Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-21
LODGE'SLOGIC
UPSETS LODGE
Speech in 1906 on Alge-
ciras Affair Reverse of
Present Views
WARNED THE SENATE
TolV Colleagues They Had No
Right to Interfere With
President
WARNED THE SENATE
New York. March 21,-The World
today prints the following editorial:
J0Dcr yEpcIrC T0nrE

Now bOfk, MdTCn Gl'-ln6 WOfIu
today prints the following editorial:
LODGE VERSUS LODGE
President Lowell OF Harvard, in the
course Of the joint debate with Senator
Lodge in Boston on the league of ma
tions, submitted the following questions
to the Senator:
"As the senior United States Senator
from this state, as the leader of our
party in the Senate, we have the right
to ask you, Senator Lodge-frst. wheth-
er you will or will not vote for the
covenant OF Paris, provided it is amend
ed as you wish; what amendments do
you want, and why do you not submit
them?
Senator Lodge made no direct answer
to any OF these questions. In regard to
the first, he expressed the pious hope
that I'VE shall have a league in proper
FORM" but 'in my belief it will be done
somewhere and not in Paris" the only
place in which there Is any possibility
of its being done.
In respect to the second and third
questions, Senator Lodge, as the author
of the Round Robin, insisted that 'I
4 happen TO be a Senator of the United
states. ] cannot speak with the author
ity of the Senate. The Senate, under
Z the constitution, has the right to ad-
wise and consent"
Then the Senator proceeded to attack
President Wilson for the manner in
which the negotiations have been con-
Quoted, and said:
IF the President Of the United States
had done what other Presidents have
done, il he had laid that before the
Senate am only asking something
that has been done by almost all our
Presidents, who have consulted the Sen
ate about entering into negotiations,
about the character of the negotiations,
about awards, about pending negotia-
tions.''
Pretending that jackson. that Grant,
that Washington that Lincoln had done
this. although he carefully refrained
from citing single instance, Senator
Lodge continued
n the President had laid that draft
before the Senate, as these other Presi-
dents have done, if he had said to the
senate, L submit this draft to you for
you advice. ] hope sor your approval
and for such suggestions as you may
have to make he would have had the
amendment laid before him 10 present
to the Peace Conference in Paris. The
battle would have been more than half
He not only did not lay it before us.
before the constitutional body which
is entitled to advise him. but he does not
call the Senate together now to advise
him."
Senator Lodges grievance, then, is
not so. much against the league of
nations as against the conduct of Presi-
dent Wilson in refusing to consult the
Senate in advance as to the provisions
u 1I tta' 49,
treaty Of peace.
Whether that is valid grievance o,
not We shall leave to Senator Lodge him
self to decide. similar question arose
In the Senate in January. 1906. in re-
gard to President RooseVeIt's action in
relation to the Algecinos conference on
the Santo Dominingo affair. This is what
Senator Lodge, speaking on the action Of
the Senator chamber, said on January
"a, 1906. in regard to the respective
powers of the President and the Senate
IN the matter of treaties Congressional
Record page 147O):
"No' one. think. can doubt the alb
solute power Of the President to initiate
and carry on all negotiations and after
n treaty has been returned to him with
the ratification of the Senate, to with
mold IT from ratification If he sees fit so
to do. There is no doubt that the Senate
con by resolution advise the President
TO enter upon a negotiation, or advise the
President to refrain from negotiation
but those resolutions have no binding
force whatsoever, and the action of the
Senate becomes operative and actually
effective only when a treaty Is actually
submitted to 1t. We have no possible
right to break suddenly into the middle
of a negotiation and demand from the
President what instructions he has given
to his representatives
ga Furthermore, in the course of that
speech Senator Lodge gave his un-
qualified approval to the remarks of
Senator Spooner the day before, in the
course Of which that great constitutional
2 lawyer had thus defined the Presidents
powers.
From the foundation of the govern-
ment 1t has been conceded in practice
and In theory that the constitution vests
= the power of negotiation ad the various
pboSss--and they are multfarous-of
the conduct of our foreign relations ex-
clusively in the President. He does not
exercise that constitutional power, nor
can he be made to do it, under the
tutelage or guardianship of the Senate
or of the House. or of the Senate and
House combined. = ''S
when he shall have negotiated and
sent his proposed treaty to the Senate
the jurisdiction of that body attaches
and it's powers begin. 1t may advise
and consent or 1t may refuse. And in
the exercise of this function it is as in
dependent of the executive as he Is in
Z dependent of 1t in tn matter of nego-
tiation."
And Henry Cabot Lodge, in un-
qualifledly indorsing Senator Spooner's
speech. said: II quite realize that after
the manner In which he has dealt with
those questions. anything that I may
say is in great danger of being an anti
climax" ..
Judging Senator Lodge from his
speech in Boston Wednesday night and
from his speech in the Senate January
"a, 1906, what are we to assume? That
there is one constitution for Republican
Presidents and quite a different con-
stitution for Democratic Presidents?
That Republican Presidents have COM
plete constitutional power to originate
and negotiate treaties independently of
the Senate, but that Democratic Presi-
dents must first consult the Senate and
ask permission to negotiate?
We are reluctant TO think that Senator
Lodge is playing partisan politics with
this grave isue of the league Of nations
that he is more concerned about dis
crediting President Wilson than he is
about helping to guarantee the peace
OF the world and prevent a repetition of
this terrible war. But what conclusion
are we to form from his speech OF jan
uary ~. 1905, and his speech OF March