The Washington times., 1917-06-16
The President and the Senate

The President and the Senate
With all due Difference to the views
Of grave and reverend Senators who
are alarmed at the idea of granting
extraordinary powers to the Presi-
dent of the United States, for the
conduct of the war, the country is
far less concerned with that aspect
of the case than with the inter
minable delay in the Senate concern
ing the most pressing matters. The
Fathers were never wiser in framing
the Constitution than when they de-
vised a one-man power for waging
war. Congress has declared war. 1t
should still hold the purse strings,
providing revenue and making ap-
preparations. 1t should pass the
legislation necessary, the opinion Of
its necessity being with the major
ity. But above all, it should pro-
coed to ascertain that opinion by
coming to vote as speedily as pos
sible. Fiddling while Rome burned
was the crime of an executive of
past history. But talking while
Germany fights by land and sea, in
the air and below the water, by
force of arms and by intriguing
plots, is the legislative crime of the
present Of which those deemed guilty
will never live long enough to atone.
Senator Lodge as an historian was
not quite candid in quoting from an
ante-bellum speech made by Abra-
ham Lincoln, before his Inaugural
ton. 1t was not what Lincoln said
then but what he did while the war
was in progress that concerns US
now. What he did was to assume
the existence Of the very powers for
which the President is asking by
Legislative grant at the hands of Con-
gress. Lincoln did not ask for a
censorship, but he suppressed news
papers and threw editors into Jail.
He suspended the writ of habeas
corpus and instructed military COM
manders to disregard contrary or
ders even from the Supreme Court.
And he won the war, often in despite
Of the meddling of Congress. Congress
attempted to wage the war of 1912
and the experiment was a costly one
to the prestige of the United States.
In the debate yesterday, the coun-
try will agree with Shafroth and
Husting and Cummings and Nelson
and Newlands rather than with
Lodge and Reed and Eoke Smith.
The country understai that there
must be some author u over trans
portation that shall direct what
products shall have priority of ship
ment, if we are not to leave all such
matters in inextricable confusion.
The idea that the President or any
board appointed by the President
would use that power to bankrupt
one manufacturer and to make
money for his rival is unthinkable.
1t is not the Presidents fault if SEN
ators seem less willing to trust him
than the people are. 1t is somewhat
ominous that a week or more should
have been wasted in debate over this |
one clause of the bill now before the |
Senate. 1t is equally ominous that
Senator Chamberlain and not Sena-
tor Gore, chairman of the Committee |
on Agriculture, had to introduce the
Lever food control bill in the Senate. |
The country will respect the deci-
sion of the majority Of Congress
even in opposition to the request of
the President. 1t is tolerating with
less and less patience the delay in
getting at the opinion of the majority.
Fewer speeches and more roll calls
are the need of the hour.
The country is taking up the cry
heard sometimes on the floor of the
Senate itself. when patience has been
exhausted and is saying, Vote. VoteI