Evening star., 1939-04-10

a too rigid series of legal provisions
which would deprive the country of
the flexibility it needs in time Of
crisis.
Virtually all the European govern
ments. democracies and dictator
ships alike, can act quickly no mat
ter what contingency arises. The
American form of government is
supposed to be SO rigid that for
emergency purposes the custom has
arisen of delegating complete powers
in foreign policy matters to the dis
cretion of the President of the
United States. But study of what
can be done without change in
the American constitutional system
which will nevertheless enable the
United States to act quickly and yet
avoid a one-man decision and give
due regard to public sentiment leads
to the conclusion that the flexibility
needed can be obtained if the prin-
ciple of bipartisan commission Is
applied with the cooperation of the
Executive
Members of Congress have mani
tested an interest in this type OF
proposal lately as possible solution
to the neutrality controversy. Here
is a plan embodying the above-men-
toned principle:
/. A national neutrality commits
sion shall be created to consist OF Is
members, IL to be members of Con-
gress and three to represent the
executive branch of the Govern
ment, namely the Secretary Of Com
merce, the Secretary of the Navy
and the Secretary of State.
Six From Each House.
2. The members of Congress to be
designated as members of the neu-
trality commission shall be chosen
by the Senate and the House re-
spectively on a basis of six members
from each house. Three members
shall be chosen by caucus of the
majority party and three members
shall be chosen by caucus OF the
minority party in each house by the
same procedure now used for the
selection of Speaker and other
congressional officers.
3. Voting power shall be vested in
the IL congressional members only
and, in the event of a tie vote, the
deciding vote shall be cast by the
three representatives of the execu-
tive branch of the Government vot-
ing as unit.
4. The Congress shall by law dele
gate to the neutrality commission
the formulation of all necessary and
needful rules for the conduct Of the
foreign commerce of the United
States as it may relate to any area
of the world in which actual hostlll-
ties of any kind are in progress or
are threatened.
S. The Congress shall delegate to
the executive branch of the Gov
ernment the administration and
execution of any rules or regulations
promulgated by the national neu-
trality commission.
Action May Be Voided.
8. The Congress may at any time
by Joint resolution of both houses
(not requiring the signature OF the
President) declare void any order,
rule, or regulation adopted by the
neutrality commission.
Z. The neutrality commission shall
sit whether or not Congress Is IN
session, but during recess of Con-
gress, the commission shall declare
null and void any rule or regulation
which is disapproved by a formal
petition signed by majority OF
both houses of Congress, but this
procedure shall not be availed of If
within 80 days after the promulga-
ton of any order, ruling or regula-
ton, the President shall have called
an extra session of Congress or If a
regular session of Congress is sched-
uled to convene within 80 days after
such petition has been circulated.
8. No members of the House or
Senate who serve on the neutrality
commission shall receive any extra
compensation for their services.
This last provision is necessary to
make the plan constitutional as to
personnel. AS for the other consti-
tutional aspects, there is ample
precedent for the delegation of pow
er to the executive branch of the
Government for administrative pur-
poses and there is ample precedent
Cor the delegation of legislative pow
er to bipartisan commissions as, for
instance, the Tariff Commission, the
Federal Trade Commission and the
Interstate Commerce Commission.
The Supreme Court of the United
States has upheld the principle OF
delegation of power, but has SIM
ply required that the standards for
these quasi-legislative bodies shall
be clearly prescribed. In the pres
ent instance, the Congress would be
delegating the power to define "neu-
trality' within certain limits and
instead of giving these legislative
powers to specially created COM
mission outside the Congress would
retain the legislative powers within
q commission consisting Of its own
membership. AS for administrative
duties, these would in turn be dele
gated to the departments of the ex-
ecutive branch of the Government
leaving only the broad policy ques-
tions to be settled by the joint con-
gressional commission.
Some of the Latin American
countries have applied the prin-
ciples of a congressional commits
sion to act while their congresses
are not in session and many Amer
ican corporations with large boards
of directors have often created an
= executive committee with power to
act in between regular meetings OF
the board.
In the proposed plan, Congress
could veto any rule or policy which
it disliked and yet If public senti-
ment did not object it would ir
effect be ratifying the rules or pol
icies laid down by the neutrality
commission. The purpose in hav'
ing the Secretary of Commerce or
the commission is to enable thu