The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-05-22

any time to consider the revision of the
covenant. To give it power to revise the
covenant without the approval of the
| doubtless not what Mr. Root intended
nor should we want to be bound by
| changes in the covenant with our own
| consent.
"The fifth proposed amendment was to
give power to the military commission
of the league to inspect the armament
| equipment, munitions and industries of
all allied nations. This has not been
adopted. 1t would involve highly vex-
| atious process, especially in the case of
private factories and it would prob
ably not be very difficult for nation
that intended to violate its agreement
about armament and establish factories
capable of war service, from deceiying
the inspectors in part.
"The fourth proposed amendment re-
fers merely to the power to terminate
the contract which is repeated in the
sixth amendment, and as already pointed
out, has been fully adopted.
"The third proposed amendment is not
an amendment at all, but demands that
before the signature of the American
delegates, a reservation should be insert
ed to provide that nothing in the cove
nant should be considered as relinquish-
ment by the United States, of its tradi-
tional attitude toward purely Ameri-
can questions or to require the submis-
sion of its policy regarding such ques-
tions Including the admission of i'm
migrants) to the decision or recommen-
dation of other powers. Those two
points have been fully covered by the
amendment that nothing in the covenant
shall affect the Monroe doctrine and by
the amendment withholding from the
consideration of the council, all questions
of domestic legislation. Moreover, if
the Senate desires to insert such reser
walton in its ratification, it would not
affect the validity of that ratification or
do any harm, for it is merely confirming,
not contradicting, what is already in the
covenant.
"The second proposed amendment pro-
vides that the council shall call gen
eral conference of the powers to meet
not less than two years nor more than
five years, to review the condition of in
ternational law and state in authorita
tive form, the principles and rules there
Of. Such action is wholly within the
power of the council at any time and
it would seem to require no amendment
to the covenant. 1t is certainly to be
hoped that the council will call con-
ference of the powers, or of the assem-
bly,, which is a conference of the pow
ers, for this purpose.
"The first amendment requires that
justiciabe disputes shall be submitted
to an arbitral tribunal, which shall de-
eide whether dispute is of that charac-
ter or not. This is almost the only one
of Mr.. Roots proposed amendments
making change in the covenant, that
has not been substantially adopted and
the reason for the failure to adopt it is
clear to persons familiar with the juris-
prudence of Europe, where every coun-
try except England, is under the civil
not the common law. The whole point
turns on who shall decide whether
question is iusticiable or not, for clear
ly there can be no provision that jus
tieiable questions shall be referred to
particular tribunal, if either party is
free to claim that the question is not of
that nature. Now, in countries that have
inherited the English common law, ii is
customary for the court to decide ques-
tions of It's own Jurisdiction, but this is
not the case in the civil law countries Of
Europe. There, there are two sets of
tribunals, one for the ordinary civil
suits and the other for those in which
administrative officials or the govern
ment itself, is involved. If the question
arises to which of these courts case
belongs, neither is allowed to decide the
question itself, but mixed tribunal,
called the court Of conflicts, is estab-
lished for the purpose.
eff these countries are not willing to
allow their own civil courts to decide
questions of their own jurisdiction as
against administrative officials, they
could hardly be expected to allow an
international court to decide upon its
own jurisdiction as against the nation
itself"