The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-24
CONGRESS- ATTITUDE ION ARMED SHIPS ISSUE
 SURPRISES LEADERS
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OOhE R1SES LEADERS
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 the House lobby talking earnestly, but
 apparently without any definite plan
 for precipitating the excitement that
 followed later in the day
 Discussion continued. and then
 Chairman Flood, Majority Leader
 Kitchin and Representative Harrison
 of Mississippi held a conference in the
 majority leaders office. Simulta-
 neously came word that a delegation
 of Missouri congressman who favored
 the resolution had called on Senator
 Stone and insisted that vote of the
 two houses be taken on it. The floor
 buzzed with rumors of an impending
 outbreak from the advocates of the
 resolution.
 CLOAK ROOMS HUM
 War claims bills under formal con-
 sideration in the House, were left in
 the hands of a few on the floor Rep
 resentative McLemore, author of the
 resolution now before the committee,
 Chairman Webb of the judiciary com mittee, and Representative Heflin of Alabama were centers of groups seek ing information. The cloakrooms fairly hummed with conversation, while members rushed on an off the floor.
 A rumor that Chairman Flood had promised MT. McLemore a hearing on his resolution and another that the resolution would be reported soon created a wave of excitement. Mem
 bers hastened to MT. Flood only to find the reports were untrue. When the conference in Mir. Kitchin's room ended, the majority leader hurried over
 to Speaker Clarl1s office to consult with the speaker.
 Return of the Missourians-Repre- sentatives Igoe, Decker, Hensiey, Rus- sell and Shackleford-from their call on Senator Stone was the signal for another stir.
 1 "I fear we are on the brink of war
 and we should avoid 1t if possible Rep 1 resentative Decker said. ''No democrat | is more willing to uphold the hands of the President than I, but thinks this is a step that should be taken without regard to his views" INFORMAL TALK ONLY It then was an hour before adjourn ment time. Administration leaders, learning some attempt would be made to bring up the subject on the floor, made every effort to avoid 1t. One democratic leader expressed the view that if the resolution could have been
 brought up today it would have passed by majority of to 1, but that two days hence 1t would fail. Without a foreign affairs committee report on the resolution. 1t could have been con sidered only by unanimous consent or special rule. But no attempt was made today to do other than obtain a committee report and the House ad- journed while informal talk still was going on.
 the foreign office committee were in ses- sion for an hour Present were Chair
 man Flood, Representatives Goodwin of Arkansas, Huddleston of Alabama, Cline of Indiana, Smith of New ork. Shackle- ford of Missouri, Ragsdale of South Car olina, and Stedman of North Carolina. The chairman was told that a strong sentiment for the resolution existed in the House and that it could not be ig- nored. He stood steadfastly against re- porting the resolution. After a lengthy argument it was decided that a canvass of the House should be taken, and the chairman of the House and Senate com
 mittees, Representative Flood and Sen ator Stone, should report that sentiment to the President tomorrow, if possible. FLOOD IS CONFIDENT Representative Flood was confident of the defeat of the resolution in the com mittee.
 Neither the McLemore resolution or any other of similar nature will be re- ported by this committee, he said. "Nor will it be possible to get such a resolu- tion on the floor except through the com mittee.''
 As he talked the telephone bell rang and as MT. Flood responded he asked everyone to retire. It was President Wilson calling.
 'The President, too, had heard re- port that we are going to report the
 McLemore resolution" he said later. q told him there wasn't a chance of us doing that"
 Some members of the committee said later that the general opinion in the meeting was that the issue of armed merchantmen was not worth going tG
 war over. They advanced the argument that if it came to such a clean cut issue
 as this between the House and the Pres
 ident the resolution was certain to pass. FEELING IN SENATE While excitement in the Senate throughout the day was not so apparent a1 it was in the House. intense feeling on the subject was reflected there, too. Sen tor Stone was frequently consulted infor- mally. Senator Gore of Oklahoma, whc recently announced his purpose of intro ducing a bill to prohibit American citi- zens from travelling on armed merchant ships, prepared his measure. which is a modification of one he introduced Janu-
 ary 5 and which has been held up ever
 since in the foreign relations committee
 His new bill would prohibit travel on
 a, med merchant vessels of belligerents
 whether armed for offense or defense whereas his original measure would ex- tend the prohibition to all beligereni
 merchant vessels. It would require
 Americans at the time of making ap-
 plication for passports to take oath that
 they would not travel or accept trans
 portation on armed vessels of any for
 eign power at war and also would pro- vide for withholding passports from ap-
 plicants refusing to take such an oath
 Violation of the oath would be made a felory, punishable by $100O to 5000 fine. exception being made. however, in case
 of shipwrecz or other distress at sea
 Incorporated in the measure is the fol