The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-06-05
WASHINGTON. June S Up

- The US. Senate-like
ghost from an old play-hovers
over the United Nations confer
ence at San Francisco.
And it peers over the Shout
der of the American delegation.
It's a sturdy ghost, armed
with the power of destruction.
The American delegation knows
it.
Strangely, in the conference
halls out there you almost never
hear the Senate mentioned. But
here's the story:
No matter what kind of
League of Nations is formed at
San Francisco, this country can't
Join it until the Senate ap-
proves.
When it comes time for us to
Join, thirds of the Senate
must approve. One-third of the
Senators. plus one, could keep
us out.
There are 96 Senators. Two.
thirds of them, if all were pre-
sent and voting, would be "a.
One-third, plus one, would be
80.
On voting day probably not
all So will be present. Just the
same, tWo-thirds of those pre-
sent and voting must vote yes
for us to Join.
That two-thirds rule was the
bed rock on which our chance
of joining the old League of Ma
tons was broken and destroyed.
That rule gives the Senate
terrific power, SO much so that
even though the majority of the
American people wanted this
country to join the new league,
handful of Senators-one-
third, plus one-could keep us
out.
There has been strenuous agi-
tation in the past two years to
abolish that two-thirds rule.
Some Congressman wanted a
simple majority vote OF both
houses-the Senate and House
of Representatives to be all
that was necessary to ratify a
treaty.
The Senate couldn't see that.
Why should it, it must have
asked itself? Here it had great
and special poWer-a power not
shared by the House-and why
should it yield any of 1t? 1t
hasn't. The Senate is still in the
saddle.
The American delegates at
San Francisco know all that.
Two of them are Senators them
selves: Connally, a Texas DEM
ocrat, and Vandenberg, Mich
igan Republican.
They know what the Senate
Gid about our joining the Old
league. They know it might hap
pen again.
The American delegates know.
in spite of all their work in San
Francisco, that a maximum OF
33 displeased Senator'S could
keep US out of the new league.
They know that every word
which goes into the new league
charter will be examined by the
Senate. Some senator's, who 9TH
erwise would vote for our en-
try into the League, might turn
away if a word, or sentence or
paragraph gagged them.
That is one of the reasons be-
hind the American delegations
care about what is written into
the charter.
Already the work of the San
Francisco conference has been
criticized in the Senate, before
the work is finished.
Senator LaFollette (Prog.-
Wis., slammed at the veto power
of the Big Five, the ability OF
any one of the Big Five to pre-
vent League action against IT.
self.
It was LaFollette's first Major
speech since America entered
the war. The Big Five are the
United States, Britain, Russia,
China, France.
So the American delegation
has been extremely careful OF
every move made-at least by
its own members.
Perhaps our delegates would
have operated with great deal
more boldness if our entry into
the League depended upon a
simple majority vote of both
Houses instead Of the two-thirds
vote in the Senate.
Perhaps the unblinking stare
of the Senate accounts for this