"They All Laughed"

Progress at the World Monetary & Economic Conference began in London last week with loud wincing from Chief U. S. Delegate Cordell Hull. "Everything I do is misconstrued these days!" he wailed, then rang down a quick curtain on the comedy of contradictions in which U. S. Delegates seemed to spend most of their time repudiating each other's mimeographed proposals (TIME. June 26). Meeting in a series of secret, sweating sessions Mr. Hull, earnest & sincere, and his strange assortment of colleagues worked to evolve belatedly a program on which the whole U. S. Delegation could stand. That job took nearly three days last week. Meanwhile the Conference cocked apprehensive eyes on the new, slim, swift U. S. cabin liner Manhattan as she sped toward England.

The Manhattan carried President Roosevelt's premier Braintruster. smooth, positive Professor Raymond Moley. and slashing, impulsive Herbert Bayard Swope, onetime Executive Editor of Manhattan's defunct World. Fourteen years ago red-headed dynamic Journalist Swope attended the Paris Peace Conference as a mere correspondent. Last week, out of a job but rich because of a stock market killing in 1929, he sailed as "special adviser" to Professor Moley, took along as his own private secretary Son Herbert Bayard Jr.

In vain Professor Moley said on sailing. "I am going to make myself useful and furnish background for the Delegation." London whispers that Professor Moley, "The Isolationist," was coming to supersede Secretary Hull, "The Internationalist," dinned louder and louder until they beat like African war drums on the U. S. Delegation's sensitive ears.

This din Kansas' irrepressible William Allen White likened in London to a throb of "Moley, Moley, Moley, Lord God Almighty." While the New York Times dubbed Almighty Moley a "Professor ex Machina," the wonder of his rise was neatly satirized by scathing Frank R. Kent in the Baltimore Sun: "It must, when he tucks himself in bed at night . . . seem to him like a dream. Sometimes he must ask himself: Is it real--am I Moley?' Less than a year ago, Dr. Moley was an obscure professor at Columbia University. . . . Previously he had been an instructor at a girls' college. . . . Today . . . as he sails for Europe, ensconced in the royal suite, reporters besiege him for a word, while Kings. Ambassadors, Prime Ministers, Premiers and publicists . . . anxiously await his arrival . . . accompanied by one of the greatest showmen in the world [Adviser Swope] . . . . He is an unobtrusive, quiet person, pleasant, but not particularly impressive, and certainly not brilliant." Nevertheless, the world so needed Statesman Moley that when his ship reached Cobh, Ireland an airplane was waiting to fly him to London. But Statesman Moley sailed on to Plymouth and there entrained for a Conference which threatened to raise again the monetary question as suddenly as it had been shelved.

Abruptly coming out of their three-day huddle. Secretary Hull & Delegates nerved themselves to present two statements of U. S. policy, the first of which they feared might wreck the Conference then and there. It must be sold adroitly to French Finance Minister Georges Bonnet or he might walk out of the Conference. Mild Mr. Hull, feeling perhaps not equal to the job, chose as his Delegation's super salesmen James Middleton Cox and sleek, persuasive Manhattan banker-expert James P. Warburg. Salesmen Cox & Warburg took the Frenchman into an inner committee room, M. Bonnet protesting that since President Roosevelt was known to oppose dollar stabilization "the alternative is an orgy of inflation and the Conference might as well adjourn!" The door was closed, locked.

Waiting anxiously and alone in the main committee room, Prime Minister James Ramsay MacDonald, sponsor and President of the Conference, paced up and down, clasping and unclasping his slightly rheumatic knuckles. An hour passed. Through the corridors of the Conference Museum, word of the three-man meeting traveled quickly. Delegates from all nations began thinking of returning to their 66 Fatherlands.

According to leaks from the parley, Salesman Cox said to Prospect Bonnet: ''I can show you that your fears are groundless. Here, my good friend, let me put all my cards on the table and explain. You do not understand America's position or what she is trying to do. The United States is having its first taste of prosperity in three years. That cannot be jeopardized!"

Seemingly Mr. Cox, in assurances which were not revealed, gave M. Bonnet further to understand that, for the duration of the Conference at least, President Roosevelt proposes to keep U. S. prices up and business activity mounting by threatened rather than actual inflation. Finally M. Bonnet agreed to postponement of monetary stabilization while the Conference tackled other matters. Perspiring Mr. Cox swung open the committee room door, broke the good news to Scot MacDonald who broke off his nervous pacing, shook hands all around.

The U. S. position was promptly stated in a Conference memorandum which declared that "undue emphasis has been placed upon . . . temporary de facto stabilization," and proceeded to promise "[U. S.] support of measures for the establishment of a coordinated monetary and fiscal policy to be pursued by the various nations in co-operation with the others for the purpose of stimulating economic activity and improving prices."

"As Quickly As Possible." With the Conference squabble over monetary stabilization thus shelved, Secretary Hull filed the U. S. Delegation's first official tariff proposals. Since a previous U. S. proposal to cut all the World's tariffs 10% had been disavowed, correspondents and the Conference were wary. To convince doubters, Mr. Hull labeled his proposal "Introduced by the Secretary of State by the authority of the American Delegation and in accordance with instructions of the United States Government."

The text thus nailed to the U. S. mast asked the Conference to subscribe to principles rather than to take action. By adopting the Secretary of State's proposal as a resolution the Conference would agree: that no nation hold to "extreme nationalism" or raise trade barriers; that embargoes etc. "be removed as quickly as possible;'' that tariff barriers "be reduced as quickly as possible;" that in making bilateral or multilateral agreement discriminatory measures should not be taken which "would react disadvantageously upon world trade as a whole."

In committee rich-radical Senator James Couzens lifted his voice in praise of price-upping through a simultaneous world-wide public works program, holding an increase in consumption and production to be more effective than tariff or monetary changes. Debts, he admitted, must be adjusted. Meantime Indian and some other Delegates swung to the support of the U. S. plan for a freer use of silver.

"Little Setback." To digest the U. S. fiscal and tariff policies stated by Messrs. Cox and Hull several Continental delegates, notably M. Bonnet, flew home to their capitals. Meanwhile the dollar lost some four cents more of its value, dropped to the equivalent of 77-c- gold. Rumors that this decline might jar loose the stabilized franc, plus London comment that the U. S. tariff proposals offered little more than pious hopes, plunged Conference journalists into such gloom that Prime Minister MacDonald decided to go among them radiating Scotch cheer.

"The effect of this Conference is to be to a very considerable extent a psychological effect" said Mr. MacDonald. "This week we had a little setback. Our hopes regarding temporary stabilization received just a little check. But I never felt there was very much to it. . . . My daily conference with the presidents and vice presidents [of Conference committees] this morning was as lively in spirit and as hopeful as any I have seen. When the matter of adjournment was mentioned they all laughed and we proceeded immediately to more serious practical business."

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