State of the World

When one white-hot iron is on a good smith's anvil, another should be in the fire heating. Such is Franklin Roosevelt's way of working. So he worked last week. While all eyes were intent on the shower of sparks that his hammer set flying from the Supreme Court issue, the happy Presidential smith had another iron quietly buried in the coals.

Two years ago Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada paid a social visit at the White House, for no ostensible reason except friendship. The prompt upshot was the U. S.-Canadian reciprocal trade agreement. Last week, on the eve of another visit by Mr. King, the press asked President Roosevelt what he and the Prime Minister expected to discuss. Was it by any chance a new St. Lawrence Waterway Treaty? The President waved this suggestion aside. The subjects of discussion, he declared expansively, would include ''North, Central and South America and the world in general."

When the round-faced, squat Prime Minister arrived in Washington he went to the Canadian Legation and saw the press before going to the White House--a procedure that allowed him to be franker with newshawks than if he had seen them afterward. To all suggested topics for discussion at the White House, he replied either that he might bring them up if the spirit moved him, or that he would be glad to discuss them if the President wished to. Only one small slip did he make. Forgetting for the moment that the New Deal has taken many emergency measures and that his prospective host had proclaimed a New Crisis only the night before, he made a remark which, had it been intentional, would have been a slur on the President. Asked whether Canada in an emergency might be disposed to take a united front with the U. S. in world affairs, he exclaimed distastefully, "that word 'emergency' has been kicking about here for the past seven or eight years. And it hasn't happened yet."

That night Mr. King had a long session before the same hearth where the Canadian trade agreement had its genesis, slept in a White House bed. Next morning he returned to his Legation in silence. He might have made no more than a social visit, but not an observer in Washington believed it. Too many coincidences were involved.

No. 1 coincidence is the well-known fact that Franklin Roosevelt wants to leave his mark on history in foreign as well as domestic policy, the fact that he has had his State Department busy scanning every conceivable proposal, from a Western-Hemisphere-neutral-bloc to new limitation-of-armaments measures.

No. 2 coincidence is that President Roosevelt has been making unusual efforts to make friends with Canada, not least of which was his trip to Montreal last August. The U. S. State Department, like the ordinary U. S. citizen, for decades ignored Canada. There were no direct diplomatic relations between the countries until Ministers were exchanged in 1927. Relations of Britain with the U. S. have often been more cordial than relations of Canada with the U. S. The President has been at pains to alter this situation.

No. 3 was a coincidence that brought the first two in juxtaposition. Next month Prime Minister King goes to help crown George VI, and after the Coronation there will be an Imperial Conference. At the conference board, Mr. King as Prime Minister of Britain's most important dominion, will rank next to Stanley Baldwin in importance. It took no great insight for diplomats to fathom last week that when the British Commonwealth of Nations confers in London, Mr. King will privately inform its members of Franklin Roosevelt's ideas on world affairs, either in the form of a specific proposal or possible alternatives for "exploration." If that iron, long in the fire, gets hot, it may set more sparks flying than any yet forged on the ringing White House anvil.

P:The ten members of the Cabinet gave their annual dinner for the President. Looking around the table he remarked contentedly that he was happy to see all the faces of his official family that he had seen four years ago except for three whose widows were present: Mrs. William Woodin, Mrs. George H. Dern, Mrs. Louis McHenry Howe. P:For three hours the President discussed his plans to cut 600,000 unemployed off the WPA rolls with the six Governors who fortnight ago wired a protest against it, Messrs. Lehman of New York, Horner of Illinois, Hurley of Massachusetts, La Follette of Wisconsin, Benson of Minnesota, Quinn of Rhode Island. Voice of Economy at the session was Secretary Morgenthau. The President promised to consider their arguments "sympathetically," to make no Relief cuts until after he has returned from Warm Springs, whither he goes this week. P:Mrs. Roosevelt announced that she had signed a new radio broadcasting contract, to describe events in the White House, her travels, her views on current topics on behalf of Pond's Face Creams--the proceeds to go to charity.

P:To Congress the President dispatched a message asking for an excise tax of 75-c- per 100 lb. on sugar to provide funds for subsidies to sugar growers. Purpose: to replace the Jones-Costigan Sugar Control Act which was emasculated when the Supreme Court declared AAA's processing taxes unconstitutional. Newshawks reminded the President that such a tax on sugar would violate the U. S. reciprocal trade agreement with Cuba. Surprised, the President admitted that he had not known, had only followed Secretary Wallace's advice.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.