Correspondents' Correspondence

...The American people do not need to be guided back to the Protestant ethic...

...Unfortunately, Madison withdrew his proposal without putting it to a vote...

...President Nixon articulated this view very precisely when he said last April: ". . . each of us in his way tries to leave [the Presidency] with as much respect and with as much strength in the world as he possibly can that is his responsibility And to do it the best way that he possibly can...

...Our experience during the past five years, moreover, has demonstrated that it is much harder to get out of an undeclared war than to get into one...

...Congress has been forced back to relying solely on its ability to cut off appropriations...

...War Powers Washington the fundamental premise of the Constitution with its deliberate system of checks and balances and separation of powers is that important decisions must be national decisions, shared in by the people's representatives in Congress and the President...

...We could never arrive at an agreed criteria for making such judgments, and there is no way they could be applied to Presidential wars on an ad hoc basis...

...But in the ensuing Senate-House conference no common ground could be found, since the House measure completely eliminated the Senate principle of joint control by the President and the Congress of the war making power...

...Indeed, some peculiar contradictions arise in public policy when the work ethic is put to a practical test...

...The need is for legislation that will assure Congressional involvement at the outset of all wars...

...Whatever the rationale for this negative work incentive may be, it is not the Protestant ethic...

...Under a new law that came into force last month, employes may retire at age 63 or even 60 (if they have been jobless for one year), but their pensions are increased at the rate of 0.4 per cent for each month that they continue working from age 63-67...

...they need greater opportunities for gainful employment...

...The obvious lesson for Congress is that it must devise ways to bring to bear at the outset its extensive policy powers respecting war, so that it is not left to fumble later in an after-the-fact attempt to use its clumsy, blunt and obsolescent appropriations tool...

...According to their novel interpretation, in his role as Commander-in-Chief the President has inherent powers to override all other powers conferred anywhere else in the Constitution...

...A recent study by Leonard Goodwin of the Brookings Institution effectively destroys this comfortable mythology...

...Still, one looks enviously at West Germany, which has introduced inducements for older citizens to stay on the job...

...Modern practice, culminating in the Vietnam struggle following a long history of Executive action employing the war making power, has upset the balance of the Constitution in this respect...

...In 1972 the House passed a bill seeking advance notice from the President and requiring a full report in instances involving the use of the Armed Forces in hostilities without specific prior authorization by the Congress...

...Madison proposed then that two-thirds of the Senate be authorized to make treaties of peace without the concurrence of the President...

...1972, when the Senate voted 68-16 to adopt the legislation...

...If it is not met successfully, I do not see how Congress can prevent the further erosion of its position as a coequal branch of government and of itself...

...Even more significantly, it assumes that this can best be defined and served when both the President and the Congress are required to come to an understanding as to what in fact is the national interest.jacob K. Javits The Work Myth Champaign, Ill.the Nixon Administration has proclaimed its intention to lead the nation back to its Calvinist origins...

...Hard work built America, the cliche goes, and hard work still breeds success...

...It is clear, however, that Presidents have tended to see their role as Commander-in-Chief conducting a war as the decisive power of the Presidency...

...On the contrary, he finds that the desire to work is present among the entire population, including nonwhite welfare recipients...

...It was the subject of extensive, and indeed historic, hearings before the Foreign Relations Committee in 1971...

...Thus, apparently concerned that the overall unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent might be held up as incompatible with a universal requirement to work, the Administration's spokesmen point out that the figure for married men in the age group responsible for child rearing is a satisfactory 2.2 per cent...

...This is what The War Powers Act, introduced last month by a broad-ranging bipartisan group of 58 Senators, seeks to do...

...Perhaps there is some justification for encouraging older citizens not to work in an economy that is incapable of providing jobs for everyone who wants employment...

...That bill essentially accepted the notice provisions of The War Powers Act but went no further...

...By explicitly enumerating the war powers of Congress in Article I, Section 8, the framers of the Constitution took special care to assure the Congress a concurring role in any measures that would commit the nation to war...

...The printed record of those hearings is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the vital constitutional issue that now confronts us...

...But if the United States at this time leaves Vietnam and allows a Communist takeover, the office of President of the United States will lose respect and I am not going to let that happen...

...Our constitutional system requires a confidence that the Congress will act as responsibly as any President in the national interest...

...If their income derived from work exceeds a small amount, their retirement pay is proportionately reduced or eliminated, yet they may earn unlimited amounts in the form of dividends, interest or capital gains, without any effect on Social Security benefits...

...How, for example, can eager teenagers fulfill the work commandment when there is clearly little place for them in the job market...

...This is the challenge that has to be met by the Congress...

...The contrast between word and deed is equally glaring when we consider the Social Security System, for one of its fundamental principles is to discourage people from taking employment after age 65...

...We have reached a point where proponents of the Presidency seem to be claiming that the power of the Commander-in-Chief is what he himself defines it to be in any given circumstance...

...If James Madison had pressed his point on September 7, 1787, during the debate in the Constitutional Convention, we might not be faced with our current agonizing dilemma...

...But we have seen how difficult and unsatisfactory it is to meaningfully affect military actions through this route...

...It is not clear whether Madison was speaking seriously or facetiously...

...And there is no limit on the earned income of those receiving retirement pay.Adolf Sturmthal...

...What they do not seem to realize is that this argument runs counter to the work ethic by suggesting that having a job is a privilege to be doled out to those most deserving, instead of a duty to be performed by all those capable of so doing...

...The Congress itself is today on trial in the eyes of the people, and The War Powers Act is a decisive test...

...It rejects the premise that the question of "Presidential war" can be handled by making distinctions between "good" Presidents and "bad" Presidents...

...poverty and dependence on charity result from the failure to live up to the Protestant ethic...

...It addresses a fundamental constitutional issue in a manner that fully meets the requirements of national security in the modern world...

...The sponsors of the act are also hopeful that this year it will be considered on its merits in the House of Representatives, where it has not yet received full Committee hearings or been accorded a debate and a vote on the floor...

...In view of that vote, and the number of cosponsors who have joined in reintroducing The War Powers Act, I am confident the Senate will again pass this historic measure...

...The bill received further intense scrutiny in a major Senate debate which lasted from March 29 to April 13...

...The President," he said, "would necessarily derive so much power and importance from a state of war that he might be tempted, if authorized, to impede a treaty of peace...

...Most Senators are already familiar with The War Powers Act...

...Goodwin shows that the country is not divided into two classes, one composed of hardworking, primarily white, successful people and the other made up of lazy, predominantly nonwhite, charity-seekers...

...Moreover, an old-age pension is not a charity, but a right established by the worker's past contributions from his own wages...

...The implication seems to be that unemployment is the fault of the jobless, and not of the government's economic policies...

...Those who would expand Presidential authority have for years now been busy advancing a new constitutional doctrine...