New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-05
Armed Neutrality Bill Defeated by Filbuster and
Congress Having Adjourned, He Issues a Bitter
Statement Doubling His Own Constitutional
Power to Arm Ships
Old Statute Seems to Forbid Him to Do So
Useless the President Adds Session Unless the Upper
House Beforehand Will Undertake to Amend Its Rules 30
That Minority Cannot Ever Again Thwart the
Will of an Overwhelming Majority
Washington, March !

Washington, March !.
President Wilson tonight informed the country in a
statement that he is without power to arm merchant
ships and take other steps to meet the German sup
marine menace in the absence of authority from Con-
gress
The statement followed the final adjournment Oh
Congress, which failed to enact the bill granting him
that power and much other legislation for the defence
of the nation owing to ibuster by twelve Senators
An extra session of Congress- the President says is
required to cothe him with authority but 1t is useless
To call one while the Senate works under the present
rules. which permit small minority to keep over
whelming majority from acting
The President proposes therefore that the special ses
sion of the Senate which he has called to meet to-mor
row revise the rules o supply the means of action and
save the country from disaster"
"A little group of wiful men," says the President
in his statement, representing opinion but their
own have rendered the great government of the United
States helpless and contemptible'
When he issued his statement the President author
lied the further explanation that what rendered the
situation even grave than 1t had been supposed
that it was was the discovery that while the President
under his general constitutional powers could do much
of what he had asked the Congress to him to
do it had been found that there certain old statutes
as vet unrepeaed which may raise lnsuperaole prac-
teal obstacles and may nullify his power
The old law referred to by the President was adopt
Oh nv Congress in 1919 and referred to the resistance
Of American merchantmen against the attacks of pr-
,,a+oers and pirates but excluded from vessels which
might be so attacked "a public armed vessel OF ma
ton in amity with the United States lecnnicaiiy,
Germany is not at with the United STATES ana
submarines are public armed vessels of Germany
The Presidents Statement
The Presidents statement in full follows
The termination of the last session OF the o4tn
Congress by constitutional limitation discloses
situation unparalleled in the history of the country
perhaps unparalleled in the history Of any modern
Government In the immediate presence OF Crisis
fraught with more subtle and farreaching posi-
blities of national danger than any other the gov
ernment has known within the whole history OF lts
international relations the Congress has been un-
able 70 act either to safeguard the country or to
vindicate the elementary rights of Its citizens.
More than 500 of the 531 members of the two
houses were ready and anxious to act; the House
Of Representatives had acted, by an overwhelming
majority: but the Senate unable to act because
little group OF eleven Senators had deter
mined that it should not.
The Senate has no rules by which debate can be
limited or brought TO an end no rules by wnlcn
dilatorv tactics of any kind can be prevented
single member can stand in the way of action If he
have but the physical endurance. The result IN
this case is a complete paralysis alike of the egls-
Iative and of the executive branches Of the gov
ernment.
Necessary Legislation Killed
This inability of the Senate to act has rendered
some of the most necessary legislation Of the ses-
sion impossible at time when the need for it was
most pressing and most evident The bill which
would have permitted such combinations of capital
and of organization in the export and import trade
of the country as the circumstances of interna-
tonal competition have made imperative-a bill
which the business judgment of the whole country
approved and demanded-has failed.
The onposition of one or two Senator'S has made
4 impossible TO increase the membership of the
Interstate Commerce Commission or to give it the
altered organization necessary for its efficiency.
The conservation BILL which should have released
for immediate use the mineral resources which are
still locked I'D in the public lands, now that their
release is more imperatively necessary than ever,
and the bill which would have made the unused
water power Of the country Immediately available
for industry, have both failed though they have
been under consideration throughout the sessions
of two Congresses and have been twice passed by
the House of Representatives..
The appropriations for the army have failed.
along with the appropriations for the civil estab-
lishment of the government, the appropriations for
the Military Academy at West Point and the gen