A Borah Abroad

Last week the name of Senator William Edgar Borah of Idaho loomed in the news of the land. In Martinsburg, W. Va., he made a ringing speech for the Tariff Bill's Export Debenture Plan which President Hoover strenuously opposes. Back in Washington he was primed to lead off the Senate attack upon Judge John Johnston Parker, President Hoover's appointee to the Supreme Court. To Chicago he sent a message to Senate Nominee Ruth Hanna McCormick welcoming her as an ally against President Hoover's World Court Plan. He voted against confirming President Hoover's nominee for District of Columbia Commissioner. He started to stir up a Senate vote on Philippine independence which President Hoover does not want. He glared a silent threat at the London Naval Agreement which President Hoover had acclaimed as a peace victory.

But all of this news about Senator Borah would have dwindled into nothing if he had gone to New York, boarded a steamer, sailed for Europe. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Borah is a sort of No. 2 Secretary of State. He is as little traveled as President Hoover is widely traveled. He has never been to Europe or Asia or Africa or South America or Australia. He is an isolationist in practice as well as in principle. His critics contend that his very refusal to go abroad reveals a closed, darkened mind on world affairs.

But last week occurred what might possibly be the next thing to a trip for the Senator when his wife, Mamie McConnell Borah, sailed out of New York aboard the S. S. Mauretania for her first trip to Europe. A mix-up about her passport caused a flurry at the pier until the French Consul General discovered that her husband was none other than the great Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Borah friends in Washington speculated on what influence, if any, Mrs. Borah's excursion might have on the foreign policy of the U. S. Would she return with such eye-opening statements of things heard and seen in Europe as to provoke her husband to make the trip himself? Would she bring back reports which would harden the isolationist views of the Senator?

There was just one thing for which Mrs. Borah, small blonde daughter of Idaho's late Governor and Senator William John McConnell, said she would search Europe for her husband: a new recipe for onion soup. Senator Borah likes onion soup, but can never get the right kind. Once Mrs. Borah thought she had found the perfect recipe in Atlantic City, only to have the Senator grumble over the pepper and cheese proportions when she made it in their modest Washington apartment where, unlike other senatorial families, they live within their official income.--

*Senator Borah accepts only $7,500 per year from the U. S., though the Senate salary was raised four years ago to $10,000.

tSenator-reject Smith was nominated in last week's Illinois primary as a Republican candidate for Representative-at-large.

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