The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-19
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| Anc NeW IOrk n1au is uisSuSeSu nhu incensed because the Senate has re- fused to endorse and condone the Pres ident's altogether indefensible effort to ignore the Constitution and set himself and his Cabinet up as the sole treaty. making power in the Government. It closes a bitter editorial with these words:
 The Senate has scuttied from its duty. Its scuttling will not for mo- ment prevent the President from Keep | ing an eye on Santa Domingo. But It will tend to confirm the genera t r,,n- ,m- | ish the President for having mind or his own with regard to the railroads and trusts and other home interests which certain great Senators regard as in their special keeping.
 The Mail knows, but will not admit it. that the course of the President and lis Secretary of State was not only extra a-Constitutional. but was unconsti- tutional. The Senate simply did its duty to itself. the Government and the country in refusing to be ignored and pushed aside in a matter which was plainly a part of its constitutional powers. The attempt to make 1t ap- pear that the Senators were controlled by spleen, and wanted to punish the President for matters not relating to the San Domingo affair, Is absurd That the Senate welcomed an oppor- tunity to administer deserved and needed rebuke to the Presidents as- sumacy is not at all strange. In fact, as The New York Post expresses 1t: Nor can one mistake the distinct im- plication in the Senates action that 1t thinks the Presidents course In the whole affair has not been straightfor- ] ward. The mystery of the originf protocol has not been cleared up. The lmore 1t is explained, the more inexpli- |cable 1t appears. One cannot get over lthe early inspired statements that the tadministrations plan was to forget that there was such thing as the Sem ate or a Constitution. The belated and fantastic reasons given for signing lprotocol that was obviously a treaty lyet which just as obviously was never Intended to be laid before the Senate, have convinced nobody"
 The truth is that there was an amount of juggling and hiding in con- nection with that protocol that was lnot creditable to those engaged in 1t. The evidence seems indisputable that he wanted to do an act that he knew would not bear the light and that he lhoped to accomplish it without inter- ference. That he was called down and humiliated is true and he has none but himself to thank for it. And we agree with the severe comments of The Post, saying:
 The result gives an emphatic mega tive to President Roosevelt's idea that he was ordained to be the policeman of this hemisphere. He enunciated 1t most plainly in his letter read at the Cuban banquet last year. Therein he distinct ly theratened Interference from the United States" in any neighboring re- public that did not know how to act with decency." or to keep order and pay its obligations. San Domingo plication of this Roosevelt doctrine (artfully placed in the shadow of the mighty name of Monroe), and we now | see what a complete fiasco has fol- lowed. That entire novelty in interna- tional law, with its cavalier disregard of the sovereign rights of an independ- ent nation, must hereafter be regarded as a presidential whimsey, not at all a settled policy-or a policy which could do aught but unsettie everything. In a word, the first swing of the Big Stick has simply parked the shins of it's rash wielder.
 It is absurd and childish for the President and his friends to put up pit iful mouths and talk about humiliation and disrespect for him. If he had gone about the San Domingo business in a right and constitutional way. while he might not have succeeded in accomp- fishing all he wished, he would at least have saved himself from playing the role of a schoolboy who has been caught doing wrong and punished for It. He needs an occasional lesson and the Senate has administered 1t. Let us hope 1t will do good.
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