Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-09
LODGE QUOTES
JEFFERSON IN
REPEAL SPEECH
Says Country Should Have DE
cent Respect to the opin-
ions of Mankind"

/ Lodge, ranking Republican member
of the foreign relations committee,
addressed the Senate today in sup
port of President Wilson's Panama
canal tolls policy. He maintained Wig
orously the legal right of the United
States to exempt its shipping, foreign
as well as coastwise, from tolls, but
declared that "a due respect to the
opinions of mankind and the dis
trust and in some cases dislike with
which the United States is regarded
abroad demanded prompt repeal of
the exemption clause of the canal
act
Whether we shall insist upon giV-
ing TO our ships two or three millions
I of dollars in disputed way is, in
my conception, very small question
compared to the larger issues which
are here involved" said the senator.
when the year 1909 opened the
/ United States occupied a higher and
stronger position among the nations
/ of the earth than at any other period
in our history. Never before had we
| possessed such an influence in inter
national affairs. 1t seemed as If the
shadow of suspicion, owing to our
/ dominant anu dl liltitS
power, had darkened and chilled our
relations with the people of Latin
America, had at last been lifted.
Want to Regain Position.
This great position and this COM
manding influence have been largely
! lost / am not in the councils of the
( President of the United States, but
4 I believe that during the past year
/ the present position of the United
States in its foreign relations has
I become very apparent to him, as IL
/ has to other responsible and rejecting
men, and with this appreciation OF
! our present position has come the
earnest wish TO retract some of our
steps at least, and TO regain, so far
as possible, the high plane which we
/ formerly occupied. 1t would be an
/ obvious improperly to point out the
specific conditions of our present re-
/ lations with the various nations both
! in the old world and the new. 1t Is
| enough to note the fact that we are
regarded by other nations with dis
| trust and in some cases with dislike.
| Rightly or wrongly, they have come
| TO believe that we are not to be
/ trusted that we make our interna-
tional relations the sport of politics
| and treat them as II they were in no
I WISE inherent HUH AlllAGNiJhS Va w
| mestic legislation. This has not been
| In accord with our history or our
position. Only once have we abro-
I gated a treaty, and then actual il not
declared war existed.
Recalls Jenerson's Doctrine.
/ II suppose that at this moment in
/ the midst of the adroitly stimulated
] passions raised against the Presl-
/ dents recommendation that we
should repeal the toll exemption, it
will be thought very poor spirited
& and even trucking believe that is
the accepted word-to suggest that
| in deciding this question we should
| take into consideration the opinions
! of other nations Nevertheless,
| consider this very important ele-
ment In any decision which / may
reach, and l am encouraged to be-
| lieve that / am right in so thinking
I because l have the warrant and au-
! thority of the author of the Declara-
/ tion of Independence. When Jeffer-
son framed that great instrument he
Z declared that the impelling reason for
4 making the declaration was "a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind
1.-THE long delay in the ratification
/ by the Senate of the treaties renew
/ ing the arbitration treaties of 1903
produced a widespread feeling among
other nations that our championship
of the principle of arbitration and
our loud boasts of our devotion to
4 the cause of peace were the merest
4 hypocrisy because we seemed ready
| to abandon the cause of arbitration
when 1t looked as If our treaties
might bring us TO the arbitration Of
questions which we did not desire to
| have decided by an impartial
| tribunal. The President renewed the
arbitration treaties, and finally, after
delay, which, as ] have said,
aroused unpleasant suspicious, those
which have been sent to the Senate
have been ratified. This was the
Presidents first step, as l looked at
| it, in his effort to restore the infiu-
ence and reputation of the United
States, which he had found to be i'm
paired The second step is his recon-
mendation of the repeal of the toll
exemption clause of the canal act.
U. $. Is Not subservient.
1.-THE outcry about exhibiting sub
serviency to Great Britain or any
other country because we see fit to
repeal the tolls seems to me hardly
worthy of serious consideration. The
United States is altogether too great
and too powerful to be subservient to
any one, ana the mere TACT or Sug-
gesting it seems to me to indicate an
uneasy suspicion on the part of those
from whom II emanates not only of
the validity of their position but of
the power and greatness of their
own country, as to which l. for one.
am troubled by no doubts.
GAS / have listened to some recent
stirring declarations of our utter
fearlessness, of our readiness to face
world in arms, in defense Of toll ex-
emption, about which noble cause no
country would think of fighting,
there have been moments when /
have marveled as 1 thought of the
GOODNESS and Indifference with which
we have contemplated the murder of
more than n hundred and fifty Amer
leans not many miles from our own
border The violated rights, the un-
avenged, the almost unnoticed deaths
of those innocent people have seemed
to make heroics about canal tolls,
where there is no peril to any one,
peculiarly out of place"