Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1919-04-04
LODGE VERSUS LODGE.

the course Of the joint debate with
Senator Lodge in Boston on the
League Of Nations, submitted the fol-
lowing questions to the Senator:
LAS the senior United States Sena-
tor from this State. as the leader
of our party in the Senate. we have
the right to ask you, Senator Lodge
first, whether you will OIL will not
vote for the covenant Of Paris. pro-
rided it is amended as you wish;
what amendments do you want, and
why do YOU not submit them?
Senator Lodge made no direct an
swer to any Of these questions. In
regard to the first. he expressed the
pious hope that I'VE shall have
league in proper FORM" but lin my
belief it will be done somewhre and
not in Paris, >. the only place in which
there is any possibility Of its, being
done. '.'.''' ''''
In respect tothe second and third
questions. Senator Lodge, as the au
thor Of the Round Robin, insisted
that I happen to be Senator Of the
United States. I cannot speak with
me authority Of the Senate. The SEN
ate, under the. Constitution, has the
right to advise and consent"
Then the Senator proceeded to at
tack President Wilson for the mall
ner in which the negotiations have
heen conducted, and said:
If the President: of the, United
States had done what other Presi-
dents have done. If he had laid that
before the Senate----I am only asking
something that has been done by al
most all our Presidents, who have
consulted the Senate about entering
into negotiations, about. the charac-
Ter OF the negotiations. about awards,
about pending negotiations"
Pretending that Jackson. that
Grant, that Washington, thatLincoln
lad done this. although he carefully
refrained from citing single in
stance. Senator Lodge continued:
.'If the President had laid that
draft before the Senate, as these 9TH
er Presidents have done, IL he had
said to the Senate, L submit this
draft to you for your advice, ! hope
for your approval and for such sug-
..
have had the amendments laid be-
fore him TO present to the Peace Con-
ference in Paris. The battle would
have been more than half won by the
mere submission. s,"-
lie not only did not lay II 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
rot so much against the League of
Nations as against the conduct Of
President Wilson in refusing to con-
suit the Senate in advance as to the
provisions of the constitution and
the terms Of the treaty of peace.
Whether this is valid grievance
or not we shall leave to Senator
Lodge himself to decide. A similar
question arose in the Senate in Janu-
AIRY, 1906, in regard to President
Roosevelt's action in relation to the
AlgeciraS Conference and the Santo
Domingo affair. This is what Sena-
tor Lodge, speaking on the floor of
the Senate Chamber, said on Janu-
airy cath, 1906, in regard to the re-
Spectlve powers Of the President and
the Senate in the matter of treaties
Congressional Record, page 147O):
mo one, l think, can doubt the
absolute power of the President to
initiate and carry on all negotiations;
and after a treaty has been returned
10 him with the ratification of the
Senate. to withhold it from ratifica-
ton if ne sees fit to do so. There's
no doubt that the Senate can by reso-
luton advise the President to enter
upon negotiation, or advise the
President to refrain from negotia-
ton; but those resolutions have no
binding force whatsoever, and the
action Of the Senate becomes opera
tive and actually effective only when
treaty is actually submitted to 1t.
We have no possible right to break
suddenly into the middle Of, nego-
tiation and demand from the Presi-
dent what instructions he has given
to his representative
Furthermore in the course of that
speech Senator Lodge gave his I'M
qualified approval to the remarks Of
Senator Spooner the day before, in
the course Of which that great con-
stitutional lawyer had thus defined
the Presidents powers: "a. ''....
From the foundation Of the Gov
eminent 1t has been conceded in prac-
t1ce and in theory that the Constitu
ton vests the power OF negotiations
and the various phases-and they
are multifarious--of the conduct OF
-
the President. He does not exercise
that constitutional power, nor can
he be made to do It, under the tute-.