New-York tribune., 1918-05-26
: The Golden Book of Congress X

McCumber that the President can do SUBJ
stantially everything without the enact
ment of this bill. First we enacted
law and then we enacted another law, and
another and another, and created commits
sons galore, and gave him the power, you
know, to bring the dollar-a-year people
here and to clothe them with power. Too
many cooks! l think the President realizes
it now. This bill is short but plenary,
and | think it codifes the power that the
President now has Of course, the man
who is President and Democratic would
be the same if he were President and a
Republican-has got to have some regard
for his party organization and some regard
for public sentiment. ! say this bill is
plenary. Yes, and it is farreaching. Under
our Constitution, under our form of gov
ernment, in war time the President must
: have great power. Somebody SAYS, "Oh,
we'll; he will do ridiculous things" That
is what they said about Lincoln. They
called him a fool, an idiot, and q traitor.
God knows what they did not call him.
The things they said about him then make
modern newspaper abuse eeaN sll--e-S Hs<
spectacle. Laughter. "The New York
Herald" "The World" "The Times" "The
Chicago Times" "Brick" Pernerox- men on
the stump and on platforms abused him.
Well, he went along in the even tenor of
his way, keeping his head You say, "Was
he perfect?" Why, no. Is Woodrow Will
son perfect? Why no. think the Pres-
dent of the United States keeps hie ear
pretty close to the ground / am not going
to make the criticism that is made some
times of people in public life, that they
keep their SO close to the ground
that the crickets crawl in. (Laughter.1
am not saying that. l speak respectfully
of him. He is a man of great ability and
great force, but he watches public senti-
ment. We all watch public sentiment. 1t
is a government by the people, and there
fore we pay great deal of attention to
public sentiment.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Erisp).
The time of the gentleman has expired
Mr.. BAER. ask the gentleman have five
minutes more.
Mr.. WEBB. Mr. Speaker. / WELD to the
gentleman five minutes out of my time.
Mr.. CANNON. It is not often that talk,
and there are some few things want to
say. Suppose we have just little bit more
general debate.
Mr.. WEBB. yield to tbs gentleman ten
minutes. [Applause.]
Mr.. CANNON. If i can get through in
ten minutes, WILL
While, an my judgment, the President
mas 'he power TO 90 great many of the
things, II not everything, that is granted
in this bill, in our present condition am
going to vote for the bill, because I want
to put it in black and white. l said the
trouble was that we had too many cooks.
We had overlapping jurisdiction. Well, we
have found that out We are ready to
remedy it. | believe the President is ready
to remedy it, and l am perfectly willing to
enact this short bill to call the matter to
public attention. There are a great many
people who do not realize what legislation
we have given the President under the war
power, and they will be informed when we
pass this bill. The government took over
the railroads. Yes; we gave the President
that authority early. and it seemed to be
necessary to do it, ~. agree with
the gentleman from. Arkansas INF. Cara
wayl but disagree with the gentleman from