Evening star., 1925-01-25

Jonn Mafshall, interpreting the
Constitution, said the President Is
the sole organ of the nation in its
external relations and it's sole repre-
sentative with foreign nations" The
President may begin negotiations,
through the Secretary of State or
anyhow he pleases, when and where
he pleases. If he wants to, he can
take the Senate into his confidence
and tell them what is going on.
| George Washington, as related above,
| tried it once by going to the Capitol.
The present system is to invite inf1u-
entail Senators to the White House
for breakfast, feed them well on
buckwheat cakes, sausage and maple
sfrup, with coffee, tea or cacoa, shred
| ed wheat, corn flakes or grapenuts,
and tell them or ask them what's
what.
Legislators Fail as Envoys.
| AS early as 1925 a Secretary Of
State, Henry Clay, was explaining the
American system to foreign govern
| ment. According to the practice of
! this Government" he said, the Sen
ate is not ordinarily consulted in the
| initiatory stages of negotiation, but
| It's consent and advise are invoked
| after a treaty is concluded, under the
| direction of the President, and sub
| mttted to its consideration. Each Of
| the two branches Of the treaty MAX
| ing power is Independent of the
! other, while both are responsible to
| the States and to the people. the COM
! mon sources of their power"
| Presidents in the past have tried
| the experiment of appointing mem
| bers of Congress to take part in the
| negotiations for a treaty, but the
| practice has not been a bowling sue
| cess by any means. Sometimes it
| seems impossible to please a Senator
| In 1912 President Madison appointed
| a Senator and the Speaker of the
! House as commissioners to take part
| in negotiating the treaty of Ghent,
! which ended the War of 1872 But
| the two found themselves, on the one
! hand, faced with the necessity of ac-
| quainting their colIea gues in Con-
| gress of their progress, and, on the
| other hand, bound by the secrecy de-
| manded in diplomatic proceedings So
! they resigned from Congress.
Again, at the close of the Spanish
American War, President Mckinley
appointed three Senators al commits
| sioners 10 negotiate the treaty with
| Spain, but his action caused a tre-
mendous uproar in the Senate A
| resolution was introduced and refer
| red to the judiciary committee re-
buking the President for his action
| The committee never reported out the
resolution, but sent its chairman to
/ call on the President and advise him
| of the grave error he had committed.
The President was afterward repre-
sented as saying that he would never
| do 1t again. When the treaty came
, up for ratification in the Senate
| there was such fight that John Hay,
Secretary of State, wrote to a friend
IL have told you many times that
l did not believe another important
| treaty would ever pass the Senate
/. The man who makes the treaty
of peace with Spain will be lucky If
he escapes lynching."
Senate often Errs.
| Mr.. Hay later described the entry
of treaty to the Senate as follows:
"A treaty entering the Senate is like
a bull going into the arena: no one
can ever say just how or when the
| blow Will fall-but one thing is GER
| tain, 1t will never leave the arena
alive" Any number of things can
! happen to a treaty once it gets into
| the Senate. 1t may be approved un-
| conditionally; it may be approved
with amendments; it may be approved
| upon condition that certain changes
| are made; it may be approved with
| an accompanying resolution of reser-
walton or Interpretation; it may never
be brought out OF the committee, and
| 1t may be disapproved or rejected.
| The Senate has often made mistakes
| in its judgment of treaties and it's
| treatment of the negotiations leading
up to them. In 1865, for instance, it
| refused to approve treaty with Den
| mark to purchase the Virgin Islands
for s7,500,0o0. Fifty years later it
approved a treaty which bought them
for three times that price.
| But the Constitution has left the
| final say-so with the President. After
| the Senate has approved treaty, or
done one of the numerous things it
| can do to treaties, the President can
| leave it or take 1t and no one can
| say him nay. President Roosevelt
| BECAME so exasperated at the way the
| Senate treated his treaties, carefully
| negotiated through Mr.. Hay, for ar
| bitration and reference to The Hague
Court of legal disputes between ma
tions, that he dropped them and re-
fused to go ahead.
The difficulties were to be referred
to The Hague through protocols or
agreements, presumably by direction
| of the President. The Senate, ever
| jealous OF the power of the Execu
| tive, amended the treaties to take
this power out of the Presidents
hands and place it with the Senate,
and Roosevelt check mated this move
by dropping the whole thing.
So the fact that the administration
| must deal with chairman of the
| Senate's foreign relations committee
who is not in accord with all the ad-
ministration's policies on foreign re-
lations, is not startling. 1t is to be
doubted IL Secretary Hughes has lost
| many hours of sleep worrying about
how to counteract the moves of Mr
| Borah and it is to be doubted II he
felt that the only thing left to do was
to get out of the State Department
| and go back to the practice OF law.
There have been more difficult situa-
tions with reference to foreign rela-
tions than the present one. Presi-
dent Wilson, back from Paris with a
treaty he played a large part In ne
gotiating, was faced with putting 1t
through a. Senate whose chairman of
foreign relations was not only OPP
posed to his views, but who was or a
different political belief. Yet the
country still lives.
Davis Enters Critics.
Critics of this country's system or
conducting it's foreign affairs are an
swered convincingly by John w.
Davis. who, as Ambassador to Great
Britain, delivered speech on the
subject at Oxford. Much Of the his
torical Information contained in this
article is taken from that speech, and
his answer to critics of the system Ia
| quoted in full:
"An unfriendly critic might de-
lnounce 1t as complicated and cumber-
some, ill adapted to the complex de.
mands of international intercourse,
slow in action and uncertain in outs
come. The requirement of a two
thirds rather than a majority vote
in the Senate he might criticize not