| OCR Text |
Show 0r Government How It Operates Jy William Ihuckurl TREATY NEGOTIATIONS "plllO Wiilli'd .Slates mid Cuiimln A Imve Jn.st lately concludt'd n treaty that rciri'si'ius un iijcrecmcnt lii'tween our KDVcrtiiiii-Mt and Unit of our ticlKli hor on the north whcreliy a di'ci wu terwav will he coiiHtructcd coinu'CtliiK the d'reat Lukes and the Atlantic ocean. It Is a gigantic ciiKlni'i-rlnK project Unit Is conteniplateil ; It Inn vast potentialities for our people and their commerce, and It will stand through the years as u monument to the genius of two peoples who desire to see opportunities utilized for the good of nil. Hut behind the formal signing of that treaty which took dace In the I'epurtinent of State here In the Capital Capi-tal city lies many rainlllcat Ions nnd maneuvers. They are called "negotiations" "negoti-ations" at the end, and they represent repre-sent as well as any In history the processes through which nations must go Id reaching agreement on the terms of a contract, for a treaty, after nil, Is only a contract. Treaty negotiations, negotia-tions, however, are not unlike swapping swap-ping of horses In the old days. It Is a matter of give nnd take, and each fellow looks out for himself. It seldom takes as much time to accomplish ac-complish an understanding respecting treaty terms as has elapsed since the deep waterway proposal first was ad vanced more than llfty years ago. Commercial Interests saw the need of It long before our government could be Interested In the project The same was true among the Canadians, except that they did not regard development devel-opment of the waterway ns Important until recent years tecnuse their commerce com-merce began expanding later than ours. Yet through all of those years, two peoples were slowly but surely moving to the point where their governments could ngree ns to what was necessary In a treaty under which the channel could be constructed. There had to he a treaty, of rmirse, because the rights of each nation were Involved nnd each nation had to give up some of those rights when the contract was made. Active movements by our government, govern-ment, looking to the trenty and the waterway project to be built under Its terms, were Instituted nlmost ten yenrs ago. At that time, however, some of the statesmen at the bend of the Dominion government were not friendly to the Idea. Tbere was opposition oppo-sition as well among certain Interests In this country, for example, many of the railroads serving the northern half of the United States and drawing draw-ing traffic from the regions around nnd west of the Crent Lakes are opposed op-posed to the waterway for the very obvious reason that they fear It will take away some of their traffic. And so It goes. Opposition nnd support for the plan may be found everywhere every-where In nreas affected by It From this It Is easily deduced that a considerable amount of preliminary work had to be done to acquaint the peoples of the merit of the project. It has now been formally signed because be-cause the ruling political group In Canada believe It Is practicable nnd valuable, nnd the administration of our government has fostered the Idea throughout. But the treaty Is not yet operative. It has another stage to pass here and nnother nt Ottawa. While Its nccept-nnce nccept-nnce by the Dominion government Is little more than a formality, ratification ratifica-tion of the agreement by the sennte of the United Ptntes Is nnother matter. mat-ter. The Constitution provides for negotiation ne-gotiation of the treaty by the Tresl-dent. Tresl-dent. by and with the advice and consent con-sent of the senate. So It has to take a hurdle of some consquence before It becomes a binding agreement and one thnt Is fully operative. When the President transmits the St. Lawrence waterway trenty to the sennte for Its consideration, he will send with It a letter from the secretary secre-tary of state explaining the benefits hoped to be derived. But the senate will not be content with thnt. It will turn the treaty over to Its committee on foreign relations, nnd that group will hold hearings to which it will Invite In-vite spokesmen for the various groups Interested In Its ratification or rejection. rejec-tion. It will listen to both sides. In ndditlon, It will Invite the secretary secre-tary of state nnd the American minister minis-ter to Ottawa nnd experts who participated partici-pated in the nctual writing of the document doc-ument to come before It and tell whnt the trenty does. These men probably will testify In private, however, for It must be remembered thnt nil International Interna-tional negotiations nre cnrrled on largely In secrecy. That Is necessary because It la frequently Inadvisable I to make public the basis of horse swapping. Some people will think their government gave too much and they will complain. If a majority of the committee favor fa-vor ratificntion, they will vote to submit sub-mit It to the sennte with thnt recommendation, recom-mendation, and eventually nction Is had there, leaving then only the act of notifying the other government to be performed. In outlining the course of the waterway wa-terway treaty. I have attempted to picture the usual processes. They are much the same In all treaties, excepting except-ing those ending a war. With that kind of a trenty. It is unnecessary to deal, for the victor dictates the terms nnd the loser signs. . 1932, Western Newspaper Union. |
