Eyes and Ears

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has its self avowed eyes and ears--and there are five: Senators Pepper of Pennsylvania, Swanson of Virginia, Shipstead of Minnesota, Brandegee of Connecticut and Pittman of Nevada. These five, on behalf of the full committee, undertook last week to hold public hearings on the proposal that the U.S. participate in the World Court (Permanent Court of International Justice). The subcommittee certainly got an "earful" if not an "eyeful." The list of those who appeared to advocate entrance into the Court was as long as the recital of the Argive ships before Troy. There was former Attorney General George W. Wickersham for the American Bar Association, Bishop Charles H. Brent for the Episcopal Church, Samuel Gompers (by proxy) for the American Federation of Labor, Walker D. Hines for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw for the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association, Rabbi Abram Simons for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Miss Jane Addams and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt for the Women's World Court Committee; A. Lawrence Lowell, President of Harvard; Professor Manly O. Hudson, also of Harvard; Theodore Marburg, former Ambassador to Belgium, and many another. And yet, knowing the Foreign Relations Committee, political observers are inclined to agree that if any favorable action is taken on the World Court proposal it will be conditioned on formal divorcement of the Court from the League of Nations, and perhaps even then the report will be made too late for action by the present Congress.