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Speaking on the subject, "America Looks Ahead," Sunday afternoon, Senator Harold B. Burton, Republican, hailed the Moscow agreements and the Connaly resolution on post-war planning, but decried the two-thirds rule for Senatorial consent to the ratification of treatics.
The U. S. Senator from Ohio opened the annual fall conference of the Greater Boston Unitarian Ministry to Students at the First Unitarian Church in Harvard Square.
Senator Burton saw in the passage of the Connally resolution, by an 85 to five majority, an indication of underlying faith in agreement. The passage of any Mill in the Senate by such a majority is most difficulty, said Burton, and that this Mill should be thus approved is promising.
Two-Thirds Rule Dangerous
But the Constitutional requirement (Article II, section 2) that two-thirds of the Senators present concur in assenting to treaties made by the president, Burton declared dangerous. Where one-third plus one of the Senators thus control foreign policy, he said, the policy of the minority may be sustained, and a premium is placed upon inactivity. Under the two-thirds rule, 33 senators, possibly representing only eight per cent of the population, may decide issued involving the entire country.
Until the two-thirds rule can be repealed by Constitutional amendment, America is obligated to make the present system work through extraordinary efforts, said Burton. In deciding on treaties that will soon be forthcoming, two votes in favour of each treaty will be needed for one vote against. The treaties must (therefore be held above partisanship and petty issues, as no votes can be wasted.
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