The Washington herald., 1914-04-01

|
These are the men on whom Presto
act through the upper house of Congr
garding the sacredness of platform obli-
cations, the Speaker continued:
81 have stood by that declaration evcI
since. now almost twenty-five years.
stand by it now. I will stand by 1t until
l am bereft of my senses. 1t Is the rule
of conscience and of patriotic service
No other rule will do to live by or tc
die by"
Called Doubtful Victory.
Despite his opening declaration that
there is no breach in the party. Mr.. CLARK
had this to say:
That statement is in language more
bizarre than l would use now. but the
idea expressed therein is the same idea
i entertain now and will entertain until
I am in my grave.
There has been much felicitation
among the supporters Of this bill about
their tremendous victory on the adoption
of the rule. When IL is remembered that
the majority was only twenty-eight on
the rule and that a change Of fifteen
votes would have defeated ii in a House
with IA Democratic majority. the grounds
for their self-congratulation are hard 10
discover.
when PyrThus. King of Epirus. was
walking over a battle field whereon he
had won a hard-fought victory and OBJ
served the number of dead and wounded
among his own soldiers, he mournfully
exclaimed:
Another such victory and we are
undone.'"
From this point the Speaker began
what promised to be a more or less
a disalSEinn nF the apnpnrnip nri0-
ciples involved in the controversy, but
he soon was diverted by the lions tail.
which he started in to twist with great
gusto. declaring:
II would rather see that canal blown
up than to give the English any control
Of it,
He propounded the following series OF
questions. answering them himself:
''To whom does the Panama Canal be-
long. anyway? To the United States of
America. We built IL at the enormous
cost of OO.OOO.OO0. We built it on Ameri-
can soil. We lave fortified it: we will
control it. In order to get a chance to
build it we created a republic.
For whose benefit did We build IL?
Primarily for our own, secondarily for
the worlds benefit.
why did We build it? In order to
secure cheap water freight rates and to
make it possible for us to get our feet
from one coast to another That is the
real reason, and no one can lie out Of il.
who fought the building Of the canal
for fifteen long. wearisome years? The
transcontinental railroads.
Railroads the Beneciaries.
Who would be the chief beneficiaries
of this repeal bill? The same transcon-
tinental railroads-the Canadian Pacific
and the Tehauntepec National Railway
heading the list. 1t would be many mil
lions of dollars in their capacious pock-
cts annually. To do a thing to enable
them to hold up their old rates is altru-
istic generosity run made and an out
rage on the American people. l refuse
to indorse any such program
With this Introduction. the Speaker
continued his criticism of the man who
is insisting upon this outrage on the
American people" Democrats sat silent:
Republicans eloated over the wealth of
material being furnished
"One Of the wisest things the fathers
did was to distribute the powers of gov
ernment among three departments-leGis-
lative, judicial, and executive: and they
endeavOred to so arrange things that no
one department should encroach upon
the prerogatives OF the others.
Under this system of checks and bal
ances certain duties are devolved upon
the President which he is sworn to dis
charge. and, truth to tell, President Will
son shows no reluctance in discharging
his duties and exercising his powers to
the utmost
when he was elected Governor of New
Jersey he declared that he had been
iected leader Of the people of that State
When he was elected President he de-
cllFRd hn haI
leader of the people Of the United States.
In both declarations he was correct
"Inquest" of n Party.
AZ this point Representative A. Nit
chell Palmer started lone round OF an
plause. The Speaker turned directly IN
him before finishing his sentence-''but
even leadership has its limitations Tho
House yelled in glee.
i am willing to follow where he leads
30 long as he is in the White House and
80 long as he does not ask us to repu-
Hate plain platform declaration.
Under our system a national conven-
ion is the grand inquest of a poIiticaI
'arty. the highest authority for the decla-
alton Of party principles, higher than
President or Congressional caucuses; in
Iced, higher than President and ConE-,s
'ional caucuses combined.
THE fathers also devolved upon Con-
yress certain duties which We are sworn
o discharge faithfully and well, duties
which We cannot shirk or fail to dis
harge without self-stultification and the
of the people and of our
'wn consciences.
1--WE went to the people on that plat
orm containing the free-tolls pIank.
eaded by President Wilson himself we 4
II indorsed ii; standing on 1t we ap-
ealed to the voters of the land for their
upport: and they. responding to our
MACEDONIAN cry for help. enabled us to
weep the land from sea to sea by amaz-
ng majorities in the electoral college
md now 1t is proposed that we reward
heir faith in US and their support OF
s by repudiating one Of the planks of
hat platform on which we achieved that
stounding victory, a plank SO clear that
here could be no Misunderstanding about