The sun., 1918-12-29

cVnNentionS. n treaty nay Do neiu
to override a statutory enactment,
but 1t cannot possibly be held to over
ride a constitutional provision or lin
i%tation, or to remove any Of the re-
strictions imposed by the Constitu-
ton, or to add one iota to the pow
ers already conferred by that instru-
ment upon the Federal Government
II a treaty could do this, then our
form Of government could be revolu-
tionized In many particulars, without
a reference to the required vote Of
the States, merely by the concurrent
action Of the Executive and two-thirds
Of n house OF Congress.
Any plan, therefore. for our en-
listment in a world police, subject to
assignment to military or naval duty
by another authority than the Con-
gress Of the United States, requires
an amendment Of the Constitution, II
the Constitution continues to be valid
and respected.
Not only the job of policing the
world in the long future, but also the
more immediate responsibility for
the arrangement Of the world and the
reconstruction Of Its boundary lines
looms large and vague before the
somewhat apprehensive eyes Of the
American people.
A faint picture of the myriad COM
pllcations and entanglements that will
surely repay us for a deliberate de
parture from that sound doctrine Of
non-interference in European affairs
which President WASHINGTON be-
queathed to his country when he babe
1t farewell may be beheld in the pres
ent situation, even before a single
Commissioner Of Peace has reached
the table at Versailles.
Outside of the grave problems pre-
scented by the disintegrat!on Of Rus
STA and the black uncertainty V
hanging the enemy countries, Ger
many and Austria-H Hungary, we now
see Colonel HOUSE and the minor tri-
bal nation builders on the American
Presidents staff endeavorlng to recon
Gle the Czecho-Slovak p~retenslons
with the demands of New Poland
adding their American gray matter
the incompatibilities OF the diff
ferent elements Of the proposed fifteen
million Slavic self-determined people;
weighing Croat and Serb; staving of
the leaders Of the various Irish seces-
sionist factions who invoke American
aid to self-determination in their Isl
and, also, as against the British Gov
eminent; trying to arrange plans TO
prevent the unredeemed Italians and
the newly redeemed J~ugo-Slavs from
flying at each others throats over
the question Of the Dalmatian coast;
into Frances supervisory
in Syria puzzling over the DIFF
hcult question Of racial self-determi-
IN sections OF Anatolian terri
tory where the Levantine Greeks or
the Armenians r locally In the ma
seeking the proper flag to fly
In Palestine over the great fagless
and with infinite patience ap-
the ethnic acid test to the
blood corpuscles of Bulgar and Banat
and Gruda Albanian and Druse Of the
and the unidentified racial
humans from near the Enos-Media
line, In order that each may fall nat
urally and properly into his self,de-
termined place rs predetermined by
the Wilson Fourteen And now even
the venerated shereef of Mecca-Al-
.ah prolong his continuance and may
his tribe increase has arrived in
Paris to lay before Colonel HOUSE for
American sanction certain Pan-Ara-
oian aspirations which have not yet
obtained England's approval.
This is but an inadequate exhibit
II the innumerable questions of
purely European or Asiatic or Afri-
,an provenance which are already
,pringinG from the points or princl-
pies prematureiy delivered a year ago
from a single American brain. Their
progeny In the second generation
promises to be considerable. They
ire all alike directing themselves
'traightway, to America as the arbi-
er, on the assumption that America,
having originally md voluntarily |