, 1921-06-15
THE PARTY's BROKEN PLEDGE.

1t takes a man of courage to criticise the party to
which he bears allegiance and remind it Of pledges
to the people which it has broken with no excuse, yet
William E. Borah is exactly that man.
No one will pretend to doubt that the promise was
made in the platform and from every platform from
which a Republican orator plead the csuse of his party
that among the first matters to receive c~onsidera-
ton at the hands of 2 Republican congress would be
peace with Germany. The matter has received at
tention and will no doubt become a fact but there is
no excuse for the delay. 1t should have been a reality
long ago. And when Senator Borah irdicts the party
for its negligence every Republican in the land knows
the indictment is true and is slammed Srsator Borah
says:
at is now approaching three years since the armis-
tice was signed. For nearly three years we have been,
as a matter of fact, at peace with Germany, and yet
at the end of nearly three years we are technically in
a state of war with Germany. 1t is a very large
item, indeed, in the question of getting back to nor
NAL conditions and of trade resuming its proper func-
ton and entering the channels through which it wns
formerly accustomed or won't to pass. 1t is very much
greater than the mere proposition of establishing a
technical state of peace. 1t has to do with the entire
question of the economic condition Of the United
States and of the world.
mot only fave we failed to establish a technical
state of peace, but we have done that which in my
judgment, unless we surely and speedily remedy our
course, was most unfortunate. We started to do it
and then have failed. If there was any one distinct
pledge made to the people of the United States in
the last campaign which was clear and simple in its
statement, easily comprehended, and which apparent
ly a vast majority of the people understood and in
dorsed, it was that as soon as the party asking for
power should be admitted to power it would estab-
lish a state of peace. The president in his speech Of
acceptance stated in substance that a state of peace
would be established as soon as the Republican con-
gress could pass it, and he could attach his signature
to it.
81 venture to say that there Is not a man in this
chamber or in the house who went before the people
for election who did not give them to understand that
one of the first and speediest acts of the Republican
party would be to establish a state of peace.
I'VE have an overwhelming majority in the house
and an overwhelming majority in the senate, and che
eecutive department is Republican from turret TO
foundation stone; and yet we stand before the coui-
try, we stand before the world, as unable to pass a
simple resolution establishing a state of peace. We
have not only been criticised by the opposite press,
but we are now being apologized for by our own press,
and we have become the subject and butt of ridicule
by the foreign press. The congress of the United
States is unable to formulate q proposition which re-
stores by law that which in fact exists.
eve are kept in a state of uncertainty and unrest,
and many arguments are made for expenditures for
this and for that, for t3e army and for the navy,
based upon the proposition that the world is still rest
less and in a state of war. / am not seeking to
criticise any one individual, but as the party having
control of the government we ought to pass a resolu-
ton of peace, regardless of the particular wording of
it, which will accomplish that which the people de-
sire, to establish that condition between this country
and Germany"
The Republican party has been in complete control
is not q thing in the way of establishing peace and
our late enemies. Our own people and the world de-
have aot been kept and there is no adequate excuse.