THE CABINET: Sackett to Berlin

So quietly that few were conscious of his going, Frederic Moseley Sackett, until lately Senator from Kentucky, sailed out of New York harbor last week aboard the S. S. President Harding to take up the first diplomatic duty of his life as U. S. Ambassador to Germany. With him went Mrs. Sackett. Their departure was almost drab. Only a handful of friends Godsped them from the Hoboken pier. In contrast to the departure for Paris of Ambassador Edge, that other Senator also just beginning a diplomatic career, nobody asked Ambassador Sackett to make any farewell speeches. Nobody gave him any parting banquets. Nobody serenaded him with bands. Nobody threw flowers at him. There were no cheers, no frenzied hat-waving.

Two factors probably accounted for this difference: The U. S. has a greater sentimental attachment for France than for Germany; interest in the London Naval Conference, unattended by Germany, diverted attention from the new Ambassador. Between the two diplomatic neophytes there was little to choose. Both were wealthy; neither was brilliant. Both were Republican regulars in the Senate; neither had distinguished himself there for knowledge of foreign affairs. Behind the two appointments politics was equally apparent. For his bright post in Paris, Ambassador Edge had the aid of a young and beauteous wife. But Mrs. Sackett, a dignified and conservative matron of her husband's years, was sure to appeal no less strongly to the sober Teutonic temperament.

From, an economic standpoint the Berlin post outranks that at Paris. Germany's will-to-work, so vital to reparation payments and the stability of Europe, has put it ahead of France as a U. S. customer. In the first eleven months of 1929, the U. S. sent to Germany $369,256,518 worth of goods (oil, copper, lumber, fruits, lard, lead, chemicals), whereas U. S. exports to France were only $239,741,535 (cotton, oil, machinery, wheat). Of German goods the U. S. took $239,493,977 worth (iron, steel, coal tars, cinema film, toys, paper), while U. S. purchases from France were down to $160,417,371 (clothing, lingeries, perfumes, leather goods, soaps, furs, luxuries).

Ambassador Sackett will apply himself as a businessman to the expansion of trade. Born in Providence 61 years ago, he was graduated from Brown, became a migrating lawyer, finally settled in Louisville. His corporation practice put him at the head of Louisville Gas Co. He acquired coal mines, dipped into politics, was carried to Washington as Kentucky's Senator by the Coolidge sweep of 1924. Short, sandy, round-stomached, he plodded through his term, rarely made a speech, much less an oration. He was on the way to becoming a "lame duck" in this year's campaign when President Hoover selected him for Berlin for two chief reasons: 1) Republican Kentucky was restive from lack of Class-A patronage; 2) Senator Sackett had been Mr. Hoover's Kentucky food administrator during the War.