Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-01


the Presidential chair. and by the
/ eminent lawyers who have filled the
| offices of attorney general and sec
rotary of state in the last two ma
/ t onal administrations.
Shifting from the appeal to honor
he injects the cajoling tone of a per-
sonal request, confiding to US with
! intimate disclosure that he will not
! know quite what to do in certain I'M
specified matters of dellcacy and near
| consequences, unless we ungrudgingly
comply tn his request.
And finally he grounds his appeal
! upon the exigencies of his divided
party saying in effect, Let us have
! party harmony even at the expense
! of our national dignity and sover-
: eighty.
my friends, we want no party har-
mony to insure the success of pusil-
luminous, not to say traitorous party
! pol cy.
Mot content with this mass of in
consistency the administration in
vokes the numerical strength of a
! servile pie-counter majority to apply
/ the gag rule of cloture to a discus
/ sion that is not begun. Bereft of ar
guments, overwhelmed by critic SIN,
j the administration has decided to
make its last-ditch stand ~ the
/ blockhouse of Federal patronage
Every postofffce and snug little berth
! is a loophole, through which the adj
ministration surveys an angered
! country and directs its shots aga INST
| the national spirit.
/ Mind you, the question involves a
vital principle of sovereignty. On
the Presidents statement it touches
! our national honor. BY clear infer
ence it a slur upon the honor of
/ Avurn fu e h.,
men who constitute the present House
and Senate, because it involves a re-
Versal for honors sake of prior acts
! that become by necessary implication
dishonorable.
Concession of Wrong.
This program comedies that the
United States is wrong, where Eng
land has already conceded that we
hie r.gnG. one would imagine in such
q case that time was not of the es-
sence of the discussion. One would
think there would be a patient, nay,
an eager hearing for those who would
undertake to refute and repel reflec-
tions upon the nat4on's honor. One
would think that the President, be-
lieving that our policy is lin plain
contravention" of the treaty, would
not fear that his pos ton would suf-
fer by full discussion.
I'VE have heard much of the new
freedom; for my part quite enough.
Do any of you know what it means
When j think of the Illuminating
freedom of speech enjoyed by our
ambassador to England, when | re-
call the unstemmed torrent of express
sion which has issued from the lips
| of our secretary of state on every
| thing in every place, at every mo-
| ment, when one recollects the Presi-
dents campa gn speeches, and con-
trasts their blithe and nimble repu-
diation by him since his election,
am of the opinion that the new free
dom means only an unexampled and
unparalleled freedom of utterance Is
| the President not content with the
reversal of himself on the question of
| canal tolls2 Is he not content with
the reversal of h s party's position
and the reputation of Its platform
pledges on this subject? Is he bound
also in his passion for reversal to re-
verse even the new freedom and sub
stitute for it an old bondage, the
most dangerous of all servitudes, that
of free speech to gag-rule?
1--WE may soon be writing opposite
| the New Freedom the New Treason
| treason to party, trea son to platform.
treason to self. God grant that when
| this sorry chapter is ended We may
! not have to add-treas son to country.
my Bryan has said with much
! passion that a representative who Sc
cures office upon platform and then
holds the office and betrays the people
| who elected him, is q criminal worse
than the man who embezzles money
entrusted to him.
! Says Mr.. Wilson: AS a believer
in the Democratic theory of repre-
sentative government 1 desire to an
nounce Il as a settled principle, not
10 be questioned in this country, that
q platform Is binding upon every
honest man who runs upon that plat
form
There is no question upon which
the American peop.e have ever in
their history spoken with such unan-
unity, after such elaboration, so
gravely and responsibility, as they have
. spoken in favor of this feature of the
| Panama act of which the President
Is seeking the repeal.
But now we are called upon to re-
verse our position. No fresh argu-
mcnt--in fact, no argument at all is
brought forward bearing upon the
point at issue. Before we acted every
argument was stated, and every point
/ of view examined. Nothing new can
be said. President Wilson, after eX-
| cCriating the man who should disre-
! gard his party's platform invites not
only a betrayal of his Platform in
one of its most important features,
but heads the revolt against his
party's pledges and essays to lead his
| party into the outer darkness of
/ treachery to it's platform.
| I'VE have heard Cleveland denounce
his party as guilty of perfidy for
failing to carry out the promise OF
| tariff reduction contained in the party
| platform. What shall we say of
| Democratic President who himself
| organizes and heads a scuttling eX
| petition, whose aVowed purpose Is
not the mere disregard of a party
! pledge, but its express repud alton,
cOercvely brought about by the use
Of the party patronage he controls.
And not only that, but he does it in
the name OF honor, AS if honor fol-
lowed IN the wake of platform re-
pudiation He does not say that we
are wrong. but that we have hardly
the strength, the high resolve, the
courage--indeed that we can hardly
afford to persist in our declared pol
icy, even assuming 1t to be right.
He refers to matters of great delicacy
and near consequence, which he says
he win not know how to deal with
unless Congress grants its support
in ungrudgiug measure to his re-