The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1917-03-08
PRESIDENT HAS NO
AUTHORITY TO ARM
MERCHANT SHIPS
SUCCESSFUL FILI1USTER BY
STONE, LAFoLLETTE AND
FEW OTHERS.
ARMED NEUTRALITY BILL
DEFEATED BY FILIBUSTER
Dramatic Scenes Enacted in Senate
Chamber at Closing Session Continu-
ing Throughout 26-Hour Session to
Adjournment at Noon Sunday.

ing Throughout 26-Hour Session to
Adjournment at Noon Sunday.
Washington.-Preside Wilson in
formed the country, in statement,
that he may be without power to arm
merchant ships and take other steps
to meet the German submarine me-
mace, in the absence of authority from
Congress.
An extra session of Congress, the
President says, is required to clothe
him with authority, but it is useless
to call one while the Senate works
under the present rules which permit
a small minority to keep an over
whelming majority from acting.
The President proposed, therefore,
that the special session of the Senate,
which he called to meet Monday, re-
wise the rules "to supply the means of
action and save the country from dis
| aster.'
"a little group of wilful men," says
| the President in his statement, rep
resenting no opinion but their own,
| have rendered the great Government
of the United States helpless and con-
temptible.
The Presidents statement in full
| follows:
THE termination of the last session
of the Sixty-fourth Congress by con-
stitutional limitation discloses a sit
uation unparalleled in the history of
the country, perhaps unparalleled in
the history of any modern Govern
ment. In the immediate presence Of
a crisis fraught with more subtle and
far-reaching possibilities of National
danger than any other the Govern
ment has known within the whole
history of it's international relations,
the Congress has been unable to act
either to safeguard the country or to
vindicate the elementary rights of it's
citizens.
more than 500 of the 531 mem
bers of the two houses were ready
and anxious to act; the House of
Representatives had acted by an over
whelming majority, but the Senate
was unable to act because a little
group of eleven Senators had deter
mined that it should not.
1.-The Senate has no rules by which
debate can be limited or brought to
an end. no rules by which dilatory
tactics of any kind can be prevented.
A single member can stand in the
way of action if he have but the ply
steal endurance. The result in this
case is complete paralysis alike of
of the Government.
W ~
has rendered some of the most nee
essary legislation of the session i'm
possible, at time when the need for
it was most pressing and most evil
dent. The bill, which would have per-
mitted such combinations of capital
and of organization in the export and
import trade of the country as the cir
cumstances of international competi-
ton have made imperative-a bill
which the business judgment of the
whole country approved and demand !
ed-has failed. !
Other Measures Lost.
"The opposition of one or two Sen
ators has made it impossible to in |
crease the membership of the Inter-
state Commerce Commission or to |
give IL ZIG d1C0I0U organization nee |
essary for it's efficiency. The conseS- |
walton bill, which should have releas- |
ed for immediate use the mineral re-
sources which are still locked up in |
the public lands, now that their re-
lease is more imperatively necessary
than ever, and the bill which would
have made the unused waterpower of |
the country Immediately available for /
industry have both failed, though
they have been under consideration
throughout the sessions of two Con-
crosses and have been twice passed
by the House of Representatives.
The appropriations for the Army
have failed, along with the appropria-
tons for the civil establishment of the
Government, the appropriations for
the Military Academy at West Point,
and the general deficiency bill.
"It has proved impossible to extend /
the powers of the shipping board to
meet the special needs of the new stu
alton into which our commerce has
been forced, or to increase the gold re-
serve of our national banking system
to meet the unusual circumstances of
the existing financial situation
cit would not cure the difficulty 70
call the Sixty-fifth Congress in extra
ordinary session. The paralysis of the
Senate would remain. The purpose
and the spirit of action are not lack
ing now. The Congress is more def
nitely united in thought and purpose
at this moment, I venture to say, than
1t has been within the memory of any
man now in its membership. There
fs not only the most united patriotic
purpose, but the objects members have