National Affairs: The Permanent Court

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By a vote of 49 to 24 the Senate on the next to last day of its session declined to consider for the present President Harding's proposal that the United States adhere to the Permanent Court of International Justice established by the League of Nations. The proposal did not necessitate our joining the League. It did provide that we should vote with members of the League to elect judges of the Court, that we should pay our share of the Court's expenses, that we could ask the Court to function on our affairs, when we preferred, that we could abide by its decisions, if we preferred—no more.

The President, although he had two years in which to present the proposal, did not do so until a week before the closing of Congress. He presented it, not in great detail or with much explanation, but in comparative outline. He brought it to the Senate as a surprise, without preparing public opinion or political circles for its reception. He presented it as if it were a preparation for a later move.

Consideration of the proposal in the Senate was moved not by a Re- publican, but by a Democrat, Senator King of Utah. The vote for and against immediate consideration was divided on practically the same lines as the vote on the League of Nations Covenant. Senator Lodge, Republican leader, merely declared against consideration. Senator Johnson, leader of the irreconcilables, led the insurgent group against the proposal itself. The vote of the Senate indicates chiefly that the Republicans want public opinion to crystallize before taking a definite stand.

The result is that the proposal remains in mid-air all next session. When the next Congress assembles it will be only six months before the conventions to nominate candidates for the 1924 election. The public will have made up its mind.