Evening star., 1932-12-18
BY WILLIAM HARD.

What Will happen TO the debts now.
That is the question that principally
perplexes Washington at this week end
Some shreds Of an answer to 1t are pos.
sible.
In the first place. it is doubtful i
any Of the proposed reprisals agains
our defaulting debtors will ever com,
into actual being. They all would ado
| further impediments TO internationa
economic intercourse. One OF tht
highest ideals of most OF the worlds
governments at the present time is te
diminish rather than to enlarge such
impedimentS.
President Hoover has emphaticall,
the United States depends largely upOI
progress III better international eco
nomic relationship. If measures EN-.
bodying reprisals against our default.
ing debtors should survive debate II
the two Houses of the Congress anc
should be sent to the White House fol
signature, it would seem extremely un-
likely that the signature would bt
Forthcoming. The revival, therefore. Of
dead or dying debt payments by mean.
OF the lash of retaliatory economic war
1are may be dismissed as an oratorica
rather than as legislative or diplo-
matte prospect.
In the second place. the President
now stands committed twice to the ini-
tlatlng OF new negotiations with oul
debtors in general. The first commit
ment was In the Hoover-Laval state
ment of October of last year. The
wording of it was
Prior to the expiration OF the Hoo
Yer moratorium year some agreement
Oh ntergovernmental obligations NAV
De necessary covering the period Of the
business depression"
IhlS commitment was tentative. The
second commitment was definite. It oc-
CURED in the State Department note of
december 7 to the government of Great
Britain. 1t said:
Inc President of the United States Is
prepared. through whatever agency NAV
seem appropriate, in cooperation with
the British government, to survey the
entire situation and to consider what
means may be taken to bring about the
restoration OF stable currencies and ex-
change, the revival of trade and the re :
covery of prices"
The absence of the word debts" from
TINS passage is of no consequence. That
discussion OF currencieS and Of prices
would necessarily involve a discussion OF
debts was thoroughly understood in
washington as we'll as in London.
Ihe question then advances to an
Interpretation of the phrase through
"HateVer agency may seem appropri-
ate. The President has continuously
taken the view that the Congress ought
20 authorize him to negotiate regard
ing the debts through a new debt-fund-
ms commission. He now. however, pro-
poses to negotiate through whatever
agency may be appropriate"
He might thereupon negotiate either
through our regularly established diplo-
matte officers or through special COM
mlSsloners of his own choosing. These
commissioners would not need to be
hrmed by the Senate, In the course
OF our national history we have had
more than 400 such commissioners ap-
polntedsby the President alone for the
con0uct of negotiations with foreign
powers. On occasion the Senate has
protested against this presidential prac-
tlce. The prevailing dominant opinion
about it. however was conclusively ex-
Ohio. when he was chairman of the
Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Senator Sherman said:
The President has the power to pro-
pose treaties subject to ratification by
the Senate. In the negotiations leading
to treaties he may use such agencies s
he chooses to employ"
X
1t is possible, accordingly, that Presi-
dent Hoover, having failed to secure a
congressional debt funding commission,
may appoint what will be in effect a
presidential debt-funding commission
which will derive its authority solely
from presidential order and which will
make its report, not to the Congress,
but to the White House.
That report would comprise the re-
suits of the commissions negotiations
with our debtors, and those results
would be put into the form of treaties
for transmission to the Senate. The
House of Representatives could thus be
eliminated from the affair altogether.
TT treaties, if adopted, would become
the law of the land" and would super
Sede all previous acts of the Congress
as whole. The House of Representa-
tives would have no constitutional
lllCoiho VI preventing IiiC cllCly ulIo ioiSC
Of any new debt t-revision treaties nego-
tiated by the President and accepted by
two-thirds vote of the Senate.
x X
That President Hoover may wish to
present such treaties to the Senate be-
fore retiring from public Office Is in
some circles increasingly believed The
debts question is the outstanding ques-
ton of the moment in the worlds
thought. An effective solution Of it
would be dazzling crown to any states
mans career.
A solution accepted by the Senate
would be memorial to which he could
look back with pride; and an appealing
solution rejected by the Senate would
constitute an issue which would keep
him before the public as the leader Of
a cause. Such calculations in the minds
both of Mr.. Hoover's friends and Of his
enemies incline many Of them to believe
that he will, indeed. attempt, before
March 4, to hand the Senate yea.