Smyrna times., 1917-03-07
WILSON BALKED By
THE F|L|BUSTER
President Says He Cannot Arm
Merchant Ships.
ADDRESS TO COUNTRY
Oenounces Filibuster OF "LittIe Group
Of WiIIfuI Men Representing
No Opinion But Their
Own.
Wilson

washington. - President Wilson
Sunday night informed the country, in
a statement, that he may be without
power to arm merchant ships and take
other steps to meet the German sub
marine menace, in the absence of au.
thority 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 small
minority to keep an overwhelming ma
jority from acting.
The President proposes, therefore,
that the special session of the Senate
which he has called to meet Monday,
revise the rules to supply the means
OF action and save the country from
disaster"
Situation Unparalleled.
The Presidents statement in full
follows:
'The termination of the last session
of the Sixty-fourth Congress by con-
stitutional limitation discloses a situa-
ton unparalleled in the history of the
country, perhaps 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 dan
| ger than any other the Government
has known within the whole history
or its international relations, the Con-
I gress has been unable to 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 Representative
had acted by an overwhelming major
| ity, but the Senate was unable to act
because a little group of eleven Sen
ators, had determined that it should
not
Government 7araIyzed.
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 sin
gle member can stand in the way of
action if he have but the physical en-
durance. The result in this case is a
complete paralysis alike of the leg
islative and of the executive branches
of the Government.
This inability of the Senate to act
has rendered some of the most neces-
sary legislation of the session impos-
slble, at time when the need for it
1 n1nCf
The bill which would have permitted
such combinations of capital and of
organization in the export and import
trade OF 1he 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 Sen
ators has made it impossible to in
crease the membership of the Inter
state Commerce Commission or to give
1t the altered organization necessary
for its efficiency. The Conservation
bill which should have released for i'm.
mediate use the mineral resources
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
unusued 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.
Action Now Impossible.
'It would not cure the difficulty to
call the sixty-f1fth Congress in extraor-
dinary session. The paralysis of the
Senate would remain. The purpose
and the spirit of action are not lacking
now. The Congress is more definitely
united in thought and purpose at this
moment, l venture to say, than It has
been within the memory of any man
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 its lead
ers can obtain unanimous consent. Its
majority is powerless, helpless. In
the midst Of crisis of extraordinary
peril. when Only definite and decided
action can make the nation safe or
shield 1t from war itself by the aggres-
sion OF others, action is impossible.
But One Remedy.
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 liftIo c,n,,n oR