“Exactly.”
“Professor,” said another man, “you have spoken of the Secretary of State as if he were responsible for our foreign policy; but do you not mean that the President is responsible?”
“The Secretary is responsible to the President and the President to the people”, said the Professor; “that is to say, the Secretary is responsible potentially and the President officially. If they were to differ in opinion, why, of course, that of the President would prevail.”
“Do you not think that our Secretary of State should be elected by Congress, in some such way as the Premier and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is elected in England?”
“No, not by any means. Foreign affairs belong essentially to the executive, not the legislative branch of government. France, in my opinion, is particularly unfortunate in that its Foreign Secretary is chosen by the President and the Premier, but is responsible to the legislature. In Germany, according to the constitution, ‘the Emperor represents the Empire internationally’. He can even ‘declare war if it is defensive, make peace, enter into treaties with other nations, and appoint and receive ambassadors’. Hence, you see, as between Germany and the rest of the world, the Kaiser can almost say, ‘I am the State’; which, if the Kaiser is infallible, is a very fine thing. But to return to your question, it is not quite exact to say that in Great Britain the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is elected by and responsible to Parliament. He is not always the Premier as he is at present; besides, you must remember that with us the Cabinet is an advisory board to the executive, while in Great Britain, the Cabinet virtually is the executive. Hence, no good analogy can be drawn.”
“Do I understand, Professor, that in your opinion, our system compares favorably with the corresponding systems of other countries?”
“That is certainly my opinion. The Senate oversight—the only feature that is severely criticized—may at times be troublesome and costly, but it is a valuable check and can not be dispensed with safely. After all, the great advantage enjoyed by American diplomacy is that we are more able than any other nation to act the part of the umpire, or peacemaker. This follows not only from our geographical position, but from the fact that at the very beginning we were free to choose advanced ethical positions because we were not tied to precedents.”
As there seemed to be no further questions, the audience was dismissed.
