WRIGHT— LIMITATIONS UPON NATIONAL POWERS. 203 



It was contended by the President and in the Senate, the writer 

 believes correctly, that delegation of this power to a mere majority 

 of the two houses of Congress without the President's approval 

 would be an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power.*^^ 



An extended controversy has arisen over the delegation of 

 power to the President by general arbitration treaties, to make the 

 comprornis or instrument submitting specific cases to arbitration. 

 The I Hague Convention of 1899, as also that of 1907, provided a 

 panel of arbitrators, a method for selecting a court and a pro- 

 cedure for arbitrating cases. By Article 16, the parties including 

 the United States recognized arbitration " as the most efficacious 

 and at the same time the most equitable method of deciding contro- 

 versies which have not been settled by diplomatic methods." 

 Under these provisions, in 1903, President Roosevelt submitted the 

 Pious Fund claim against Mexico to the Hague Tribunal, without 

 consulting the Senate. ^^ Opinion has dififered as to whether the 

 Hague Convention delegated this power. Simeon E. Baldwin has 

 said : ^* 



'■ The Hague Convention when ratified by the Senate, became thus a 

 standing warrant, or, so to speak, a power of attorney, from the United 

 States to the President, to submit such international controversies as he 

 might think fit to the uhimate decision of the International Court of 

 Arbitration." 



Ex-Secretary of State Foster, however, took a contrary view : ®* 



" I apprehend that should our government decide to refer any dispute 

 with a foreign government to the Hague Tribunal, President Roosevelt, or 

 whoever should succeed him, would enter into a convention with the foreign 



61 " A statute or a treaty might end upon the occurrence of a fortuitous 

 event or upon the determination of a certain fact or of a certain condition 

 by a certain officer, he having no discretion on the subject at all; but when it 

 becomes a question of the exercise of his judgment or his discretion about 

 whether the law should remain in force or whether it should be repealed, 

 considering the good of the country, that would be an unlawful delegation of 

 legislative power." Senator Walsh, Mont., Cong. Rec, Nov. 8, 1919, 58: 

 8609. " I doubt whether the President can be deprived of his veto power 

 under the Constitution even with his own consent." President Wilson, letter 

 to Senator Hitchcock, Jan. 26, 1920. 



^2 Willoughby, op. cit., p. 475. 



63 Yale Reznew, 9: 415, quoted, Willoughby, op. cit., p. 476. 



^^ Yale Latv Jl., 11: 76, quoted Willoughby, loc. cit. 



