• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

By John M. Carroll LAMAR UNIVERSITY A PENNSYLVANIAN IN PARIS: JAMES A. LOGAN, JR., UNOFFICIAL DIPLOMAT 1919-1925 D URING AUGUST 1924 a small delegation of American diplomats attending the London Conference on reparations played an important role in gaining French acceptance of the Dawes report which provided a temporary settlement to one of the most difficult economic controversies in the postwar period. One of the American negotiators was James A. Logan, Jr. of Philadelphia, a former aide to Herbert Hoover in the American Relief Administration and most recently an unofficial observer on the Reparation Commission. The notoriety and press coverage which Logan received at the London Conference surprised the Philadelphian as well as many of his friends who had followed his diplomatic career since the Armistice. In mid-October, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Eliot Wadsworth wrote to his friend Logan, commenting on the latter's brief moment in the limelight. "I have lost all track of you entirely since you entirely displaced Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey in the headlines during the London Conference. No doubt," Wadsworth teased, "like a ground hog you crawled back into your hole as quickly as possible."' The reason for Wadsworth's jest was that Logan had been serving in the State Department as an unofficial diplomat since the conclusion of the war. In that position, Logan was a quasi- member of the diplomatic corps who represented the views of the United States in a semiofficial and sometimes secretive capacity. American unofficial diplomats played an important role in shaping and carrying out United States European policy in the postwar decade, but seldom received the recognition that they deserved 1. Wadsworth to Logan, 16 October 1924, Box 4, Personal Correspondence, James A. Logan Papers, Hoover Institution On War, Peace, and Revolution, Stanford, Cali- fornia. 3 4 JOHN M. CARROLL because they worked behind the scenes and outside the normal diplomatic channels. Logan was one of the important new style diplo- mats of the 1 920s who dealt with the many economic and political problems resulting from the war. The eldest son of a prominent financier and politician, Logan was born in 1879 in Philadelphia where he attended the best schools before entering Haverford College. After one year at Haverford, Logan quit to join the Pennsylvania Volunteers, then preparing to fight in the Spanish-American War. He served in the Philippines during 1899- 1900 with the Pennsylvania unit before entering the regular army as a captain.2 After returning to America, Logan attended the Army War College, and upon graduation in 1912 was sent to France where he became chief of the military mission at the American Embassy in Paris. At the outset of the First World War, Logan served as a military observer on the western front and later readied ports of debar- kation and worked as a liaison officer to coordinate Franco- American military efforts. 3 Shortly after the Armistice, Logan made the transition from military affairs to the problems of peacemaking which eventually led him into the diplomatic service. Herbert Hoover, who had come to Europe as an economic adviser and who later headed the American Relief Administration, recognized Logan's talents for organization and appointed him as his principal assistant in charge of American technical advisers to the newly created nations of central and southeast Europe. Under the leadership of Hoover and Logan, the American Relief Administration distributed nine million tons of food, clothing, and other supplies, valued at $3.5 billion, to the needy people of war torn Europe.4 In addition to his relief activities, Logan faced many diplomatic and political problems during his brief career with the relief organization. In the summer of 1919, for example, one of Logan's major concerns was the Hungarian bolshevik leader, Bela Kun, who had nearly closed the vital river traffic on the Danube in an effort to consolidate his political position in central Europe. Despite Bela Kun's blockade of the Danube, Logan success- fully negotiated and maneuvered until he was able to deliver food and supplies to all sections of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.' 2. Who Was Who In America, 1897-1942 (Chicago, 1942), P. 741. 3. Confidentia Reports, Vol. 13, Logan Papers. 4. Joan H. Wilson, Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive (Boston, 1975), p. 46. 5. Logan to Leland Harrison, 30 June 1919, Box 1, Personal Papers of James Logan, Logan Papers. JAMES A. LOGAN, JR. 5 After Hoover resigned from the American Relief Administration in September 1919 to return to America, he appointed Logan to head the organization. 6 Before leaving Europe, Hoover paid tribute to Logan's skill as a relief coordinator when he wrote to the Pennsyl- vanian that "without your power of organization and ability in direction and negotiation I do not see how we could have pulled through. If the time ever comes when we want to try to rehabilitate the world again and if I have anything to do with it, I want the right to call for your association."' Logan held "the Chief" in equally high regard. About a month after taking charge of the American Relief Administration, he reported to Hoover that "everything looks a little wobbly." The critical time in Europe, Logan continued, should be sometime next February and "I think you are about the only man I know who would have a good fighting chance to save it, and I would personally like to see you back in the situation sometime shortly after Christmas."' Hoover did not return to Europe, however, partly because political conditions had changed rapidly in America during the fall of 1919. After the first rejection of the Treaty of Versailles by the Senate, Congress refused to authorize any additional appropriations for European relief, forcing the American Relief Administration to drastically cut back its services. Logan remained as the head of the organization, but he found it increasingly difficult to provide adequate relief to the countries of Europe. In the fall of 1919, he was transferred to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace where he served in the dual capacity of relief coordinator and economic expert until the relief agency was phased out in 1920. He began his service with the Peace Commission working on the problem of German reparations which was to occupy much of his time during the next five years. Logan joined Albert Rathbone, Roland Boyden, John Foster Dulles, and other advisers who were attempting to shape an American economic policy to deal with postwar problems. In March 1920, Logan became the assistant observer on the Reparation Commission after Rathbone resigned from the organization to return 6. Logan to A. L. Picard, 28 April 1920, Box 1, Personal Correspondence, Logan Papers. 7. Hoover to Logan, 3 September 1919, Box 1, Personal Papers of James Logan, Logan Papers. 8. Logan to Hoover, 15 November 1919, Box 1, Personal Papers of James Logan, Logan Papers. 6 JOHN M. CARROLL home. President Wilson also appointed Boyden, another former aide to Hoover, as the chief observer on the commission. 9 The appointment of unofficial diplomats in the postwar era came about as a result of the bitter struggle over American participation in the League of Nations. Shortly after the war, many Americans became disillusioned about the course of the peace negotiations, the political disturbances in Europe, and the failure of Wilson to make the world safe for democracy. A vocal group of anti-Wilsonians, led by the Irreconcilables in the Senate, demanded that the United States reject the Treaty of Versailles, remain out of the League of Nations, and not become entangled in European affairs. ' Another bloc in the Senate, the Reservationists, wanted substantial changes in the treaty before they would vote for it. When Wilson refused to compromise on any major points, the Senate rejected the treaty on two separate votes in 1919 and early 1920. After the defeat in Congress, Wilson suggested that the election of 1920 should be a "great and solemn referendum" on American membership in the League of Nations. " Debated in this context, the league issue became a test of the extent to which American voters wanted to participate in European affairs. Warren Harding's overwhelming victory in the election of 1920 was widely interpreted to mean that the voters had chosen to turn their backs on Europe, and had decided that America should return to 2 a policy of non-entanglement in Old World affairs. 1 In view of the election results, many Republican congressmen were convinced that the United States not only should remain out of the world organi- zation, but completely dissociate itself from the league and refuse to participate in any councils sponsored by that body. The strategy of non-involvement in the league councils of Europe, although apparently popular at home, was impractical because America had emerged from the war as the leading economic power in the world. In that role, the United States needed to foster closer eco- nomic ties with Europe to aid in postwar recovery and to ensure 9. Norman Davis to Rathbone, 20 March 1920, in Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1920 (Washington, 1936), 2:348. 10. For the best study of the Irreconcilables see Ralph Stone, The Irreconcilables: The Fight Against the League of Nations (Lexington, 1970). 11. Ray S. Baker and William E. Dodd, eds., War and Peace: Presidential Messages, Addresses and Public Papers, 1917-1924 (New York, 1927), 2:453-56. 12. This interpretation of the election of 1920 has been challenged in recent years. For the best study of the election see Wesley M. Bagby, The Road to Normalcy: The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1920 (Baltimore, 1962).

Load more

  16

Copy Link