Evening journal., 1914-04-14
A VIOLATION OF PLEDGE, A RE-
REPUTATION OF PLATFORM, A
REVERSAL OF NATIONAL
POLICY.
From the Washington Post.

From the Washington Post.
A student Of the Constitution Of the
United States who seeks the true in
tent of its provisions invariably reads
carefully the proceedings OF the con-
vention which formed il. and seeks
to ascertain the views held by the
members of that convention.
He consults Washington, Madison,
Franklin, Hamilton, Rufus King, and
Gouverneur Morris.
He does not care what opinion Will
liam Pitts. Charles James Fox, or Ed
mund Burke had of the charter of our
liberties, and from no foreign cabi-
net or any foreign ambassador would
he seek advice on his line Of thought
or action as to its provisions.
Our Presidents from Washington TO
Taft. inclusive, have formulated our
foreign policies, and not one of those
illustrious men has failed in his pa
triotic duty TO his country.
Their able Secretaries of State have
carefully guarded the interests of the
Union and of its people and the rec
ords of their treaty-making and
diplomacy are not only testimonies of
men Of high integrity and patriotic
endeavor, but they constitute the
glorious annals of the foreign rela
tions of the United States.
The debates in the United States
Senate upon treaties with foreign
countries are open to President Will
son, and from them he could gather
the evidences of Americanism, which
have ever actuated the constitutional
two-thirds OF the Senators required
to consent to treaties proposed by our
Presidents.
Not a single President that pre-
ceded President Wilson ever favored
such a concession to any foreign
power as he now requests Congress
to recognize.
Not a single Secretary of State
from Jeffersons who served With
Washington. until the induction into
office of William Jennings Bryan
ever favored such a concession.
Never a two-thirds membership OF
any State Of the United States ever
gave reason for quotation as favoring
such a grant to any foreign power
the right to demand that tolls or tax
be placed upon our domestic COM
merce.
Not in the annals of our political or
diplomatic history can President Will
son or his supporters find warrant or
precedent for their ill-advised and, to
state it mildly, inconsiderate attempt
to surrender national rights.
In his address to the Congress on
March 3, President Wilson said
Whatever may be our own differ
ences of opinion concerning this
much-debated measure, its meaning
is not debated outside of the United
States"
Prof Woodrow Wilson was an ear
nest, thorough student of American
history for many, many years.
His works upon the affairs of our
country have been as textbooks for
fully a quarter of a century.
When he accepted the Democratic
nomination as a presidential candi-
date he cordially accepted its plat
form. and in his address at Washing
ton Park, n. j.. upon tolls exemption
demonstrated fully that he had read
American history correctly that he
had concurred in the desire Of the
people for competitive transportation
through the canal, and that he was
! AAA AAhN WIN ANNAg AHNlntMA AlA'
country has had I'm maintenance of
the rights of the republic
Learned as is the President and
familiar with history as are some of
his supporters. not one can cite a
! President or Secretary prior 10 his
administration that ever indorsed
such a surrender of American inter
ests. John Hay, who surely knew the
art of treaty making, said of the
Hay-Pauncefote treaty:
The whole theory OF the treaty
is that the canal is TO be an en-
tirely American canal. The
enormous cost of constructing II
is to be borne by the United
States alone, when constructed it
is 70 be exclusively the property
of the United States, and is to be
managed, controlled, and defend
ed by it.
President Wilson's platform wal
given to him by the Democratic vot
ers as their creed, and he declared 1
was his His, and he an established
authority on the history of the re
public. The preceding administra
tions had laid down a long and bril-
liantly successful line of foreign pol
icy, and the records and instructions
of the most eminent statesmen wer,
his 10 make use Of
Neither in platform nor in our rec
ords can he or his supporters fin,
any basis for his repeal, any founda
tion for recognition of such foreigl
claims.
II was never customary before thi
era for American Presidents to place
the interpretations of foreign pow
ers as to our treaties above and be
yond those of our own statemen or o
our own people.
Neither Washington, jefferson
Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Polk
Pierce. Lincoln. Grant. Cleveland
Mckinley. Roosevelt nor Taft ever pre-
ferred the construction of treaty.
provision by London. Paris, Berlin
St. Petersburg. or Tokyo, 70 tha
placed upon it by our own statement
by our own people.
A Fair Play Policy.