foreign trade agreement that the President has entered into hereunder.
No proclamation shall be made increasing or decreasing by more than 50
per centum any existing rate of duty or transferring any article between
the dutiable and free lists.'"[257] This act, renewed at three-year
intervals, is still in effect, and under it many trade agreements were
negotiated by former Secretary of State Hull.

The Constitutionality of Trade Agreements

In Field _v._ Clark,[258] decided in 1892 this type of legislation was
sustained against the objection that it attempted an unconstitutional
delegation "of both legislative and treaty-making powers." The Court met
the first objection with an extensive review of similar legislation from
the inauguration of government under the Constitution. The second
objection it met with the court statement that, "What has been said is
equally applicable to the objection that the third section of the act
invests the President with treaty-making power. The Court is of opinion
that the third section of the act of October 1, 1890, is not liable to
the objection that it transfers legislative and treaty-making power to
the President."[259] Although two Justices disagreed, the question has
never been revived. However, in Altman and Co. _v._ United States,[260]
decided twenty years later, a collateral question was passed upon. This
was whether an act of Congress which gave the federal circuit courts of
appeal jurisdiction of cases in which "the validity or construction of
any treaty, * * *, was drawn in question" embraced a case involving a
trade agreement which had been made under the sanction of the Tariff Act
of 1897. Said the Court: "While it may be true that this commercial
agreement, made under authority of the Tariff Act of 1897, Sec. 3, was
not a treaty possessing the dignity of one requiring ratification by the
Senate of the United States, it was an international compact, negotiated
between the representatives of two sovereign nations and made in the
name and on behalf of the contracting countries, and dealing with
important commercial relations between the two countries, and was
proclaimed by the President. If not technically a treaty requiring
ratification, nevertheless it was a compact authorized by the Congress
of the United States, negotiated and proclaimed under the authority of
its President. We think such a compact is a treaty under the Circuit
Court of Appeals Act, and, where its constr