Evening star., 1943-08-18
Approval Of Pacts
By Majority Vote Of
Both Houses Studied
By JAY G. HAYDEN.

The whole troublesome ques-
ton Of ratification of peace
agreements by two-thirds vote
of the Senate is well on the way
toward being resolved in favor
of a plan by which these agree
ments will be approved piece
meal by majority vote of the two
houses of Congress.
This is the result of conferences
related to the proposed United Ma
tions' Relief and Rehabilitation
Convention, which have been going
on between the State Department
and subcommittee of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee for
more than a month.
Major Developments.
The major developments from
these meetings are:
l. Secretary of State Hull has re-
versed his original insistence that
participation in the establishment
of this United Nations administra-
ton should be through an executive
agreement"
D., Senator Vandenburg. Repub-
lican, of Michigan, certainly speak
ing for at least a Majority of SEN
ate Republicans, has relinquished
the position that the Constitution
can be satisfied only by two-thirds
Senate ratification of agreements of
this character.
Those developments were revealed
In a guarded statement by Senator
Vandenberg yesterday. following
long conference among him and
Senator Green. Democrat, of Rhode
Island and Dean Acheson. Assistant
Secretary of State, and Francis B.
Sayre, deputy director of the Offlce
OF Foreign Relief and Rehabilita-
ton.
Progress Reported.
We are making excellent prog
ress," Senator Vandenberg said.
toward an agreement which re-
writes the objectionable clauses in
the original draft (of the relief and
rehabilitation pact and toward
simplified procedure for submitting
these obligations to Congress FOR ap-
proval
Il am hopeful that this mutual
effort may be sufficiently successful
to set a pattern for other postwar
problems. short of the actual treaty
of final peace. 1t ought to be los
sible for reasonable men to find
formula which will permit the
merits of these many. unavoidable
war liquidations to be considered
without detouring primarily into
procedural rows. 1t ought to be pos
sible to satisfy the constitutional
process and still expedite essential
results"
The important points in this
statement are its reference to the
pending agreement as "a pattern for
other postwar problems" and its
call for avoidance of ''procedural
rows" which means the contro-
versies that have ragged between the
extremes of presidential usurpation
of all international authority and
the position that nothing can be
done in this field without two-thirds
Senate ratification,
Debate Hot in Early Stages.
The debate on this score in its
early stages became so hot that Mr.
Hull. resenting the bitter castigation
to which Chairman Connally of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
was subjecting him. grabbed his hat
and started to walk out Senator
Vandenberg and Mr.! Acheson inter-
iceded as peacemakers, and since
then these two have nursed the
negotiation along to a point where
it is on the verge of producing what
may prove to be the most significant
accomplishment in the field Of
American foreign relations for
generation.
Remembering the row between
President Woodrow Wilson and the
Senate, which ruined efforts at in
ternational collaboration after the
World War and kept the United
States isolationiSt for two decades,
there has been much fear both at
home and abroad that the same will
happen this time. This feeling has
provided the main inspiration for
attempts, such as the pending Ball
Burton -Hatch-Hill resolution. to
persuade Congress to commit itself
in advance to after-war inaerna-
tional collaboration.
If it is established now, as the
State Department-Senate confer
ences contemplate. that treaties can
be consummated by ma joritv vote
of both Houses, this bugaboo should
be largely removed.
Senator Vandenberg, in his state
ment, excepted the actual treaty
of final peace" But this need be
no obstacle because the whole peac-
making job easily could be done in
a series of agreements, each dealing
with special phase. Former Pres