New-York tribune., 1919-05-17
Cheers Greet Senator's At.
tack on Covenant at
Dinner to N. Y. Repub.
lican Representatives
Wants Universal Training
Asserts Congress Should
Provide for Return of
the Rail and Wire Lines

United States Senator James W.
Wadsworth, speaking at dinner last
night at the Republican Club to the
New York Republicans in Congress,
said that, for the Senate of the United
States to accept the covenant of the
league of nations in its present form
would be equivalent to calling upon
the people Of the country to sign q
blank check.
This, and his declaration that the
covenant in its present form was un-
satisfactory, brought his audience,
composed of the leading Republicans
in the state, to their feet. cheering.
Equally vigorous applause greeted
his statement that he believed the Re
publican Congress, which meets next
Monday, would adopt a sane, progress
sive and permanent military policy,
founded on universal training, respons-
lble to the people, and not dominated
by an over-centralized government at
Washington.
He said the country must practise
economy, and that the new Congress
would establish economy in the gov
ernment at Washington.
Must Return Roads and Wires
The railroads and the telegraph and
telephone lines, he said, must be re-
turned to private ownership under
safe regulations and an end put to the
experiments which the Administration
has been indulging in during the last
three or four years, characterized by
the speaker as tending toward Social
ism.
Senator Wadsworth was introduced
by Charles D. Hilles, president of the
club, who referred to the late Colonel
Roosevelt's Characterization of Mr..
Wadsworth's services during the pc
riod Of the war, as a member of the
Senate Committee on Military Affairs,
as unsurpassed by any other member
of the upper house. In his speech,
which was frequently interrupted by
applause. Senator Wadsworth said:
'It is high time for the Republicans,
especially in this city, to discuss things
of interest to the party, and when
say party I mean the nation
Republicans Face Problems
"1n the next Congress the Republi-
cans control both houses, the House by
comfortable working majority and the
Senate by narrow margin. But no
Congress has ever been confronted
with more difficult questions than those
which the new Congress WHICH meets
next Monday will have to Yace and
solve. The Republican party will need
all the courage, ability and brains it
possesses to meet these problems and
save the nation from some of the dan
gers which are confronting it.
ut is interesting to look back on Just
how the new Congress was elected-in
the face of a personal appeal by the
Chief Executive of the nation, in the
face of war and of opposition by the
press, which was largely hypnotized
and, in many instances, terrorized.
Some Of our experiences in the last
three or four years have been very edu-
cational some of them will never be
forgotten. Many of these experiences
were experiments of distinct inclina
"If l judge the feeling of the Ameri-
can people right the Congress soon to
meet shall bring the country back to
some Of the old conceptions of govern
ment and lead it away from the path
leading to q socialistic state
"The taking over Of the railroads and
the telegraphs and the telephones by
the government has taught us a lesson
about government ownership which we
never knew before.
"If l judge the feeling of the people
right they demand that we return the
railroads to private ownership under
regulations which shall not repeat the
error of the past, errors which fire.
quently led to bankruptcy.
Need Wise Military Policy
Gone Of the things the next Con-
gress will have confronting it is the
adoption of safe, progressive and
permanent military policy. 1t is high
time that we had military policy,
for we never had one. l doubt if it
can be accomplished in the extra ses-
sion. 1t should be founded upon the
principle of universal military train
i'Ss NV WAL dClci ircu ny russian
spirit, but on the principle that it shall
be composed of an army Of citizens re-
sponsible to the sentiment Of the coun-
try as expressed through Congress, and
not through an overcentralized govern
ment at Washington"
United States Senator Calder fol-
lowed Senator Wadsworth and said
that in his opinion the next Congress
would adopt high tariff and revise
the tax laws SO as to extend the
bonded indebtedness Of the nation over
a period Of years.
At the close of his speech Senator
Calder, who had not been feeling we'll,
had to leave the room. He refused
medical attention and went to his home
IN Brooklyn accompanied by friends.