Root Formula

Excitement is risky for octogenarians, and so last week in Geneva, Switzerland, august elder U.S. Statesman Elihu Root, 84, was kept in bed for two whole days by his vigilant and cheery nurse, Miss Emily Stewart. As the personal representative of President Herbert Hoover, Elder Statesman Root had just scored an exciting triumph. After wrestling with the League of Nations committee on the World Court Protocol for 14 days -with a two-hour nap at his hotel every afternoon -he has achieved acceptance of a formula under which the U.S. Senate is expected at last to ratify the protocol for U.S. adherence to the Court.

The Root Formula (TIME, March 18) is a polite rephrasing of the U.S. Senate's notorious "Reservation V," drafted to provide for U.S. adherence only on condition the Court would not, without U.S. consent, render "an advisory opinion touching any dispute or question in which the United States has or claims an interest." As finally approved by the League Committee, last week, this brusque language is softened without emasculation, thus:

"With a view to insuring that the court shall not, without the consent of the United States, entertain any request for an advisory opinion touching any dispute or question in which the United States has or claims an interest, the Secretary General of the League of Nations shall, through any channel designated for the purpose by the United States, inform the United States of any proposal before the Council or Assembly of the League for obtaining an advisory opinion from the World Court and thereupon, if desired, an exchange of views as to whether an interest of the United States is affected shall proceed with all convenient speed between the Council or Assembly and the United States. . . .

"If after the exchange of views it shall appear that no agreement can be reached and the United States is not prepared to forego its objection, the exercise of its powers of withdrawal [from the World Court] will follow without the imputation of unfriendliness or unwillingness to cooperate generally for peace and good will."

The effect of the Root Formula is thus to leave the U.S. entirely free to divorce the World Court instantly at any time after the diplomatic marriage takes place. A novelty is the provision for direct, official communication between the U.S. State Department and the Secretariat of the League -an avenue of communication which does not exist at present. The form of protocol approved last week will now be submitted to the Council of the League, to the 52 states adherent to the World Court, and to the U.S. Senate -assuming, of course, that no previous hitch occurs. Last week in Washington such irreconcilable Anti-Courters as Senator William Edgar Borah re-trumpeted their opposition, but President Hoover was expected to favor and secure ratification.

Quite refreshed after his two days in bed, Elihu Root left Geneva with Nurse Emily Stewart by limousine for Paris. They expect to sail for the U.S. on the Ile de France, famed as "The Peace Ship" The original Briand Peace Pact proposal was brought to the U.S. by Ambassador Myron Timothy Herrick on the maiden voyage of the Ile de France (TIME, July 4, 1927); and "The Peace Ship" carried Secretary of State and Mrs. Frank Billings Kellogg when he sailed to sign the Briand-Kellogg Pact Renouncing War in Paris (TIME, Aug. 27).