DECEMBER IO, 1945 797 of weary incubation and, off-hand, I would guess that Washington Notes Congress will approve it. Britain has made an acceptable loan offer a condition for her approval of the elaborate Bretton Woods program, whose deadline otherwise ex- pires December 3I. Without Britain's signature, this com- The World Moves to Washington plex postwar financial program will flop. So, you see, things are approaching a climax here, too. The DIFFICULTY in Washington is to find a pinnacle What does it all add up to? Well, it means that Amer- high enough to observe world-shaking events which ica has got into the middle of world affairs and will never have their consequences here, and which Washington in get out again, and that for the first time the nation begins turn affects. The Thames, the Rhine and the Yangtze to realize it. It means we now see that our machinery for run down Pennsylvania Avenue these days. Most Wash- making our international will effective is inadequate and ington correspondents believed that peace would slacken that we simply must have a better policy, better ambassa- the pace of news. Today there is more news than ever. dors, a better State Department. Here in this captal there is more going on, more to cover, greater decisions being made, than ever during any war- On the domestic side, President Truman has pointed to than ever before in history. encouraging economic aspects in the "first 100 days," but All Europe's chaos was dumped in Washington's lap the trouble here is that the Administration has merely last week by Byron Price; all Asia's by Pat Hurley. Price, taken off the brakes, and the nation is coasting down the the President's observer, attacked France as the stumbling steep hill to "normalcy" under its own huge dead weight. block in the complete deadlock now existing in Berlin, People don't take credit for going down in a parachute- pointing out that it is her veto which holds up action. But where the skill lies is in making a successful landing. How- Walter Lippmann cogently pointed out that whereas ever, it is true that there is much less unemployment at France momentarily carries the onus, the real problem this particular juncture than many had feared. The great is not the French veto but the failure of the big powers question is whether the man in the White House can ever to decide whether or not the Ruhr, Rhineland and keep control of the national chariot. As the year comes Saar are to remain German possessions. France won't to a close, one can only report that practically the whole budge till that is settled. As to Asia, Major General Pat- Truman domestic program is deadlocked in Congress. rick J. Hurley-lovable, muddle-minded, American equiv- Truman has one means, and one alone, of blasting the alent of Britain's Colonel Blimp-certainly caused an program loose, that is to appeal over the heads of Congress uproar over that, with Republicans gleefully wondering if to the public. Always in history that is what strong Presi- it isn't a better political horse to back than Pearl Harbor, dents have done; it is an accepted part, you might say, where efforts to attack Cordell Hull and Roosevelt have of our curious governmental system, the remedy for our definitely boomeranged. Incidentally, there is plenty wrong divided executive and legislative. Alas for Truman, there in our State Department and our Chinese policy, but I is no bugle note in his voice; little evidence that he has think Pat Hurley is about the last man to understand the shown of being able to lift and inspire the masses. But, to issues or set them right. date, his efforts to "play ball" with Congress have got nowhere, save on the international side, and only there Continuing on the international level, President Tru- because the ball is the atomic bomb. man, in what appeared to be one of those characteristic spur-of-the-moment press responses, told us last week he Notes. - The labor-management conference was a flop, was tired of "Big Three" conferences, and suggested in- just like Wilson's after World War I; fortunately, the stead that the whole work of world rebuilding be turned same degree of industrial bitterness hasn't yet developed. over to the UNO: an admirable ideal if there ever was The Secret Service was worried over Truman's pub- one-to substitute at last institutional for personal diplo- lic exposure at the Army-Navy game but, as one humble macy-but here again, one breathlessly wondered at the guard consoled himself by remarking, "Roosevelt had a casualness of the proposal, and speculated on the immediate lot of enemies-but who in time wants to kill Truman?" practicability of the program, no matter how valuable it Once at a command performance here of "The Watch would be for the UNO to have something real to do. on the Rhine" for FDR, the Secret Service discovered Meanwhile, Congress shows signs of quick approval of Paul Lukas had to shoot the villain on the stage; aghast, the pending bill to strengthen the United Nations Organi- they protested. When Lukas learned that the audience zation by putting American power behind the world would be filled with jittery Secret Service men, all armed, police force. The Senate overwhelmingly rejected encum- and that a stage pistol shot might start them all shooting, bering amendments, and there is every evidence that the he got alarmed, too. He strangled the villain for that show. American UNO delegate will have authority to vote sanc- The State Department has given the Bureau of Recla- tions against an aggressor. (Later on, there will be another mation authority to help China draft plans for the mighty congressional struggle over what size our police-force Yangtze dam, greatest on earth, the story of which first contingent shall be.) But for the moment, the UNO is appeared in this magazine. It isn't generally known being strongly supported-doubtless reflecting the awful that Russia, too, has asked for assistance to rebuild de- scare produced by the atomic bomb. stroyed Dnieperstroy; under present conditions consent Then, finally, the Anglo-American loan-agreement egg will have to wait. is just about ready to hatch. There have been three months Washington T. R. B.