THE CABINET: Barn Door

A Constitutional prerogative of the U. S. Senate is the right to ratify all U. S. treaties with foreign Governments. And one of the chores the Congress as a whole has most enjoyed is the writing of tariff bills. Under the New Deal the key to both these powers has rested in the slightly baggy coat pocket of pale, poker-faced Cordell Hull, Secretary of State. By calling the reciprocal trade pacts "agreements" and not "treaties," he kept them out of the Senate; by adopting the most-favored-nation principle in the trade agreements, he kept Congress' porky hands off tariffs on foreign trade.

But last week, as Mr. Hull dickered desperately with Argentina for his 23rd trade agreement, the 23rd tide of complaints rolled in. Cattlemen, dairymen, manufacturers squawked louder than ever before. Not only had Republicans whipped up anti-agreement sentiment throughout the Midwest, but New Dealers from agricultural States had pledged themselves to jerk away Mr. Hull's powers at the earliest opportunity.

January's session of the 76th Congress will be that opportunity. But by January Mr. Hull may not care. Soon the massive Argentine trade agreement will be concluded; hard on its heels, one with Chile; a third with Uruguay. With these 25 in Mr. Hull's pocket—agreements with countries representing about 80% of U. S. foreign trade—the Congress will be ceremoniously locking the barn door after the horse has been led to water.

If his foes hoped to nail his political hide to that barn door, they reckoned without the old Tennessean. To Chicago he went last week with figures in his fist and proceeded to belabor the short-winded old Smoot-Hawley protective tariff scheme, which since 1930 (when it threw up the highest international trade barriers in U. S. history) has lost some of its fighting trim.

American Farm Bureau Federation members heard Mr. Hull respectfully. But their applause was most sincere when he promised to drop the trade agreements if ever they provably hurt the U. S. farmer. Next day they meekly adopted a resolution supporting Mr. Hull. For, if they were not quite farsighted enough to be enthusiastic for Mr. Hull's plain point that a nation has to buy in order to sell, they, like the rest of the U. S., clearly recognized the highmindedness of Mr. Hull's perennial principle: world peace through world trade.

Washington last week still waited to see whether Franklin Roosevelt will support his Secretary of State—and how.