Debts Dropped

In a double-edged huff, President Hoover and President-elect Roosevelt parted company last week on U. S. foreign policies. As a result any War Debt settlement went over until after March 4. In his special message to Congress last fortnight President Hoover said he wanted to make a combined attack on debts, disarmament and world economics by means of an executive commission. To that end he proposed again to seek the co-operation of his successor who, after their White House meeting of last November, had already refused to support his methods. Between the White House and the Executive Mansion at Albany a four-day exchange of telegrams, each as coldly polite as any diplomatic note from nation to nation, charted the course of the disagreement. Final statements to the Press furnished the cracker of ill-feeling that ruptured all chance of joint action. Excerpts from the Hoover-Roosevelt correspondence:

President Hoover: It is urgent that the World Economic Conference should assemble as early as possible. The United States should be represented by a strong and effective delegation. This delegation should be chosen at an early moment. . . . The exchange of views in respect to debts cannot be accomplished in satisfactory manner through the ordinary routine of diplomatic contacts. . . . The successful outcome of the World Economic Conference will be greatly furthered if the debt problems can be satisfactorily advanced. ... If it were not for the urgency of the situation, it would be normal to allow the whole matter to rest until after the change of administration. ... I should be glad to know if you could join with me in the selection of such a delegation at the present time.

President-elect Roosevelt: I seek in every proper way to be of help. It is my view that disarmament, intergovernmental debts and permanent economic arrangements require selective treatment. ... As to disarmament, your policy is clear and satisfactory. ... As to debts, certainly the Chief Executive has full authority to conduct preliminary investigations. . . . I am impelled to suggest that these surveys should be limited to determining facts and exploring possibilities rather than fixing policies binding on the incoming administration. ... As to the economic conference, I must respectfully suggest that the appointing of the permanent delegates and the final determination of the program be held in abeyance until after March 4. ... It would be improper for me and inadvisable for you, for me to take part in naming representatives [who] could be responsible only and properly to you as President. ... It would be unwise for me to accept an apparent joint responsibility with you when, as a matter of constitutional fact, I would be wholly lacking in any attendant authority.

President Hoover: I am unwilling to admit that co-operation cannot be established between the outgoing and incoming administrations. . . . My proposals to you have been directed to the setting up not of solutions but of the machinery through which the ultimate solution can be expedited. ... I fully recognize that your solution might vary from my own. ... I have no intention of committing the incoming administration. ... I would be glad if you could designate Mr. Owen D. Young, Colonel House or any other man of your party to sit with the principal officers of this administration in an endeavor to see what steps can be taken to avoid delays of precious time.

President-elect Roosevelt: There remains before March only the possibility of exploratory work and preliminary surveys. ... I am glad to avoid the loss of precious time through delay in starting these preliminaries. . . . However for me to accept any joint responsibility in the work of exploration might well be construed by other nations as a commitment --moral, even though not legal--as to policies and courses of action. . . . The designation of a man or men of such eminence as your telegram suggests would not imply mere fact-findings; it would suggest the presumption that such representatives were empowered to exchange views on matters of large and binding policy. . . . May I suggest that you proceed with the selection of your representatives to conduct the preliminary exploration necessary with individual debtor nations, making it clear that none of these representatives is authorized to, bind this Government as to any ultimate policy. ... I shall be happy to receive their information. ... I shall be very glad if you will keep me advised. ... I also shall be happy to consult with you freely.

Balked in this telegraphic debate, President Hoover broke it off abruptly by making its texts public at the White House. His comment: ''Governor Roosevelt considers that it is undesirable for him to assent to my suggestions for co-operative action. I will respect his wishes. ... Of course no commitments will be made for the next administration."

Riled by what he considered a gratuitous dig, President-elect Roosevelt rapped back from Albany: "I'm rather surprised. . . . It's a pity that any intimation should be given that I consider it undesirable to assent to co-operative action on foreign problems. ... I have asked to be kept advised. ... I have offered to consult. ... I hope this practical program of cooperation will be accepted."

This historic interchange between a Republican President and his Democratic successor not only revealed the mental abyss separating the two men but also stirred Washington and Albany to hot political resentment. The Hoover camp felt that Governor Roosevelt was afraid to join forces with the President because he did not want to exhibit publicly his own lack of a debt plan. "I-told-you-so" Republicans chortled about their pre-election predictions that President Hoover's defeat would produce just such a hiatus in economic recovery.

Roosevelt champions, on the other hand, thought that President Hoover, stubborn of opinion, was trying to jockey Governor Roosevelt into line with his own foreign program just as he had jockeyed Congress to support his 1931 debt moratorium. Dark Democratic hints were broadcast to the effect that Wall Street, repudiated in the election, was trying to get an advance grip, through President Hoover, on the next administration's foreign policy. Why, asked Democrats, among themselves, did not President Hoover offer to turn power as well as responsibility over to the President-elect if he was so anxious for cooperation?

Though the breakoff stalemated the debts, President Hoover and Governor Roosevelt still had a link between them in the person of Democrat Norman Hezekiah Davis. U. S. arms delegate and Hoover Man-about-Europe. Arriving in Manhattan on the Manhattan last week Delegate Davis announced: "There's no doubt that the world is in a terrible fix. The nations seem to realize that if they don't want to perish separately they must get together." Speeding to Washington Mr. Davis spent 90 minutes reporting to President Hoover. Said he: "It's a great thing to get, Germany back into the disarmament conference. Actually it has prepared the ground, changed the atmosphere and made profitable work possible."

This week Democrat Davis called on Governor Roosevelt, told him what was what abroad. If anyone could possibly restore harmony between the 31st and 32nd Presidents, it was Diplomat Davis. C. Last week President Hoover went holidaying over Christmas and New Year's. Sunshine and blue skies met him when he detrained at Savannah. His guests: Supreme Court Justice Stone, Vermont's Senator Austin, Political Pundit Mark Sullivan and the ubiquitous Dr. Boone and Detective-Secretary Richey. Aboard the Sequoia, Department of Commerce inspection boat, and surrounded by a small flotilla carrying newshawks and bodyguards, the President's party wound through tidewater streams to emerge in Ossabaw Sound. Gus Ohman, a guide who had taken President Cleveland fishing in these Georgia waters, told President Hoover the fish were "biting like hungry tigers" but the President got not even a nibble the first day out. Christmas Eve the President & party feasted on roast oysters at the Ossabaw Island place of H. N. Torrey of Detroit. They ate Christmas dinner as the guests of Howard Earle Coffin on Sapelo Island where Calvin Coolidge was entertained four years ago. Mr. Coffin and the President are remote cousins, their families having gone west together from North Carolina to Ohio in 1802. At West Milton, Ohio. Mr. Coffin was born in a house built by John Hoover, the President's great-great grandfather.

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