the american senate and world peaceby kenneth colegrove

3
The American Senate and World Peace by Kenneth Colegrove Review by: Maurice C. Latta The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Sep., 1944), pp. 291-292 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1893447 . Accessed: 25/06/2014 01:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Organization of American Historians is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.44.79.160 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 01:31:51 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Upload: review-by-maurice-c-latta

Post on 27-Jan-2017

213 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: The American Senate and World Peaceby Kenneth Colegrove

The American Senate and World Peace by Kenneth ColegroveReview by: Maurice C. LattaThe Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Sep., 1944), pp. 291-292Published by: Organization of American HistoriansStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1893447 .

Accessed: 25/06/2014 01:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Organization of American Historians is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toThe Mississippi Valley Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.160 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 01:31:51 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: The American Senate and World Peaceby Kenneth Colegrove

BOOK REVIEWS 291

conclusions; and the emotional human being who tries to take part in the affairs of the world and carry out the duties of good citizenship. This brief, readable sketch of American foreign policy over the last fifty years is written by Dr. Perkins, the good citizen, in an effort to persuade his fellows of the essential correctness of the path we have followed dur- ing the two world wars. It tries to avoid confusing the reader with the almost unmanageable multiplicity of factors that enter into world relationships, and to concentrate on the immediate reasoning behind the policies of the United States Government.

Few will question the correctness, perhaps even the social duty, of a mature scholar in writing such a brief at this time. It will presumably arouse its many readers to the need of greater American participation in world affairs and will supply them with a good and generally consistent evaluation of past events. The major criticism that must be made of the book is one that applies equally well to most writing on the history of foreign relations. There is a tendency to write of the dramatic incidents of diplomacy as though they, per se, were the important factors in developing the international situation; as though good personal rela- tionships between chiefs of state were the cause rather than the result of harmonious international aims. Underlying economic and social forces that produce the harmonies or maladjustments are not sufficiently stressed or explained. Their almost inevitable dynamics are lost sight of in recounting the symbolic gestures of diplomatic interchange.

A further corollary of this approach is that matters hinging upon sharp internal struggles are often treated as though they belonged wholly in the sphere of internationial diplomacy. The canal tolls issue of 1914, for example, loses something of its full significance unless one realizes that the repeal of differential tolls represented a great victory of the transcontinental railroads over the intercoastal shipping lines, as well as a victory for the policy of conciliation with Great Britain in the Mexican situation. The few extra paragraphs required to summarize, from time to time, the long-run economic and social forces at work in the major nations, and to supply a little more of the internal background of American policy would add greatly to the substance and under- standing of diplomatic events.

New York University THOMAS C. COCHRAN

The American Senate and World Peace. By Kenneth Colegrove. (New York: The Vanguard Press, 1944. 191 pp. Bibliography. $2.00.)

This is a vigorous brief in support of the proposition that the Con- stitution of the United States should be amended to provide for ratifica- tion of treaties by simple majorities in Congress rather than by the existing method.

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.160 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 01:31:51 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 3: The American Senate and World Peaceby Kenneth Colegrove

292 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HISTORICAL REVIEW

The present procedure, says Professor Colegrove, is " eighteenth- century," it is "archaic, oligarchic, and anti-social," it is a "negation of the democratic process." The opportunity for minority obstruction enhances the possibilities for mischief on the part of Senators who are rancorous, partisan, or narrow-minded. It is a real barrier to the development of co-operation between the Presidenit and Congress. The makers of the Constitution intended the Senate to act as an executive council, but it has never so acted, the theory is now "outmoded," and is indeed a "troublesome hallucination." "It is not too much to say that the peace of the world as well as of the United States rests in some meas- ure on the abolition (or evasion, if abolition is impossible) of the un- democratic power of the American Senate to veto treaties."

The Senate can be evaded. International commitments may be made through executive agreements or by joint resolutions of Congress. But the Constitution "can anid must" be amended. "Democracy in this country is deficient as long as foreign policy is at the mercy of a small minority in the oligarchic upper chamber of our national legislature." The Senate minority, which "has frequently thwarted the aspirations of the American people," is preparing to do so again; it must not be allowed to block our participation in the United Nations which there is "undeniable evidence" the "American people " desire. The peace must "promote exclusively the interests of the common man" and these Pro- fessor Colegrove seems confident are safe only in the hands of the "ex- perts" of the State Department and of the President - "a politician with a marvelous bag of tricks."

Doane College MAURICE C. LATTA

One Hundred Great Years: The Story of the Times-Picayune From its Founding to 1940. By Thomas Ewing Dabney. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1944. xii + 503 pp. Appendix and index. $4.00.)

Histories of newspapers tend to conform to a pattern in which the paper itself provides a vantage point from which to survey the per- sonalities and events of "a century of progress." If the newspaper is always kept fronit and center, as, for instance, in Acheson's story of the Dallas News or in Shaw's story of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the inte- gration may be improved but at a cost of perspective as well as of a sometimes wearisome review of the genealogy of editors and the vicissi- tudes of a format. One Hundred Great Years, however, is less concerned with family affairs and with the Picayune's part in making history than with its service as a faithful recorder of history. The result is the sort of thing the movies call a "cavalcade" or a "passing parade."

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.160 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 01:31:51 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions