Connecticut western news., 1917-03-08
PRESIDENT CALLS
 FOR RULE CHANCE
ASSaiIs Eleven Senators Who
 Killed Ship Bill.
DOUBTS EXTRA SESSION.

Little Grcup or "'lIIul wen TaNS
 NuIlified Efforts to Protect American Ships and Lives--Points to Old Stat
 ute That Prevents Him Going Ahead on Own Initiative.
 In the strongest statement ever is
 sued by a president of the United
 States condemning congress President
 Wilson attacks. without naming them
 Senators Stone, La Toilette and their colleagues who tilibustered the armed neutrality and other administrative
 bills to death. He calls for radical change in the rules of the senate to prevent a repetition.
 The president said that with the
 country facing graver dangers in its
 international relations than it has ever known before eleven men in the senate
 had been able to prevent congress from
 acting to safeguard the country or pro-
 tect the elementary rights of its citi- Zens"
 The presidents statement says an ex-
 tra session would confront the same
 difficulties which had prevented action
 in the congress just expired.
 He said the situation was graver
 than had been supposed, because he
 had found that authority which he be- lieved he held under the constitution
 to act on his own initiative was "prac-
 tically nullified" by old and unrepealed
 statutes. His statement in full fol lows:
 The termination of the last session of the Sixty-fourth congress by constitution al limitation disclosed a situation unparal- leled in the history of the country, per haps unparalleled in the history of any modern government
 In the immediate presence of a crisis fraught with more subtle and far reaching possibilities of national danger than any other the government has known within the whole history of its international rela tions, the congress has been unable to act either to safeguard the country or to vim dicate the elementary rights of its citi-
 zens. 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 was unable to act because a little group of eleven senators had determined that 1t should not
 Many Measures Failed.
 This inability of the senate to act has rendered some of the most necessary legis- lation of the session impossible at a time when the need of it was most pressing and most evident. The bill which would have permitted such combinations of capital and of organization in the export and i'm port trade of the country as the circum- stances of international competition have made imperative-a bill which the business judgment of the whole country approved and demanded-has failed.
 The opposition of one or two senators has made it impossible to increase the membership of the Interstate Commerce Commission to give 1t the altered organi- zation necessary for it's efficiency. The conservation bill which should have leased for immediate use the mineral re sources which are still locked up in the public lands, now that their release Is more imperatively necessary than ever. and the bill which would have made the unused waterpower of the country imme- diately available for industry have both failed, though they have been under con sideration throughout the sessions of two congresses and have been twice passed by the house of representatives.
 Money For Army Held Up.
 The appropriations for the army have Tailed along with the appropriations for the civil establishment of the government. the appropriations for the Military acad- emy at West Point and the general def- ciency bill. It has, proved impossible to extend the powers of the shipping board to meet the special needs of the new situ- atons into which our commerce has been forced or to increase the gold reserve of our national banking system to meet the unusual circumstances of the existing financial situation.
 Ii would not cure the difficulty to call n. Sixty-fifth congress in extraordinary scs ion. The paralysis of the senate would emain. The purpose and the spirit of ac- lion are not lacking now. The congress is more definitely united in thought and pur- pose at this moment, l venture to say, than 1t has been within the memory of l any men now in its membership. There is not only the most united patriotic purpose. but the objects members have in view are perfectly clear and definite.
 But the senate cannot act unless It's leaders can obtain unanimous consent It's | majority Is powerless, helpless In the midst of a crisis of extraordinary peril, when only definite and decided action can make the nation safe or shield it from war itself by the aggression of others, action Is impossible.
 Creates False Impression. Although, as a matter of fact, the na- tion and the representatives of the nation stand back of the executive with unprece- l dented unanimity and spirit, the impress ] sion made abroad will, of course, be that 1t Is not so and that other governments may act as they please without fear that this government can do anything at all We cannot explain. The explanation is in- credible.
 The senate of the United States is the only legislative body In the world which cannot act when its majority is ready for action. A little group of willful men, rep- resenting no opinion but their own have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptibIe The remedy? There is but one remedy The only remedy is that the rules of the senate shall be so altered that 1t can act. 1 The country can be relied upon to draw the moral. I believe that the senate can be called on to supply the means of action and save the country from disaster. I The old law referred to by the presi- dent was adopted in congress in 1s19 and referred to the resistance of Amer ican merchantmen against the attacks