GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM

The bogey of "entangling alliances" lurks in the corner of almost every treaty the Senate has had to consider in recent years.

Probably no more extraordinary proposition ever was made by a President to the American people than that our Government should agree to submit questions of difference with other nations to a self-perpetuating judicial tribunal, and one in the selection of whose judges we had no voice.

The assumption by the Senate of powers of original negotiation of agreements with foreign nations must increasingly interfere with the discharge by the Executive of the powers invested in him by the Constitution.

The fact is, that the treaty-making machinery of the United States has become so complicated as to be almost unworkable. Only by the exercise of great powers of conciliation or of domination by the President, or by awakening and directing upon the Senate a vigorous public opinion, can any progress be made in international relations. A body of ninety-six men of such diverse characteristics and opinions as the members of the Senate is almost hopeless as an executive force. But it is ideal for purposes of obstruction.

The assumption by the Senate of powers of original negotiation of agreements with foreign nations must increasingly interfere with the discharge by the Executive of the powers invested in him by the Constitution.

The fact is, that the treaty-making machinery of the United States has become so complicated as to be almost unworkable. Only by the exercise of great powers of conciliation or of domination by the President, or by awakening and directing upon the Senate a vigorous public opinion, can any progress be made in international relations. A body of ninety-six men of such diverse characteristics and opinions as the members of the Senate is almost hopeless as an executive force. But it is ideal for purposes of obstruction.

The bogey of "entangling alliances" lurks in the corner of almost every treaty the Senate has had to consider in recent years.

Probably no more extraordinary proposition ever was made by a President to the American people than that our Government should agree to submit questions of difference with other nations to a self-perpetuating judicial tribunal, and one in the selection of whose judges we had no voice.