Evening star., 1923-06-22
PRESIDENTS PLAN
TO MODIFY COURT
MAY BAR us. ENTRY
Speech at St. Louis Regard
ed as Shelving Issue to
Keep Party Intact.
ACTION SEEN AS VITAL
TO WIN NEXT ELECTION
Change Held Sensational and With
out Warnips-Party Reaches
Kansas City.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

La w REM
EN- ROUTE WITH PRESIDENT
HARDING TO KANSAS CITY, June
22.-President Harding has killed the
chances of American participation In
the world court as at present con-
E stituted.
Throwing the weight of his influ-
ence toward the 'irreconcilable" wing
of the republican party, which wants
the world court divorced absolutely from
the league of nations, Mr.. Harding has
antagonized the democrats whose
support is essential to make up the
needed two-thirds in the Senate and
has driven the whole issue into the
realm of uncertainty.
To get forty nations to agree to
the Presidents new proposal, espe-
cially when they touch the very heart
of the world courts constitution. In
volved delay, as diplomacy is lei
surely process, with endless red tape.
The public, therefore, can hardly
expect action for many months after
the next session of Congress begins,
because Mr.. Harding will ask the Sem
ate to agree first on the changes de-
sired in the world court and then
he will transmit the result to foreign
governments with the hope that they
will change the whole world court
idea to fit the suggestions of the
American Senate.
May Take Two Years.
All this may take months or even
years, by which time Mr.. Harding
will have been renominated by
united party and the dangers of
divided republicanism in the cam
paign for reelection will have been
averted.
This sensational change in the en-
tire political situation came out of a
clear sky. No intimation of the Presi-
dents change of tactics had been
given except that 1t was known how
powerful was the pressure being ex-
erted by the ''irreconcilab to win
the President over to their viewpoint
and prevent split in the republican
party.
So Mr.. Harding, by his st. Louis
speech. practically has put the world
court issue on the shelf indefinitely.
Incidentally, the President threw
Secretary of State, Charles Evans
Hughes. as we'll as those. of Elihu
Root the distinguished republican
statesman, who is the author or the
system of electing judges through the
council land assembly of the league
which now is TO be abandoned in favor
of an experimental alternative.
Baffied by threats of party revolt,
apprehensive of a losing fight in the
next Congress, the President shifted
his ground from the speech he de-
livered in New York last April at
of the Associated Press and presents
now a different plan of picking
judges, which, to be effective, must
be accepted by the forty nations sig
Il l1y n irnl
existence. The President said that he
had spent good deal of time sound
ing out foreign governments as to
how America could enter the court
and that he had done so in anticipa-
tion of Senate objections. but evil
IDENTIFY the President misjudged the
temper of the Senate and now must
start the process of diplomatic nego-
tations all over again. He thinks it's
g test of sincerity. If the other ma
tions want America in the court, he
believes they should bow to the Will
of the Senate. The trouble Is that the
proposal itself may present inspuerable
objections so that foreign powers may
still consider themselves sincerely
anxious to have America join, but not
with the radical change which Mr..
Harding espouseS only as a political
necessity in the United States.
Warned BY Hughes.
Secretary Hughes, in his original
letter to Mr.. Harding. warned the
President against changes. Orig
inally it was Elihu Root who brought
about the present system of select
ing judges through the council and
assembly of the league of nations.
1t was his single and outstanding
contribution to the constitution of
the court itself in the meeting of in
ternational tourists three years ago
tlyhp
E;lihu Root, too, who wrote the for
eign relations plank in the repub-
Harding was elected to the presi-
dency. But more recently than that
last February-Secretary Hughes
said in his letter. which was trans
The practical advantages of the
present system of electing judges by
. the majority votes of the council
and assembly of the league of ma
manifest 1t was this arrangement
which solved the difficulty. hereto
fore appearing almost insuperable.
of providing an electoral system con-
both great and small. 1t would be
impracticable, in my Judgment, to
disturb the essential features of this
system"
Now Mr.. Harding. after four
months of public discussion and
political strife, announces his will
1ERHeSS 10 approach ali the OtheE
governments of the world with x
plan to have the world court judges
choose their own successors. This
means that the eleven nations now
represented on the court would have
the exclusive privilege hereafter
through their. nationals now on the
bench, of choosing judges. Objection
has been made time and time again
to exclusive privileges in selecting
judges. 1t produced the very clash
between the large and small powers
that Elihu Root solved by utilizing
the machinery of the league Of
nations.
Hughes Knew of Change.
It Is inconceivable that Secretary
Hughes. however, was not apprised
of the contents of Mr.. Harding's st.
Louis speech. The possibilities are
that he read 1t in advance, but with
true Difference to political exigencies
he goes along with the President. It
is said that when the world court
matter was first presented Mr..
Hughes remarked. in effect: Il shall
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