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nominate and by and with the advice and consent of the Senateshall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls. . . ."Yet this constitutional provision, plain enough beyond misinterpretation,is ignored by the present executive. Agreements of all sortscovering almost every field of international arrangement are madeby the present executive and the Senate is not always even apprisedof the agreements. Mr. Wallace McClure, a member of the staff ofthe State Department, has just published a volume, InternationalExecutive Agreements in which he writes: "The President can doanything by executive agreement that he can do by treaty, providedCongress by law co-operates, and there is a very wide field ofaction in which the co-operation of Congress is not necessary;indeed where Congress possesses no Constitutional authority todissent." And Senator O'Mahoney says that we have today a fargreater number of executive agreements than we have treaties.In the same way the President has begun to ignore the constitutionalrequirement that diplomatic agents shall be appointed by himwith the advice and consent of the Senate. The President nameswhat he calls "his envoys" or "his personal representatives" tovarious countries without ever submitting their names to the Senateand escapes the necessity of even getting an appropriation to paythem by taking the funds out of the blank-check grants with whichCongress has endowed him. He has, upon an extensive scale, donethe same thing in the field of domestic appointments, naming menlike Mr. Harry Hopkins to the very highest functions in the state,even outranking in importance cabinet officers, without any provisionfor the office or any appropriation for it or any confirmationof the appointment by the Senate. To these usurpations Congresshas bent a compliant neck, shamefully suppressing its own dignity,muttering under its breath until recently when, to the great disgustof the President's drove of radio and columnar storm troopers,Congress has shown signs of recovering its constitutional selfrespect.3. The third item in the program is to take the hand of Congresscompletely off the whole subject of the structure of the government.Always Congress has determined, with the approval of thePresident, how the government shall be organized. Now it is pro-249

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