'912.] OF THE UNITED STATES. 393 



ing interference with interstate commerce. In the absence of such 

 statutes, the executive has the power to call upon the army of the 

 United States and enforce by its power any treaty provision, in pre- 

 cisely the same manner and under the same conditions as the execu- 

 tive might enforce an act of Congress. This was the emphatic 

 decision in in re Debs.^^^ Finally, resort may be had either by the 

 United States or by the aggrieved party to the Federal Courts. Such 

 right of redress is incontrovertibly established, but there is one 

 latent practical difficulty. It is this. Treaties may and do operate, 

 when so intended, as acts of Congress, but they are not in practice 

 drawn as legislative acts. They deal with the enunciation of general 

 principles ; they do not express clearly and specifically the rights 

 they purpose to confer; nor, if those rights be such as to require 

 remedial provisions, do they contain such provisions. The case of 

 the Mafia riots at New Orleans afl:'ords an admirable illustration of 

 this state of things. The treaty with Italy had provided: 



" The citizens of each of the high contracting parties shall receive, in the 

 states and territories of the other, the most constant protection and security 

 for their persons and property, and shall enjoy in this respect the same 

 rights and privileges as are or shall be granted to the natives, on their 

 submitting themselves to the conditions imposed upon the natives."^* 



There was in the treaty no provision for the punishment of any 

 person violating it. and no right of action conferred on persons in- 

 jured or damaged by its violation. There remained therefore only 

 the general promise of the United States to protect Italian citizens — 

 a promise not made effective either by the terms of the treaty or by 

 any act of Congress. The position taken by Air. Blaine, that the 

 Federal government was powerless to deal with such matters because 

 they were committed to the States, was technically maintainable ; but 

 maintainable only because the United States had neglected either by 

 treaty provision or by statute to adopt any means for performing 

 the international obligation it had assumed. The power to make the 

 Federal will supreme existed, was established by numerous decisions., 

 and had been exercised by Congress in a series of statutes. When 



^^ Supra, pp. 224-229. 



^^* " Compilation of Treaties in Force, 1904," at p. 450 — Article III. of 

 treaty of 1871 with Italy. 



