Till the Boys Come Home

All proposals to amend the U.S. Constitution were bottled up for the duration by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. The Senators explained that they were mindful of the resentment over the adoption of Prohibition while World War I servicemen were overseas. But what seemed more to the point was that they had just tabled the Fulbright resolution. Arkansas' internationalist Senator Fulbright decided something should be done about the Constitutional provision which allows one-third-plus-one of the Senate to block a treaty. His resolution proposed that treaties be ratified by a simple majority in House and Senate.

Last week the House, which clearly wants a hand in World War II treaty-making, was quick to respond to this maneuver of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Bald Representative Carl Hinshaw, California Republican, promptly introduced a brace of resolutions under which the Senate could consider treaties only after the House had approved their consideration and passed validating legislation. Representatives hoped it might start a slam-bang fight over the Senate's jealously guarded treaty monopoly.

Also tied up by the Senate committee were four proposals to limit the President and Vice President to one term; others to abolish the closed shop, to reorganize the Cabinet. So far as the House was concerned, all these could wait, but the Fulbright resolution was something else again. If it could not be submitted to the voters, it was at least going to get some public discussion.