Eider Statesman's Hearing

Elder Statesman Elihu Root, now almost 86. marched in his fur-collared overcoat into a Senate committee room one morning last week and took a solitary seat at the end of a long table. He had come to explain to the Foreign Relations Committee his formula whereby the U. S. could join the World Court. But the Committee kept Mr. Root waiting 30 minutes. Behind him rose the loud chatter of peace-loving women who packed the room. Mr. Root ran his fingers impatiently over his short grey mustache.

When the committee, headed by Chair-man Borah, finally strolled in and sat about the table, Jurist Root began a three-hour exposition of his handiwork. Reviewing the World Court's history and its relation to the council of the League of Nations, he detailed his objections to the Senate's rigid reservation against the Court's rendering an advisory opinion on any question in which the U. S. has or claims to have an interest. Under the Root formula, views are to be exchanged first between the U. S. and the Court on the question of "interest." If the U. S. protests jurisdiction and the Court still persists in rendering an opinion, the U. S. may "naturally" withdraw "without any imputation of unfriendliness or unwillingness to cooperate generally for peace and goodwill."

With all the persuasiveness of the eminent advocate that he is, Mr. Root made much of the preliminary exchange of views, declared the U. S. could not be "frank and sincere" if it refused them. Said he: "We only have to tell what our interest is out of decent respect for mankind. The press will want to know, the people will want to know, why the U. S. put a stop to proceedings aimed at obtaining peace. ... Of the 16 advisory opinions handed down so far by the Court, not one has come within gunshot of our interests. ... If we have an interchange of views, frankly and openly, in which each side will have to justify its position to the world, then the League council would never venture to submit a request for an advisory opinion in a case in which the U. S. has an interest and the U. S would never put itself in the position of making a claim of false pretense in which it did not have a real interest. ... It is an experiment in international conduct that has to be carried on in a frank open way without concealments."

Mr. Root gave the impression that he thought it highly unlikely the U. S. would ever have to exercise its withdrawal privilege because the World Court would always heed a U. S. protest. Said he: "It was the existence of this power of withdrawal that made the agreement possible."

Pounding the table in his earnestness Elder Statesman Root declared: "I strongly desire that the U. S. should do its duty to the future of civilization. While the World Court may fail, God forbid that it should fail because America has failed to do her part!"

Impressed, the Senators asked only a few routine questions, did no heckling.

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