FDR Faces State Department Crisis As Hull, Welles Showdown Breaks
FDR Faces State Department Crisis As Hull, Welles Showdown Breaks Political Issue of Foreign Policy Unclear as Diplomats Wrangle The little storm-in-the-teacup, u^hich rattled for months with...
...It is believed that Welles had sharply dissented over official policy in North Africa...
...When the country launched its defense program there were laws on the statute books limiting the profits of contractors...
...The Soviet Embassy in Washington tipped it> aitt this week on the real basis of the curast friction between the Soviet Union and the ststtra Democracies...
...PM this week was pleading "Keep Welles, Mr...
...Under this law, about 8,000 cewtraets have been reviewed and manufacturers have been forced to return about 3,600,000,000 to the Treasury...
...At the same time, a pro-Stalinist congress of Spaniards is now being organised in Mexico, while the pro-gtalinist Germans are mobilising for the support of Moscow's "Free German" committee...
...The argument used in support of repeal is that manufacturers should be permitted to retain every dollar they con grab as a reserve to tide them over post-war conversion...
...Workers Can't Keep Fair Living Standard By CLARK RYAN DETROIT.—A shatfefW mow was levelled this week by the American Federation of Labor St praffegesiia that" a or Hera have ¦»» much money to spend that they are bringing on "inflation...
...AH that they ever said or did was on direct instructions from Staliti...
...It was this opposiSs to the act on the side of industry that jfjfti hopes that the next session of Congress, laving indulged itself in a binge of hatred, toold be sufficiently sobered up to cell the yfcale thing eft...
...X However, a majority of the contracts contain a provision for renegotiation, and to deprive the government of this opportunity to protect, taxpayers is the object of the eaaspaign to- wipe out the law...
...It is pert of the Kremlin's "war of nerves" against the allied foreign offices...
...JJ* this desire by the Soviet Union to conr* Cnrtral Europe and the Balkans after the T**wst meets determined resistance in Waah*nd London...
...while Vito Marcantonio is now "uniting" the Italian people in the United States for a future weapon against Anglo-American policy in Italy...
...ailand, it must be remembered, went to war "J**1*" the territorial sovereignty of Poland J?* "tack by Germany...
...One, the Order establishes a Government blacklist to prevent workers in such cases from trying to get other jobs by denying them cer85*1 of availability, without which it is now wpeaiible to get a job in any industrial area...
...Far from denying this he goes out of his way to emphasize it...
...Just this week Congressman Carl Hinshow (Rep., Calif...
...Now Welles has shaped up as the champion of liberalism...
...The Atlantic Char"r«swn up by England snd the United States, and subsequently signed by the Soviet Union, guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all the states in Europe on the basis of the status quo ante-bellum against all aggresors...
...So the internal difficulties of a traditionbound department have been linked with the wider issues, cf U. S. foreign policy to bring the problem of the State Department forward as FDR's first problem on his return...
...U Affaire LitvinoH Stalin's 'War of Nerves'Against the Allies "This cook will prepare only spicy dishes...
...It is indeed rare that in time of war an important Ambassador such as Litvinov or Maisky should be removed from his post for any reasons other than of an extremely personal nature such as illness, etc...
...Note: The best tip-off of the real antilater character of the Executive Order is ••stated by the feet that the Daily Worker sk A agent 20 ran an editorial in its suptort...
...he argued, they may not be interested is providing the additional production needed to win the war...
...Congressman A. Willis Robertson (Dem., V s . ) , awtobar of the Ways and Means Committee, declared profits are the "besj incentive" to production and that he would fight any attempt to take another penny in taxes from corporations...
...FDR Faces State Department Crisis As Hull, Welles Showdown Breaks Political Issue of Foreign Policy Unclear as Diplomats Wrangle The little storm-in-the-teacup, u^hich rattled for months with the suggestion that Cordell Hull and Sumner Welles didn't quite see eye to eye, exploded in Washington this week, and fragments of the State Department crockery were blasted right into President Franklin Roosevelt's lap in far-away Quebec...
...For a great many years fiumuei Welles was »¦ ear a— ey fire fiuta - literal juUae as the ruthless representative of "dollar diplomacy " His career in Cuba, with its Jefferson CafferySan Martin Grau incident, was Widely attacked...
...The Truman committee disclosed that nary renegotiation hod left profits up to 1682 per cent en total business, while the array left up to 28.1 per cent The National City Bank of New York reported the other day that corporate profits, before taxes, are more than four times as large as during the peace time year of IMS, end mere than two times as large, after paymaat ef taxes...
...was already the Russian Ambassador is Qsegt amain when Stalin signed his pact with Hitler, and teat toe former defended the pact just Sa rigorously as he had formerly defended Russia's interference in the Spanish civil war...
...The second "fall" of Maxim Litvinov receives added significance if we consider it in connection with the recall of Ivan Maisky from London...
...a law authorising the armed forces to reaeg*» tiate war contracts and squeeze oat extortionate profits...
...said he favored repeal and predicted renegotiation would be scuttled...
...Despite tile fact that Stalin agreed to the terms of the Atlantic Charter, he appears to regard it as "another scrap of paper" by refusing to return the portion of Poland seized by Russia when Stalin and Hitler carved up that country between them, and refusing to return the sovereignty of Lithuania, Esthonia and Latvia which Russia also seised at that time...
...Equally significant is the new offensive against the Anglo-American bloc on the part of the Stalinists in the United States: the Balkan Slavs are now organising for the obvious purpose of upholding Stalinist policy in the Balkans...
...Where the Connelly Act was content with nnply making it impossible for workers to use to* weapon of the strike to overcome the inamkies of war profiteering snd Big Business control of the war effort, the President's Executive Order goes farther by making it imposnbit for individual workers even to leave such jats—without striking—under two penalties...
...Contracts representing billions of dollars were awarded without competitive bidding Government officials said there was net tints to "haggle" over prices, and they permitted manufacturer* to write their own tickets...
...It* is they who are charged with the responsibility ef coordinating the work of the various members of the coalition...
...Italy, and a half-dosen other xcrucial problems...
...Comment By JONATHAN STOUT «•• wnnimw i|UV7 WASHINGTON, D. C,—The stunned disfcjief that swept Labor circles here last week — ifeu»n<* of the President's Executive Order M Aug 16 implementing the Connally Act is beginning to wear off...
...1 Is its efforts to "get" Lewis, the Administntien once more has used a shotgun, and the pattering shot "gets" Lewis all right, but it gate gets all the rest of organized labor...
...Stalin has recalled Maxha litvinov and Ivan Maisky ss s new maneuver in his propaganda campaign and diplomatic blackmail...
...article in the bulletin was token from the *» roiee of the unofficial Comintern, "Wsr "J the Working Clsss," published in Moscow...
...Any such contention would be ridiculous...
...Communists and fellow-travelers are lining up the American Pole* for support of the Moscow-created "Union of Polish Patriots...
...Contractors do not claim that, even after renegotiation, their profits are not ample...
...The "Heller budget" has become widely accepted as a yardstick, the A. F. of L. explained...
...As evidence, the Federation cited a scientific study made by a group at the University of Southern California, known as the Heller Committee for Research in Social gnitiaanin For many years this committee has been calculating whet it takes for en anerage wage earner's family—husband, wife and two children—to maintain a "health and decency" standard in industrial centers...
...It is generally conceded that Welles has grown a good deal in the recent period, widened his sympathies, and enlarged his understanding of political problems...
...Manufacturers refused to turn a wheel until these laws were repealed...
...If they are not assured "ample" profits...
...It was Krock who reported that if Hall were to choose Long as hie new assistant Berle who has seniority would resign...
...But such a shift would not necessarily mean the recall of Litvinov front Washington and Maisky from London...
...After a while it was discovered by the Troman and other investigating eeensajttoss that many contractors had gone "hog-wild" on charges and were harvesting profits beyond the dreams of avarice...
...And it seems clear that as the President dropped Wallace, his own executive assistant, so he would drop Welles, a long-time personal friend and member of the White House inner circle...
...The . Mice again drags out the cheesecloth ***** that the whole idea is aimed against the Union, which on the record has been comffyfog.fof 25 years of capitalistic plots to at**'t Snd which suffered' no such attack until W sen ally Hitler turned on it...
...In spots, it is being Saced by a quiet but bitter anger...
...Krock, who had been so serviceable to Jesse Jones in the offensive against Henr> Wallace, was now carrying the ball for Cordell HuD against Sumner Welles...
...The New York Herald Tribune, independent Republican paper, modulated this line to interpret the episode "as s fairly brutal sacrifice of American .foreign policy to Roosevelt fourthterm politics.'' The point was that Hull has the votes, end the favorite sen of the Southern bloc could not be antagonized without cutting FDR's ground away for 1944...
...The sort of federation accept*** to Moscow, the article implies, would be *** worked out with Russisn cooperation...
...The Labor party captured at least 44 of the 75 seats in the House of Representatives end all the 19 seam in the Senate for which elections were held...
...The Herald Tribune, like its chief columnist Walter -Lippmann, has been consistently Critical ef the State Dept Breckinridge Long it calls "unimpressive...
...But it is quite clear that much of the U. S. press is reading into the Welles-Hull rift an their favorite slogans...
...In the coming months 'we shall have to recall again and again these prophetic words of Lenin about comrade Stalin, his self-proclaimed and, alas, one and only "true" disciple...
...Ballots cast by Australians in the armed services are still being received from the fighting fronts, even from the Allied lines in Sicily...
...Aid where the infamous Connally Act is contest BMrtly with imposing a year in prison or a fas af $5,000, or both, on unions or union leaders who stay try to buck the stranglehold of Big iBBBess snd the wsr profiteers, the President's fssmtrvt Order goes farther by two drastic Jrtrbions...
...If they gain their demand...
...What, then, were the reasons thst prompted Stalin to throw a political bombshell into the Quebec conference...
...Krock followed this up with an equally sharp editorial campaign which absolved the Secretary of State, and divided the blame equally between the White House and recalcitrant subordinates...
...contending "a contract is S contract,'' Oven if it robe Uncle Sam in wartime...
...Then the renegotlstkm lav was enacted...
...W •> * The fact is that a majority ef working men, even with higher wartime wages and longer hours, dent earn enough to maintain a decent American standard ef Irving, the A. F. of L. declared...
...Legislation blocking the usiglHstllS program has already been introduced, fat sapporters are coeS slant they eaa ferae St through...
...An attentive scrutiny of these plans im2*»tely and completely gives away the imJJnstie intent of the Polish gentry," the ar^ **;«sye, "though they try to conceal them ty J~*J»re about the security of the Central EuPton states, about the political balance in *JBP* and about securing a long and stable H?*k) not hard to see thst the plsns of this l...
...It is important to remember that Maisky...
...The im^rum question is, are the spots going to eiread...
...An editorial spoke vaguely of "the ganging up of politicians," and said that "this political gangsterism" against Welles "who has worked almost alone in the State Department in' the directions of a democratic war and a collective peace becomes an appalling act of political sabotage...
...In the sphere of foreign policy it is important to recapitulate Stalin's recent action with regard to the "'French Committee of National Liberation" in North Africa, where he is now sending his personal representative not in agreement with Great Britain and the United States but, as he goes out of bis way to underscore it, against their wishes...
...That this should be done by the man who teteed the Connally Act is whet stunned Usor circles...
...When labor-baiters like Smith and Connelly write anti-labor legislation, spar* is little occasion for gasps and surprises But that a friend of labor should is sa...
...After patting ever the Rami ataa...
...For others he was $ one-man political and cultural lag in a fast-moving modern world...
...Tea, the Order sets up the Army as a penal institution by providing for the drafting of individual workers who might try—without striking—to leave underpaid jobs for better-paying jaw...
...D. C - Lobbyist, for Big Business have launched a drive to sat over a Treasury raid which, if successful, will stake all previous raids seem like chicken feed...
...The President may return to the capital with world-shaking military plans, bat a little homework on Pennsylvania Avenue will be on the agenda...
...Latest of the committee's ¦ spiral peaces the minimum earnings necessary in these war times to achieve such a standard at $2.9*2 a year...
...Secretary of State Hull, just returned from the ChurchillFDR meeting in Quebec, refused to deny the story of Welles' resignation...
...The cook of the Kremlin not only knows the secret of preparing spicy dishes but also likes to make use of his talents...
...This might be kept in mind when the Csnunsaist Party shortly chaages its partyis* and begins attacking the President as ssti-SoTiet, anti-democratic and anti-labor...
...and he is maintaining his silence...
...And the dish he presented to the recent Allied conference at Quebec by the "timely" removal of Maxim Litvinov as Ambassador to the United States has a flavor all of its own...
...Even that figure, the committee said, is Heipnri down to essentials of wartime Spartan Imag What makes the plight of the worker even worse is that wages are new virtually fro ten...
...Officials have estimated that, if tan law remains on the statute books and is fairly applied to outstanding contracts, the government will recover more billions...
...Only those who are totally unacquainted with conditions in Soviet Russia can imagine for a moment that either of these .men—and this applies to all Soviet envoys—ever spoke out of turn or ever attempted,to influence, however vaguely, the Kremlin's decisions...
...The realisation is spreading in Leber circles ¦ *gt prospects for repeal of the infamous Con - —rjy Act are greatly weakened by the Exiptive Order...
...It is understood by reliable observers that it was Cordell Hull, through the agency of Arthur Krock in the influential New York Times, who brought the difficulties to a head...
...they believe anything is peasants in the shape of feather .bedding" far the wealthy Some idea of the pressure behind the meneure is indicated by the fact that the IIansa Ways and Means Committee has decided to consider it ahead of the Treasury's tax bill...
...Tee, it makes any atwk to fight the control ef Kg Business and the sir profiteers even more tneasire to the union by sssiag dues payments, and thereby stripping ski snioa of its funds, and its ability to fight...
...James Clement Dunn has also been under fire, and the talk grows about the whole "creaking, ponderous and contradictory machinery which has been confusing and macerating American foreign policy for the last half-doaen years...
...Randolph Paul, Treasury general nnenajjl, estimates that corporations have retslnei endistributed profit* of 16 billion* since ska war emergency started, as compared with Use than 6 billions saved during a similar period before the war...
...That it signifies a shift in the Kremlin's line is indisputable...
...Scores of manof srtarer* whe obtained contract* before the passage of the law, have resisted renegotiation sad) have ssard the govemsseat to take these hate eomrt...
...There is little likelihood that either England or the United States will agree to such an act Curtin's Labor Gov't Wins in Australia Special to Th» Nrw Leader SYDNEY, Australia.—The Labor governasant headed by Prime Minister John Curtin achieved an overwhelming victory in the general elections held on August 21...
...Bat the President's Executive Order may change industry's attitude because it shores it all the weak points of the Connally Act gaj really stakes it an efficient operating aati-labor instrument...
...In his zeal to make out a case for business men, the Virginian cast reflection on their patriotism...
...in sack cases...
...he Soviet attack is not against the idea of *J*t-*'ar central European federation, but on ge fact that the Polish plan does not include "•Soviet Union...
...Under-Secretary of ¦vState Welles is sway in Maine, away from Washington duties, away from the important conferences in Canada...
...The situation is indeed serious—even more serious than many of us would like to believe...
...So there has bees a curious unanimity among left-of-centre and right-of-centre spokesmen...
...while prices keep cHmhfng, the A. F. of L. emphasised...
...In wars like the present carried on by a large coalition of powers, the role of accredited diplomats of the Allies is of necessity a very important one...
...They point out that the United States Supreme Court so declared several months age, in upholding a contract made during the last war with the Bethlehem Steel Company...
...The court conceded the contract was "unustiprion able" and that under it excessive giufttS kad been collected, but insisted that when ike government makes a bad bargain it must stick to it...
...the Soviet Embassy jaharply attacks this "Kpstion in its official information bulletin...
...This, therefore, is a basic principle at issue To agree td Russia's position mesas for England and the United States to brand themselves before the peoples of the world as faithless...
...The vote expressed their refusal to bring i>ack an anti-labor coalition under Arthur Fadden, and their disapproval of the All-Party administration, a significant feature of the Opposition's platform...
...President Roosevelt's promise- that this war would not be permitted to spawn a new crop ef millionaires would become a tragic joke...
...In this swing to Labor, the Australian people have given their vote of confidence to Curtin's administration and its prosecution of the war...
...In neither case wss "health" given as the reason...
...At this writing the showdown has not completely broken out into the open, but one doesn't have to be a reader of tea-leaves to see the gravity of the crisis...
...The suggestion kss token the km of a post-war central European federation...
...Oat, it sjsmishes the union and its memberlbs by abrogating their collective...
...they participate in the preparation of strategic and post-war plans and in general it is their job to see to it that no friction should hamper the common efforts of the Allies...
...The gem of what might develop into a "Veiled States of Europe" has been adTsatsd by the Polish government-in-exile *i Leaden...
...That Benes and General De Gaulle are in the orbit of Stalinist foreign policy has long been known to careful observers of the European scene...
...This is aside from Russia's demands that its hegemony over Central Europe and the Balkans be recognized by the Democracies...
...There is also much talk about his "heretical" views about De Gaulle, Stalin...
...This must be understood clearly, since the removal of Litvinov at this time is not an isolated Stalinist act, but is integrated in a dosen ways in bis entire political offensive...
...Whenever Stalin changed his line both Litvinov and Maisky were juet as zealous in carrying out toe new Soviet policy...
...Beth the United States and ksgtaad have anxiously been scanning •art-war plans which wonld provide such a fteraatee of peace for the future...
...President...
...Astounding as this program is, it does not lack supporters in Congress and in both parties...
...A. A. Berie it refers to as "subtle and elusive, whom no one any longer understands and in whom few have say confidence...
...From an Anglo-American point of ttr*Y the suggestion has the farther virtue at bringing forth some practical scheme f« hobbling the Prussian militarists, who tore visited two devastating wars ota the •erid in a generation, to prevent them 'ram starting a third snch world con*»mtion...
...One need also take cognisance of the recent declaration of Edouard Bene*, President of Czechoslovak.*, to - the effect that not only is he going to Moscow to conclude s military agreement with Russia, but that he is doing it despite the advice of his Anglo-American "friends...
...Bkmminr contracts with •nuilmrori vaget, hours or conditions «f- vitiating tile peonage or1 slavery provisions of the Constitution itself or of seme specific Act of Congress to the contrary...
...Congress is under terrific pressure to rapes...
...The Labor party,, however, will have a majority of at least 11 in the lower Mouse...
...Stalin's reasons for this action are of an obviously political character...
...From the Timet Washington bureau two weeks ago came a sharp dispatch reporting "chaos" and "confusion" in the Stat* Department...
...The pattern is deer...
...It was the first time in the political history of Australia that a Federal Labor Government had been re-elected in an election held after its term of office and the first time since 1914 that the Labor party received a majority in both Houses of Parliament...
...His recently published book, The World of the Four Freedomt, was indicative of his new forward-looking outlook...
...Until all these votes are counted, exact returns cannot be given...
...War Profit Lobbyist* Launch Drive to Raid U. S. Treasury WASHINGTON...
...The real issues of the rift in the State Department are not at all dear., For some, "good, grey" Cordell Hull, who made "reciprocity treaties" (which in torn reciprocated by making him) was a great alder statesman...
...The Connelly Act itself is 0 hsbidly extreme and so poorly conrini in its vengeful effort to strike at m man—John L. Lewie—that even intelligent industrialists wish that Connally and Congressman Smith had "stood in bed" instead of Ling around writing sets...
...Inasmuch, too, as in modern diplomacy, many of the preliminary agreements reached between' the Allies are verbal, the personality of the diplomat is of extreme importance...
...to be ostensibly formed for comffB*g possible aggression by Germany in the r"<?e> are, and by no means least of all, TgW ¦teinst the Soviet Union...
Vol. 26 • August 1943 • No. 35
