New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-27
The Presidents Requests

President Wilson the power which he asked
for yesterday, in so far as he reduced his
requests to concrete form and in so far as
it is possible to embody them in clear and
precise terms in legislation.
Omitting what is nebulous and obviously
untranslatable into legislative warrant,
Mr.. Wilson did not ask for very much. In
the main, as he admits, he has only re-
auested Congress to authorize him to DO
what he already has the right to do. He
has discretion now, under the Constitution,
to supply merchant ships with defensive
arms and with the means of using them.
Congress could have no excuse for not
approving in advance the Executives &C
ton in equipping for defence the Ameri-
can Line steamships and other American
vessels held up in our ports by Germanys
submarine blockade, except the poor eX-
cuse that it's approval was superfuous.
These vessels are entitled, under interna-
tional law, to carry defensive armament.
They would not even be obliged to ask the
government for guns were they able to
purchase guns in the open market.
Congress would be merely voting an in
dorsement of the Constitution and of In
ternational law if it sanctioned the pur-
pose of the Executive to arm our merchant
ships. 1t is the duty of the legislative
branch to support the President in any
definite measures which he desires to take
TO protect American shipping. 1t is the
duty of Congress to give him any apprO-
priation which he thinks he needs to
provide adequate government insurance
against present maritime risks. 1t should
vote him with alacrity any other credit
which he may designate as necessary to
check the hostile operations of German
submarines.
All these propositions are automatic.
They demonstrate themselves. They flow
from the necessity under our form of gov
eminent of patriotic cooperation between
the legislative and the executive, each de-
partment working within its own sphere
to defend the nations interests. There
ought not to be the slightest reluctance on
the part of Congress to grant every par
ticularized request for authority or money
made yesterday by the President.
There is one passage, however, in the
Presidents appeal for a grant of power
which Congress has a right TO consider
much too obscure. That is the passage in
which after asking for an authorization
to arm our merchant ships defensively
the President added: "And to employ any
other instrumentalities or methods that
may be necessary and adequate to protect
our ships and our people in their legitl-
mate and peaceful pursuits on the seas.
Such an authorization is vague and limit
less. The life Of this Congress expires
next Sunday at noon, and for nine months
thereafter, If Congress should be in recess,
the President would be left with vast,
unqualified and irrevocable discretion to
manage our quarrel with Germany as he
might see fit-to make war or not to make
war, to resort to makeshifts like armed
neutrality or pacific reprisal, to become the
sole dictator of our policy toward Ger
many and toward the Entente Allies, with
whom we now have a common interest in
ending German lawlessness and German
warfare against justice, humanity and
civilization.
And all that while Congress would be
debarred from carrying on that necessary
work of military preparation which alone
can guarantee our national safety and the
maintenance of the American rights which
the Kaiser has challenged
The Tribune has believed for some time
past that it would be grave blunder for
this Congress 10 grant the President any
such vague, unlimited powers as dictator
Of peace or war as would enable him to
exile Congress from Washington-if he
saw fit TO do so-for the next nine months.
The Presidents latest message more than
ever satisfies US Of the soundness of that
belief. There is an ominous suggestion
of wrist-slapping methods in certain parts
of yesterdays speech.
II am not now proposing or contem-
plating war or any steps that lead to it."
"There may be no recourse but TO armed
neutrality, which we shall know how 10
maintain and for which there is abundant
American precedent"
ARMED neutrality" as a last resort in
the yindication Of American rights The
United States employed armed neutrality
against France in 1893. Then we we're a
weak, struggling nation, pitifully lacking
in means Of self-defence. Armed neu-
trality was about all that we we're capable
Of. II represented our utmost in the way
Of an answer 10 French oppression.
But can IL be said that the United
States Of 1917 must weigh foreign insults
in the scales in which the United States
Of 1893 was compelled 10 weigh them?
We have a better opinion than that Of
kha Arnnricana Of fn-dau gro 0ir mind IL