The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-04-29
SEN. PEPPER
EXPECTS TO
STOP COURT
Entry Into World Affairs Is
Doomed for Present
Administration.
~ WIILIAM PIuLIP sINTMs

4 / '
q Court is doomed, so far as this
Il administration is concerned.
Too hardy to be suffocated in the
pigeonhole of Chairman Lodge of the
Foreign Relations Committee where it
was stuffed nearly a year and a half
ago in the hope that it would die, the
World Court proposition, still alive
and kicking, has now been turned
over to the tender mercies of a craftily
chosen senatorial subcommittee for
hearings before its friends.
These hearings begin Wednesday.
April 80, and the more people come
and plead for the World Court, the
better Senator Lodge viii like it. He
knows the court has many friends,
far more than he once thought it had,
and he does not dare openly to adj
minister knockout drops. The hear
ings will help him stall along until
adjournment of Congress, now but
few weeks away.
Friends 0utnumbered
Senator George Wharton Pepper of
Pennsylvania, foe of the League Of
Nations and World Court, is chairman
of the subcommittee Senator Bran
degee of Connecticut, league irrecon-
cilable and court opponent, is also a
member. So is Senator Shipstead of
Minnesota more or less against any
and all forms of international cooper
alton.
The other two members are Senator
Swanson of Virginia and Senator Pitt
man of Nevada. They are friends Of
the court but are hopelessly and OBJ
viously outnumbered.
There are four separate propositions
before the subcommittee.
/. President Harding's proposal as
outlined in his message to Congress
on Feb. "a, 1928. and as sponsored by
Secretary Of State Hughes.
2, A Lodge resolution with reserva-
TONS
8. A resolution by Senator Lenroot
of Wisconsin similar to the Harding
Hughes plan.
4. Senator Peppers proposal for 2
tribunal similar to the oldfashioned
one at The Hague.
The Harding Hughes proposal is
that the United States enter the World
Court as now constituted. but without
assuming any obligations under the
league. though. so far as the World
Court is concerned, on absolute
parity with other nations.
The Lodge reservations" favor a
World Court divorced entirely from
the league-just camou1aged choloro-
form for the court.
In effect Lenroot's proposition is
Identical to the Hughes Harding plan,
while Peppers is purposely vague ex-
cept in that it favors "a court, any
court, just so it is not ''the" court.
Senator Pittman declares he win OPP
pose long-drawn-out hearings before
the subcommittee and that he, person
ally, will press for a termination by at
least the middle of May. After which
the subcommittee will report back to
the Foreign Relations Committee as a
whole.
Out For Present
That is the report will be unfavor-
able to the" world court is not to be
doubted And it is not to be expected
that all the other nations of the
world will forsake "the" court for
some other variety merely to conform
to planks in the G. o. P political plat
form as dictated by Lodge Pepper.
Brandegee and others of the Old
Guard
Which means we stay out of the
court, at least for the present.
Senator Pittman intends to propose
a recess of Congress in June until
after the two big political conventions, 4
then reconvene for a session during
July and August. He admits the only
hope of even a debate on the World
Court lies in q 1id-slInln1er snssinn