The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-16
Where the House OF Representatives
Comes In With Regard to I'm
constitutional Treaties.

1t is conceivable that too much i'm
portance can be put on that view Of
the Presidents final authority In
treaty making which Is set forth by
Senator SWANSON. The Senator's re-
marks on the subject were thus sum-
married. in Washington despatch
printed In The SUN yesterday:
II mr. SWANSON pointed out that It
was not for the President to decide
what would be finally done that was
Or the Senate. But after the Sem
ate acts the President may still
pocket the treaty II he does not APP
prove It. and not send forward the
ratification. The last act and the
final authority are with him. He has
control till the fnal delivery OF the
pact" "
/ This Is true, of course, in a sense.
1t has been the formal custom to re-
gard the action Of the Senate, even
when entirely affirmative as to the
Executive, not as ratification outright
but rather as advice and consent to
ratification; the ratification itself be-
ing accomplished by the act of the
President by means of notes to the
other Government or Governments in
terested announcing the fact of the
acceptance OF the contract by the
United States Governments The chro-
nology Of the process is thus indicated,
for example, in the official record Of
the conventions concluded at the Sec
ond International Peace Conference
at-The Hague in 1907:
Concluded October Is, 1907; rati-
fcation advised by the Senate April
f.1sOS ratified by the President Feb
ruary 20. 1903; ratification deposited
with the Netherlands Government
November 81, 1909; proclaimed Feb
ruary IS. 1910"
In that case a little more than
twenty-eight months elapsed between
the conclusion" Of the treaty by the
negotiators thereof and Its final proc
lamation by the President. This was
not an unreasonably long period, per-
haps, considering the novelty of the
engagement, the care with which
American interests and American poll
cies were safeguarded In the reserva-
tons, and the tremendous expecta-
tons then entertained by the hopeful
concerning the effect on the future
peace Of the world.
Whatever may be said or thought of
the Presidents power of practically
vetoing Senatorial action in treaty
making by "pocketing" the treaty,
Withholding the ratified instrument
and refusing to transmit it to the
other parties or to proclaim 1t as "the
supreme law of the land" the fact re
mains that the ultimate power of veto
rests with the Congress, that Is to say,
with the House of Representatives as
well as with the Senate, whenever a
treaty stipulates regulations on any
of the subjects submitted by the Con
stituton to the power of Congress.
This right Of veto has been affirmed
over and over again in resolutions by
the House. The principle was clearly
stated by Judge STORY when he
pointed out that "a treaty cannot be
construed so as to destroy other pow
ers given In the Constitution, or to
change the form Of Government, or to
renounce the national sovereignty, or
TO ALLEVIATE the entire national do
main" The reason is obvious. Other
wise the constitutional power of legis-
,latlon in regard to any matter foreign
or domestic which a treaty might
reach directly or by indirection would
be taken from the Congress and the
Executive, where It Is inalienably re-
posed, and would be transferred to the
Senate and the Executive acting in.
dependently of the House.
That would be the destruction Of our
form Of Government. Whenever the