(2 of 9)
Born on his well-to-do parents' farm near Carthage, Tenn., Cordell Hull used to raft logs down the Cumberland River. With a law degree from Cumberland University, he quickly mixed practice and politics, served briefly in the State Legislature. During the Spanish War he captained a company of the 40th Tennessee Volunteers. Because he once sat on the district bench, most Tennesseeans still call him "Judge." In 1906 he was elected to the House where he wrote the first Federal income tax law (1913), the first Federal inheritance tax law (1916). When the Harding landslide put him out of office for two years, he served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Back in the House in 1923, he was promoted to the Senate in 1930.
High-tariff Republicans call Cordell Hull a free-trader. He calls himself a Jeffersonian Democrat committed to tariff-for-revenue-only. In 1910 he damned the Payne-Aldrich law as "a miserable travesty, an ill-designed patchwork, a piece of brazen legislative jobbery" and in 1932 he flayed the Hawley-Smoot act as "utterly disastrous to our trade." Long an advocate of tariff reciprocity, he wrote that plank into the last Democratic platform. As President Roosevelt's Secretary of State his job will be to negotiate tariff treaties. Senator Hull's world views: "The mad pursuit of economic nationalism or aloofness—every nation striving to live unto itself—has proved utterly empty and disastrous. The practice of the half-insane policy of economic isolation during the past ten years by America and the world is the largest single underlying cause of the present world panic. . . . Economic disarmament and military disarmament are patently the two most vital and outstanding factors in business recovery."
Senator Hull on War Debts: "However important they may be, they are not a major cause of the panic nor are they a major remedy. . . . Each important country before seeking separate and preferential consideration of their claims for further [debt] reduction, should first indicate their attitude toward the more fundamental program of tariff cuts."
A grey, gaunt man with downcast eyes and stooped shoulders, Cordell Hull has been moving about the Capitol for 24 years in studious preoccupation. Only his Congressional intimates know his unspectacular worth. He has never had any practical experience as a diplomat but he has read every decision handed down by the World Court. He refuses to wear spats and carry a cane, but can recite by heart every trade barrier the world over. Laconic, when asked the time he will silently exhibit his watch instead of reading it himself.
To assist Secretary Hull in running the State Department, two names were prominent last week—William Phillips and Raymond Moley. Mr. Phillips is a longtime career diplomat. As envoy he has represented the U. S. in the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada, served two years (1922-24) as Undersecretary of State. He is a protocol (procedure) expert. Professor Moley, head of the Roosevelt "Brain Trust" has been the new President's chief adviser on War Debts since accompanying him to the first White House conference with President Hoover.