The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-03-07

| There is strong temptation to--le
indignant denunciation guide the pei
which comments on the action of thu
limber-lunged twelve senator's who
"mouthing sentences as ours mouth {
BONE" defeated the bill to give thu
president specific power to defend the
lives Of American citizens and uphold
the honor of the nation. Vowing pat
riotism with passion, weeping 'fresf
tears over old griefs," these shrivelet
souls, drunk with the delights of OBJ.
struction, prevented majority o.
eight to one from doing it's duty in thi.
national emergency.
The failure of the armed neutrality
bill does not rob the president of pow.
er to act. but it takes from him the
means to enforce that power, the
money necessary to utilize the power
The failure of the bill makes pc.
tential pirates of American shippers
who, as neutrals. in defense Of their
property and their flag, meet attack
with force. Such is the law of the land
| such is the status of American sea-
men, thanks to Messrs. Stone, LaFol-
lette, Cummins, Norris, Clapp, Gronna
and their fellow filibusters-"damned
| to everlasting fame"
To tear passion to tatters in this
moment of national humiliation will
serve no good purpose. The vengeance
OF the people is certain. They will
pay. Rather let us examine what the
pitiful exhibition in the United States
senate means to the United States of
America.
Never before in the one hundred and
twenty eight years since the first con-
gress of the United States came into
being has the legislative branch failed
the nation in great emergency.
The congress-for the body itself
must be judged by results-which ex-
pired Sunday at noon reached the low
mark Of national degradation. All that
could be done to encourage Germany
to destroy American commerce, to
murder American citizens, to make a
jest Of all the guarantees Of safety to
peaceful noncombatants which have
been accumulated during the centuries,
was done. 1t matters not that the vast
majority stood for the right. The mi
croscopic minority controlled, con-
trolIed through the power vested in
them by congress itself, and that pow
er was the power of obstruction and
destruction. There will be joy in Will
helmstrasse when the news from the
greatest deliberative body in the
world" reaches Berlin.
The issue was utterly clear. By his
own solemn pledge delivered to the
assembled houses President Wilson
had said that he did not intend war.
He had stated without reservations
that if war came it would come by the
willful act and aggression OF others:
He asserted again that if the plight or
the nation ever became such that a
declaration of war appeared to be the
only recourse congress would be CALI
ed for an extraordinary session.
In the face of that twelve senators
blocked the action Of the two houses
Twelve senators, men who at other
times have claimed popular approval
because they were liberal and forward
looking, talked the measure to death.
They dared not face the question. BY
legislative trickery they lodged a con-
sideration of the perils of the nation
while they waited for the ticking OF
the clock to bring to an end the con-
gress whose history they had made
so ignoble.
Twelve senators baked the will Of
eighty of their fellows. They reduced
to futility the action Of the co-ordinA
ate house, So far as they were able
they left America, stripped, defensive
" naked, the prey of any hostile
power The exposed plot of Herr Tim
hermann for the acknowledgment OF
the United States meant nothing to
them.
They lacked even the excuses Of the
George Sylvester Vierecks, who said
at is impossible to believe thinner
mann is such a fool" That congress
should be left in no doubt concerning
Germany's intentions zimmerman