Berlin and London? Only, I hope when they get all through attending to the affairs of the rest of the world, they'll find time to devote a little attention to the people of the U. S."

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