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Show NEWS BEHIND THE NEWS I Written for The Telegram By Ray Tucker WASHINGTON Toklo's war , lorda have bean Inclined to blam their ambassador at Washington - Hlrosl Saito for not winning American public opinion to th aid of Japan In th present' conflict con-flict They think that h should combat com-bat th hosUI reaction with hia personal charm and oratorical gift both of which he possesses aplenty. Ambassador Saito, however, how-ever, was educated in this country, served at New York for many years and knows th American mind. He realises that propaganda propa-ganda designed to defend his country's bombings would be foredoomed to failure. He never even trudges through stat department de-partment corridors except to submit sub-mit or accept a formal, diplomatic document , He knowa what not to do and when not to do it He recalls that his predecessor mad himself him-self alightly ridiculous by representing repre-senting to Secretary Stimson that Japan Invaded Manchuria In 1931 aolely to insure that the aoya bean crop would be harvested. Mr. Stimson accepted th alibi, and before h knew it Japan had carved out a new empire on th mainland. Th bean bag trick would hardly work again, and th aallow, short, anappy Oriental knowa It Mr. Saito is on of th ablest members of th diplomatic corps at Washington and - th most enigmatic. He seems completely occldentalised a westsrn product In speech, conduct accomplishments, accomplish-ments, dr. He write tender and beautiful poems of kv and nature in fiv languages Japanese, English, German, French, Italian. He buries himself In heavy, economie articles describing American ays-tarns ays-tarns of production, distribution, and experimentation. H tours th jiatlon te see and hear for himaelf what people are aaying and doing. Whil consul at New York, he met monthly with a group of banker. Industrialists, editors, publle utility magnates. Ha dined them and wined them and listened te them. He speaks our language precisely; he loves our slang. Beneath his polish, however, he to of th rac of Samurai th military claaa which believe in living and dying by th sword. It to no accident that th two American poems he haa translated trans-lated for widespread use In Japanese Jap-anese schoolrooms are Poe'a. "The Raven," and Long fellow's, "Evan- I " gellna" th stories of gray, fu- 1 til, fatalistic human beings. He doesn't ilk to be reminded of hia preference for poetry depicting th sort of frustration Japan would lmpos on her Chines neighbors. In fact he won't invito in-vito you to th delightful buffet upper at hi chill, formal embassy em-bassy If you mention it! G. O. P. politicians who recall Herbert Hoover as a atodgy, stuffy, defeated president must reckon with a new kind of man In their imminent conflict for control of their party's destinies. Friends report that he reaembles the Hoover of Belgium, of th food administration, of the commerce com-merce department. He again exhibits the sly, youthful, youth-ful, analytical wit which delighted the few who came to know him as fireside friends. His analyses of political and economic situations situa-tions are piercing and crackling. He haa sloughed off his White House prejudice against meeting people; he invites scores to visit him aa soon as h settle in his hotel room. He spends msny hours of each day on the telephone tele-phone or dictating correspondence correspond-ence to a secretary. Physically he Is In excellent trim rosy-corn-plexioned, bright-eyed, energetic. His daily round belles his axe he is S3. What motlvatea him in hia awakened interest in th G. O. P.? He may be seeking vindication by emulating Grover Cleveland, who cam back to the White House after a defeat, but hia friends don't think so. He haa recouped hi fortune, recovered his confidence, con-fidence, and he seems to be driven by a desire for something or somebody to do. e The trek of "brain trusters" toward to-ward the capital has been checked. In fact, it has been reversedwhich re-versedwhich la a mucH newa aa the story of the man biting the dog! Harvard university, whose Felix Frankfurter furnished moat of the eoiiegiana who accompanied F. D. R. to Washington more than four years ago, has been largely responsible for the changed direction di-rection of the flow. Besides calling call-ing back "Jim" Landia, it has established a new school of public administration where academicians academi-cians will exchange Ideas with experienced ex-perienced government servants. Several career men from various departments have already enrolled in seminars dssignsd to establish ' courses In economics, political science, etc After a year's study, they will return to government servic. Professor Frankfurter haa been active in developing th idea, and Preaident Roosevelt to under-tood under-tood to regard it aa a move toward to-ward training and building up a career personnel. The first batch of government student rcivd instant permission to attend, even though it almost depopulated Secretary Sec-retary Roper's staff of brilliant economists. President Roosevelt's decision to deliver supposedly unscheduled platform speeches during his western trip was no surprise to attaches of the Democratic national na-tional committee or hia personal aides. It was another Instance of F, D. R.'s desire for secrecy th instinct in-stinct which got him in troubl over th supreme court measure and the Black appointment There waa an even more important reason, rea-son, however. By talking to his "friends" after announcing that he would do no political stumping, he teemed to be granting them a special favor, and to be responding respond-ing to popular demand. But arrangements for a bit of barnstorming were completed before be-fore he left Washington or Hyde Park. "Ghost writers" stocked th baggage car with scores of reports on problems confronting th territory he visited, on. th amount of government bounties given and promised, on th price they were getting for their produce. pro-duce. And the national committee's commit-tee's radio director wired the train for sound before it left the makeup make-up yarda, while local stations rigged up apparatua for back-platform back-platform apeeches In every town and city he was scheduled to touch on the western and eastern east-ern routes. ' NOTES: Highway work held up in several states for lack of labor . . . Cotton subsidy would encounter countervailing foreign duties . . . Excessive bonus demands de-mands by seamen affect Chines trade . . . Trad association to projected to buy foreign raw materials ma-terials controlled by governments . . . Enlarged powers, including regulation of advertising, will be demanded by federal trade commission com-mission . . . Business men talk of organising to oppose legislation legisla-tion creating a censorship over advertising. Copyright, 1937. for The Telegram 1 |