13 APRIL 1934, Page 3

Interpreting America This country has been fortunate in having Ambassadors

from the United States who have been much more than official envoys, and have conceived it to be a part of their function to interpret the American mind to the British people. Mr. Bingham is abundantly equipped to carry on this tradition, and in his speech at the American Chamber of Commerce luncheon he succeeded in giving a singularly lucid account of the baffling events that have • taken place in America since Mr. Roosevelt became President. Starting from the moment in March, 1933, when "the whole nation was paralysed by fear," and the President's first task was "the con- quest of fear itself,The swiftly reviewed the changing scene--the re-opening of the banks for business, the approach to the problem of 14,000,000 unemployed, the absorption of 4000,000 of these by the direct efforts of the Civil Works Administration, and 2,000,000 by the stimulation of industry, the increase in industrial pro- duction by 23.3 per cent, and farm income by 181 per cent., and.the improvement in foreign trade. The record was, Of course, a frankly eulogistic one ; but in brief compass it succeeded in giving an intelligible impression of President's Roosevelt's achievement and its effect on the American mind: