Salt Lake Telegram | 1941-01-15 | Page 6 | Thoughts for Today

Thoughts for Today O Ood, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help. Psalms 71:12. Help thyself, and God will help thee. Herbert. British Bottleneck in Washington The London announcement that Neville But-. But-. ler, counselor of the British embassy, had been promoted to the rank of minister brought an unwonted un-wonted gush of enthusiasm from Washington officials. But it wasn't what it appeared to be. What was being hailed was not Butler's advancement, ad-vancement, but the hope that it would mean his early departure to other fields. Butler docs not sit well with Washington authorities. A mincing career diplomat, he is as cold and atiff as ice and so steeped in protocol that it takes him a 10-acre lot to turn around. Privately, Pri-vately, he is known as "Bottleneck," and officials offi-cials gnash their teeth when they have to do business with him. Butler's dilly-dallying is blamed for blocking block-ing several important negotiations; one a plan under which Britain would have contracted for a five-year supply of United States fruits and canned goods in exchange for strategic raw materials ma-terials such as rubber and tin. Merry-Go-Round There are Insiders who will tell yoti privately pri-vately that one reason for Harry Hopkins' "look-see" "look-see" trip to London was to arm the administration administra-tion with a first hand observer who could counter any "negotiated peace" arguments uncorked un-corked by ex-Ambassador Joe Kennedy. The word is that the latter will shortly launch a vigorous campaign against the president's foreign for-eign policy . . . Assistant Attorney General Norman Littell, head of the lands division, has so streamlined his agency that It is handling the huge volume of deeds growing out of the defense program without a hitch. Before Littell Lit-tell reorganized the division it used to take weeks to put through documents; now they are zoomed through in less than five days . . . Although Al-though John J. Dempsey, New Mexico's ex-con-gresMman, delayed taking the United States maritime commissionership offered him while he secretly tried to grab off the job of Interior Undersecretary Alvin J. Wirtz, Texas new dealer, he got nowhere because Wirtz is so highly regarded by the president that he is he-ine he-ine considered for the chairmanship of the SEC when that becomes vacant. Distributed by United Feature Syndicate.