New-York tribune., 1920-02-20
Ex-senator Pleads for Re.
turn to Government bv
the People and Restor-
ing Republican Ideals
Defends Right of
Labor to Strike
Urges New Tariff Laws.
National Budget and
Jail for Violent ssReds',

Jail for Violent ssReds"
The United States, under the
Presidency Of Woodrow Wilson, has
been IAN autocracy by consent"
Elihu Root told the Republican State
Convention at Carnegie Hall last
night. Declaring that cit is danger
Gus for people to acquire the habit
Of bowling to power without limits"
Mr.. Root pleaded for the restoration
OF representative forms of govern
ment by stripping the President Of
the dictatorship conferred upon him
in the emergency of war.
Mr.. Root delivered his address as
temporary chairman of the conven-
ton.
Mr.. Roots speech, the first i'm
portant pronouncement on national
issues by Republican leader, was re-
garded by those who heard it as the
keynote of the forthcoming national
campaign.
President Wilson's defiance of
the Senate's authority to advise upon
and consent to the treaty of peace,
Mr.. Root said, was "an assertion of
the right to continue the same auto
cratic power"
Cites Lansing Incident
"It was challenge to the right
of any officer of the government Of
the United States to exercise his
powers in any way which had not
the approval Of the Chief Executive"
he added, and cited the Lansing con-
troversy as evidence that "honest
and independent advice from officers
of the Presidents own selection is
an offense."
The Lodge reservations to the league
Of nations covenant, the speaker de-
clared, were chiefly praiseworthy be-
cause "they prevent the incredible mis-
take of Article x" He also voiced
strong approval of the reservation pro-
tecting the integrity of the Monroe
Doctrine, whose abandonment, he said.
would work "irreparable injury to the
United States and no benefit to the
rest of the world"
Il hope" Mr.. Root continued. "the
treaty will be ratified with the reser-
vations long before the Presidential
election. That will be done if the
President permits it. If that is not
done then that is what l think the Re-
publican party ought to stand for"
Mr.. Root portrayed the chaos that
has followed the establishment of
soviet government in Russia, and ex-
sense of Americans would withstand
all Bolshevik arguments
No Class Rule
"They no more will be governed by
class of laborers than they will be
governed by class of aristocrats or a
class of plutocrats or a class of SOL
diers," he said
Agitators who incite to violence
should be jailed or deported, Mr.. Root
continued, but he warned:
Let there be fair hearing, and let no
expression of mere differing opinion.
however radical or distasteful.-be pun
ished.
I'VE should not attempt to make anv
man work against his will We should
not attempt to take away the right to
strike. 1t is labor's great protection.
But we should by law limit the right
to strike at the point where 1t comes
Iii conflict with the community's higher
right of preservation"
Mr.. Root assailed the extrayapanca
of the Wilson Administration, ASSERT
ing that it had acquired the habit Of
spending public money with both hands
and does not know how to STOP"
AS retrenchment policies he urged \
rational budget, halt on needless ap-
preparations and revision of the system
Of taxation.
Tax Laws Unjust
He said that the members Of
the Sixty-fourth and Sixty fifth Con-
crosses, who framed the income tax
laws, did not conceal the fact that
they looked with suspicion and dis
like upon the great body of successful
business concerns of the United States.
and that they mean. to take away as
much or these mems money as they
possibly could"
at is time," Mr. Root pointed out.
for the Republican bystander to as
certain how far these war revenue
taxes are really paid through the coss
of living by everybody who eats and
wears clothes"
A new tariff law. he urged, should
be framed to meet the problems Great
ed by the Transformation Of the United
States into the worlds great creditor
nation. Its provisions, he said. should
be such as to prevent the ruin of Amer
can industries and to preserve Eu-
ropes export trade so that she may
pay her debts.
i