CONGRESS MUST PASS JUDGMENT
Congress Must Pass Judgment Senators James Hamilton Lewis And James A. Reed In Debate Over The Policy Of Considering Measures Recommended By The Executive Before Passing Them DURING the debate in...
...Why is it that in every instance of his requests as to extraordinary matters there are those who arise to question the sincerity of his appeal, to dispute its practicability, to oppose its being granted, and, finally, to defeat if possible, the object he seeks to attain...
...He had some views about the ownership of public utilities, and so forth, that some other people did not have...
...He called the Congress of the United States together and made a speech in favor of war, and, with pale faces and tense nerves, the eyes of our minds looking upon the bloody scene we knew was about to be created, our ears hearing the cries of the mothers and the wives that we realized would rin~ out upon the air, our imaginations depicting the crimson stains that would be seen upon the lintels of American homes, we fol-, lowed the advice of the President and entered this horrible conflict—a conflict the end of which we cannot see, except as with the vision of loyalty we may behold that perhaps distant day when American arms shall triumph and American honor vindicated...
...He is a man of good intelligence, of splendid intentions, and of most exemplary habits, and is quite willing to make everybody else's habits as exemplary as are his own...
...The whole lesson to be learned from all of it is that we ought to quit scolding each other because we venture to have an opinion...
...If ever we abdicate our duty to make the laws, we betray the Constitution of the United States, we brand the word 'traitor* upon our foreheads and write 'scoundrel' over our history...
...Ileen No Obstruction...
...no Napoleon...
...The Secretary of War...
...Betrayal of Trust ff'T'HERE can be no worse ofTense against *¦ human liberty than for a body of men charged with the solemn responsibility of performing certain great acts for a great and sovereign people to betray the trust laid upon them and to treacherously transfer the power granted them to another...
...We had listened to H from day to day...
...He "s the last man who would claim infallibility for hnself, and no man I know of has more readily • :.-nged his mind when he thought the evidence is convincing...
...he called upon the American people to sit steady in the boat and keep their heads...
...Senator Lewis said: "Why is it that every time the President of the United States sends anything to this body at a time when we are at war, and after we have voted him the authority to conduct it, we can never admit merit in his demands...
...I do not believe there was any real filibuster at that time...
...I have not all the legislation at my tongue's end, but invite you to go back to the beginning of the war...
...Why, Mr...
...Four and a half million of them are in camps or are on their way to camps, and nearly 500,000 more have voluntarily joined the Navy of the United States...
...The only thing that was infallible about it was that it was infallibly Democratic...
...SIR, if we desire to obstruct the place w» could best do it would be in the passage of a revenue measure, because you can not pass • revenue measure in this country unless you place heavy burdens upon people and certain classes of people, and it would have been the easiest thing in the world for members of the Senat* or of the House of Representatives to have begun a debate over the terms of the revenue bill, to have raised objections, to have aroused antagonisms, and to have seriously hampered us in our preparations...
...If it be conceded that we are to consider legislation, it must also be admitted that the right to consider implies the right to make up our •pinion, and that the right to make up our opinion involves the privilege of making it up eith-»r for or against the proposed law...
...Long before that hour can come your throne will totter, your scepter will be broken, the bloody sword will fall from your palsied hand, and your own enslaved people will raise to bless the flag that bears the emblem of liberty...
...The President does not possess a single power save it be found written in the Constitution or the laws...
...The Senator spoke of "our commanders in chief" or "our superior commanders" and included the members of the Cabinet in that distinguished category...
...In round figures we appropriated $19,000,000,000 and about 15,000,000,000 more of authorization, making $24,000,000,000...
...We Democrat* had come very nearly making our last campaign upon the doctrine that we would keep out of this war regardless of conditions...
...Congress was for peace...
...I have never heard one of them discussed in committees but there were mistakes 1STATED when the Senator from Illinois had the floor that I challenged any man to show any obstruction to a real war measure since the war began...
...The man who will ever intentionally impinge upon that sovereignty of our people is a worse enemy of this country than is the Kaiser of all the Germans...
...The amendment to our rules was the direct out-growth of our experience in regard to the arming of the merchant ships...
...I know that the sons of these Republican Senators are standing in the red line of battle and touching el//m »R...
...itj SAY to you, Mr...
...A body which has lost the right to think ought at once to cease the pretense of representing the people...
...He is possessed of an office of great power, of vast responsibility, and to him, as the representative of the executive department of a mighty people, every loya man pays respect...
...ISTATED when the Senator from Illinois had the floor that I challenged any man to show ' any obstruction to a real war measure since this war began...
...Ever since time was, a part of the process of legislation has been discussion of the proposed law...
...But I do not admit the right of Mr...
...He is only Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, and Congress can, if it desires, makt the army great and powerful or it can entirely disband it...
...President, I have never read in history of such loyalty as is manifested throughout this entire land...
...Let me pass to the next step...
...If the Senate could have remained in session seven or eight days longer, I have not the slightest doubt the bill would have passed...
...there is a certain percentage of criminals born on this earth in every country and clime, just as there is a certain percentage of the deformed and of the insane...
...I opposed it because I thought it would injure my country in this war...
...we have had a grasp of the whole business of this country, as well as the problems involved in the war, while his business has been largely confined to military problems...
...The only command I acknowledge is the will of the people of my State, and the only rule of conduct I admit as supreme is the Constitution that the people adopted, which I swore before Almiehty God I would uphold and sustain...
...it is important...
...I have realized that there were disadvantages inherent in such a policy...
...and so he has today a pretty good fighting Navy...
...Two-thirds are all that is required, and a vote can be forced...
...We have had the right to call in all military authorities...
...But what was the fact...
...We have been studying the enactment of legislation...
...It is our duty to respectfully consider them...
...Any other kind is utterly useless...
...I hope they are not...
...REED...
...I have never heard an important bill debated yet but it has been improved...
...On the contrary, sir, when it came to voting the money for the army to be drafted or to passing the multitude of bills that were deemed necessary in order to carry on this great scheme of a conscript army, where was a voice raised against these measures...
...When we as the representatives of the people have passed laws, the question of their construction is not with us...
...I will never wittingly break that oath...
...I sought to aid by my opinion...
...opposed it because I thought it would injure my country in this war...
...That is the crime alleged...
...Even those who thought it unwise to longer keep out of the war were for the most part held in cheek by the desire that we should be a united people back of our President...
...I have heard great newspaper men accused of disloyalty who have given millions of their money to the country's cause...
...and errors and blunders in the bill...
...President—and I say this in all kindness, 1 say it with all respect, 1 would not be considered otherwise—there are 100 men in the House of Representatives, there are a half hundred men in the Senate, and there are 50,000 men outside of either body who could have made a good and acceptable Secretary of the Navy...
...I thank the Senator for his suggestion...
...it was my view...
...The President has not now, and as long as this is a government of free men will have, the power to pass a statute, nor will he have the power to decide what are the rights of citizens under the law...
...I have not all the legislation at my tongue's end, but invite you to go back to the beginning of the war...
...I want to put the President on an exalted pinnacle, elevated there by the great people of a great country, trying to do his best as God gives him the light, having the original gift of a great mind from his maker, but still a human being...
...To Represent People «UOW DO WE happen to sit in this cham-* * ber...
...But let us count it a filibuster—what happened...
...Mr...
...Those who blindly follow the i'3sident will be left in a very sorry position if : shall change his mind some day and they do t have notice in time to also change their r.iinds...
...Here is a matter manifestly demanding legislation by Congress...
...We recognized the fact in the supreme hour we could not stop for little things, that we could only consider the great matters...
...they are not Democrats...
...It was a beautiful illustration of the united patriotism of our people...
...President, I shall not pause to relate the story of all these measures, but we have brought in measures here, the espionage law and other laws, laws that would have made the hair stand upright upon the head of every one of us if it had not been that we proposed to make everything subsidiary to the carrying on of the war...
...He was utterly ignorant of military affairs...
...President, he has accepted the advice of the best naval men in the country...
...I do not adopt his elegant language, but I can put what he said in many beautiful and splendid sentences and speeches into a terse sentence...
...Recalls Glynn's Speech...
...I do not know whether or not he had ever visited an Army post of this country...
...No more, Mr...
...they are patriots, willing to spend their last dollar and to drain their skins dry in the cause of their country, and until you have destroyed all of their men, you can not succeed...
...that he must take .„ as it is handed to him...
...The Revenue Bill...
...and let us, above everything else, quit talking about our Republican brethren—and I am addressing myself now to the Democratic side—as though there is some difference between them and us on this great question of the war...
...THE whole lesson to be learned from all of it is that we ought to quit scolding each other because we venture to have an opinion...
...and upon the tongue of every man I have talked with there has been but one expression—the desire that the order forward to France shall soon come, that he may be permitted to do his duty...
...They are all fine gentlemen, but there is not one man in the Cabinet who had attained to a commanding position in his country before he went into the Cabinet...
...It will not, I am sure, sink to such a state...
...I was sent here to exercise a judgment, and I did so to the best of my ability...
...He was a civilian...
...He had some views about universal peace that I dp not entertain...
...I was opposed to the draft as an original proposition, I wanted first to try the volunteer system, and I ventured to express my honest judgment...
...The Executive is charged with the duty of enforcing the Constitution solemnly ordained and the laws duly enacted by the people through their representatives in Congress assembled...
...We have nearly always had civilian Secretaries of War, but just because this pacific gentleman was handed a piece of p*per one fine morning giving him the authority of Secretary of War did not transform him into a modern Mars, neither did it put into his head a single particle more of sense than there was the moment before he received that commission...
...it is not true...
...Congress Must Pass Judgment Senators James Hamilton Lewis And James A. Reed In Debate Over The Policy Of Considering Measures Recommended By The Executive Before Passing Them DURING the debate in the Senate, July 12th, on the bill taking over the telegraph and telephone lines, Senator James Hamilton Lewis, of Illinois, asked a question which brought forth from Senator James A. Reed, of Missouri, an impromptu speech which proved to be one of the best addresses delivered on the floor of Congress in many years...
...So we almost immediately voted fourteen thousand million dollars, a sum so stupenduou3 that the brain of no human being can conceive it, the imagination of no man can picture it...
...it was my .': w. "Ilow, let us see who it is that sends us these measures that we must swallow without erven stopping to look or listen...
...Nor have we been without means of knowledge...
...They have left their homes...
...Therefore we must, if possible legislate wisely...
...We had heard it alike from great Democrats and great Republicans...
...There were a few men who had been talking about war ever since the Lusitania was sunk, but the President of the United States had held up his hand...
...It had been thundered from the rostrum at every Chautauqua...
...It is vested ultimately in that tribunal of wise old judges who sit to determine and construe the law...
...he had a right to have those views...
...Now, when I do that I do not want any Senator to say that I am violating the orders of my Commander in Chief.' I have no commander in chief...
...You can not make a bouquet of the flowers of yesterday...
...President, there came a time when the President of the United States concluded that we had borne with the outrages and wrongs of Germany to "a point where forbearance was no longer a virtue...
...We promulgated a law under which every boy or every man between 21 and 31 must leave his home at whatever sacrifice...
...What he has learned about this business he has learned since...
...He is not commander in chief of the people of the United States...
...I am not one who goes about abusing the members of the Cabinet...
...It is a crimson and glorious certificate...
...If it were to undertake such an offense as that it would be subject to impeachment, and if it were not for the fact that it is almost placed above legal responsibility it would be liable to a worse penalty, if, indeed, a worse can be conceived...
...It will not, I am sure, sink to such a state...
...So there was not a filibuster in the sense we ordinarily use that term...
...He was wrong either before he changed it or he was wrong after he had changed it...
...If I get out of the Senate and enlist in the Army, the President will be my commander in Chief, and then I will go where he orders me...
...We had been taught the doctrine of peace for many years, and in the last few months we had heard nothing but peace...
...But who passes the laws...
...The voice of the people is heard when the members of the House vote at the other end of this building, and their voices are again heard when the Senators vote in this chamber...
...Mr...
...But the argument pro and con has been even, ly balanced, and the determining feature in my mind always has been whether a plan could be evolved which would perpetuate business policies and at the same time give us the benefit of a public control...
...I have heard Senators of the United States denounced for their disloyalty who, with tears in their eyes have put their arms about their first born and said, "It is your duty to enlist and follow the flag...
...Who sought to obstruct them...
...I have been guilty of that offense myself...
...That is true of every human I" ing when he changes his mind, I do not criti-e the President...
...and as I read that Constitution this government was divided into three separate and distinct branches, each having its prerogative, its duties, and its limitations...
...That discretion must be a free discretion, or it ceases to be a discretion at all...
...I have visited some of these camps...
...Senators, have we come to the point when we certify before the world that there is nothing the present President of the United States can do that we approve ? Have we reached the point that every act must be certified by us as unworthy or imperfect, whether it is a revenue bill or a railroad bill, the Overman bill, or a bill affecting the War Department in regard to a limitation of the draft and the ages of soldiers in their availability for service...
...And the convention cheered...
...President, can Congress transfer its duty to pass laws...
...I have been very strongly inclined to the opinion that that policy might well be extended to telephones and to railroads...
...These evil stories are reported from lip to lip and from tongue to tongue, until at last they reach inside the German lines, and when they get there the Germans are convinced that we have riot and bloodshed and disloyalty and that the Government is about to be overthrown...
...But the President said—if not in express terms, through his advisors—that he desired the draft, and the Congress of the United States voted for the draft...
...I am not j-:.:ng to discuss that question...
...that it might mean the creation of a vast power in the governmental officers, and hence result in perpetuating the supremacy of any party once it had gained possession of the office...
...Was I thereby disloyal to my country or an obstructor...
...I think so, if indeed that can be fairly called a filibuster, I was about to come to that very matter...
...I shall not go through the different changes of mind that the President has undergone...
...I knew these men before they went into the Cabinet...
...Occasionally there has come a bill here that has aroused more opposition than others, but it is not an accurate statement to say that everything sent here from the administration has been opposed...
...he was of undoubtedly good character...
...Not only must the discussion be free, but the formation of opinion therefrom must be free, or else the body ceases to function, I repeat it has played traitor to the Constitution, traitor to the people, and traitor to human liberty...
...They asked to have a Food Administrator appointed and I opposed it...
...But what is there about the appointment to a position as Secretary to the President that puts a man upon a mental apex where he is so high the ordinary man dare not look at him...
...When we were sent here, therefore, we were sent under this Constitution...
...there are a few criminals born every day...
...Here is one of them—a most gracious and splendid gentleman—he had been engaged in the battles of the newspaper world until he had reached probably the age of 55...
...That is all right...
...let us impugn the motives of no man...
...To be of any avail the discussion must be free, open and untrammeled...
...Secretary 1 Baker, but I decline to admit that he is "my commander in chief" in any respect...
...When these bills came before the committee, when they came to be scrutinized by the distinguished Senator from Virginia (Mr...
...and Mr...
...Now, I speak of the earth earthy, and I can therefore employ the vernacular of the ordinary man...
...Mr, President, there has been much talk about that filibuster...
...Lesson to Be Learned...
...Neither can the court turn its decisions over to the Executive, nor can it transfer its judicial authority to any tribunal, to any man, to any officer...
...Now let us come down a little lower...
...and if we have no right to have an opinion, then the Con-press should be abolished...
...We speak for them, and we are responsible to them...
...A little later the President came here and said he wanted to arm the merchant ships...
...If I could write a certificate to send to the Kaiser of Germany, I would write this: "There are 104,000,000 people in the United States...
...From that time on to within 30 days prior to our actual declaration of war the President had urged a policy •f peace upon this country...
...And upon that issue we went to the country...
...The measure did not reach the Senate until the time for adjournment under the law was almost upon us...
...I have heard the soldiers discuss their hardships with laughter on their lips...
...Let us debate questions as Senators...
...I repeat the challenge, and I am willing to let it remain as a standing challenge...
...If we fail to exercise our discretion according to the best light we have, we fail in our duty to our constituency, to the sovereign people of this country...
...When I came to criticize one of those bills in committee once I was told that a certain subordinate in the Department of Justice had drawn it, and how great a lawyer he was, although he had never tried a case, so far as I know, prior to getting into his job...
...I hold them in personal regard and esteem...
...they make light of them...
...and this is true, no matter how great the man or how exalted the tribunal to which the transfer is falsely made...
...SMOOT...
...Martin), who has always tried to guard the Treasury, when they came to be likewise scrutinized by the Republican members of that committee they did not hesitate and ask, "For what particular purpose is this money to be employed...
...President, without at this time undertaking to closely trace the legislation of recent months, I want to say this much:.I do not believe the history of the world will show that any legislative body has ever so generally and in all conceivable ways cooperated with and granted powers to an Executive as has this Congress in its dealings of the last twelve months with the great Chief Executive of this country...
...About 30 days before we actually declared war the Senate by at least ten to one was in favor of peace...
...If we fail to exercise our discretion according to the best light we have, we fail in our duty to cur constituency, to the sovereign people of this country...
...When, therefore, Mr...
...We voted thousands of millions of dollars, and we did it sometimes almost without waiting to read the bill...
...let us settle them according to our best judgment...
...Debate As Senators...
...These bills have been passed...
...If it has a duty to pass laws, then it has a discretion to exorcise— an intelligent discretion, it is to be hoped, bat whether it be intelligent or nonintelligent, it is a discretion which it must exercise...
...and it is sheer nonsense to claim anything else...
...f shall offer an amendment to this measure somewhat bearing upon the question of the control of the property, and perhaps another amendment which will have for its purpose suggesting the agency of that control...
...But the President is not the commander in chief of the Supreme Court o...
...no statesman like Jcv • son or Lincoln...
...He is not even the commander in chief of the humble court of a justice of peace...
...I am not in the military establishment of this country...
...Everybody was for peace...
...There are a few people who may be disloyal...
...I do not believe it...
...I believe if we could do what the Almighty can do—• open the heart of every man and every woman in this country—we should see there the story of a deathless love of country such as has never been engraven npon the hearts of any other people...
...He is making a good Secretary of the Navy, but Mr...
...It was his last appeal to the warring nations to lay down their arms, and we all accorded with that, Republicans and Democrats...
...He had a good practice...
...President, you will recall how the President of the United States stood in this Chamber and made his speech in which he declared that the war should be ended without any special victory...
...I do not propose to assail the motives of the men on- the other side of the Chamber merely because they do not vote "aye" on every proposition brought forward...
...View of Baker...
...Mr...
...Therefore I have always been of the opinion that in taking over public utilities an independent board or tribunal, or at least a board as nearly as possible independent of all political entanglements, should be given charge and management...
...National Democratic Committee...
...and I insist, Mr...
...As he related the incidents he asked, "Did we fight...
...I repeat the challenge, and I am willing to let it remain as a standing challenge...
...They asked to have a Food Administrator appointed and I opposed it...
...and you can count almost on the fingers of your hand the numbers of those who resisted the draft...
...over even from the Department of Justice, whicli if they had been passed would have been absolutely disgraceful...
...It is his duty to make these suggestions whenever he thinks they are necessary...
...There is no man to-day who can with certainty say which plan would have been the better...
...If this Cop-gress ever concedes that it has any other commander in chief than the sovereign people of the United States, it will go down in history as ths most infamous body that ever betrayed a republic...
...The President came here and asked us to declare war...
...The blood of our brave boys, mingling together in one common stream upon the ghastly fields of France, is a certificate of universal loyalty, a bond of national unity that will outlast the centuries...
...And in lump sum appropriations, contrary to the fixed policy of appropriations of previous Congresses...
...It is to his credit that he changes his mind, but whenever he changed his mind it was evidence that he was wrong once...
...I served with him on the ttl\/lR PRESIDENT, Senators IV1 ^ave n°t keen obstructing...
...I am not going to discuss that question...
...but there ws no genius...
...I suppose I am one of the chief offenders in one matter...
...but there is no more reason why he should accept my views as final because I was mayor of Kansas City than there is why I should accept his views because he was mayor of Cleveland, for, taken altogether, I was mayor of very much the better city...
...over their difficulties...
...Occasionally there has come a bill here that has aroused more opposition than others, but it is not an accurate statement to say that everything sent here from the administration has been opposed...
...Mr...
...there was no warrior like Ju ¦-.•> Caesar...
...That is not the question...
...they jeer and laugh (Continued on page 14) ^mrO more, Mr...
...He ran a good, decent, respectable country Democratic paper...
...bows with the sons of the Democratic Senators...
...That was the first draft—fourteen thousand million dollars...
...Look at the picture...
...For more than a century of time all parties had held that it was no part of the business of America to intervene in the quarrels of European countries...
...Then we must decide...
...REED...
...But, Mr...
...Mr...
...President, can l\l Congress transfer its duty to pass laws...
...fREMEMBER the distinguished gentleman *vho placed in nomination the President of the United States...
...WATSON...
...President, a case is presented to that court it must decide that case...
...I suppose I am one of the chief offenders in rrm matter...
...He was not a monarch among the newspaper men...
...If this Congress ever concedes that it has any other commander in chief than the sovereign people of the United States, it will go down in history as the most infamous body that ever betrayed a republic...
...That discretion must be a free discretion, or it ceases to be a discretion at all...
...PRESIDENT, without at IVl time undertakm£ to * T * closely trace the legislation of recent months, I want to say this much: I do not believe the history of the world will show that any legislative body has ever so generally and in all conceivable ways cooperated with and granted powers to an Executive as has this Congress in its dealings of the last twelve months with the great Chief Executive of this country...
...Mr...
...He is not the commander in chief of the Congress of the United States...
...We knew that the great thing was money, money, and still more money, because if we did not have money we could not have ships, and we could not have guns, and if we did not have ships and guns we could not have soldiers, and if we did not have ships and guns and soldiers we could not prosecute this war...
...But when all that is done we still must exercise our judgment...
...Immediately upon the reconvening of the Senate, the Senate overruling the precedent that had existed for 75 or 80 years, amended its rules so that there could never be another filibuster in the Senate if really a large percentage of the Members wanted to pass a measure...
...We are not here by the kindly permission of any man...
...What rot it is to speak of them as "our commanders...
...It therefore becomes our sworn duty to legislate for the good of the country...
...Daniels to do any more than come to this body and argue a question and to suggest...
...Reed Makes Reply SENATOR REED in his reply said: 'I have been for many years a believer in the policy of governmental ownership of the telegraph lines of the country...
...and he answered, "No, we negotiated...
...But sometimes a Member has ventured to debate them...
...Was No Filibuster, SO FAR as I am concerned, I do not propose at a time like this to go about playing petty politics...
...The final construction of them is not with the Executive...
...they are not Republicans...
...There is not one of them, on the other hand, who had not thoroughly demonstrated that he was a man of capacity, of intelligence, and of the highest kind of honor...
...Yet you constantly find a lot of cheap fellows trying to prove that they are loyal by denouncing everybody else...
...Is it not a fact that the last proceeding in the nature of an obstruction or filibuster in the Senate was the measure having reference to arming ships, and that was before our declaration of war...
...What he has done since he has been in the position has been to study hard, to work loyally, to give the place the very best of his time and his talent...
...There were, after all, only about 9 or 10 men in the Senate who were not willing to follow the President in that fateful step...
...He had collated every historical incident of outrage put upon Ajnerica from the time our Government was formed down to the present...
...I have never known an instance when the Senate set itself to the honest discussion of a great measure or a very small measure that something was not discovered of importance, and some benefit resulted...
...we shall give due regard to the knowledge he has...
...The act is in any case treason against the people who gave us power which we employ in defiance of their written instructions...
...President, Senators have not been obstructing...
...President, I am making these rem r ¦; to a tired Senate, because I am getting i.-ioa* tired than is the Senate of this claim that a i;i can not exercise his judgment and express h.-s opinion in regard to a bill...
...I regret that luch assertions hava been repeatedly made here today...
...There came the question how to raise an ar-my, and we were asked to overturn the traditions of the Saxon race for 500 years that an army should be raised by volunteer forces at least until that method* had failed...
...They said the money is needed, and we will trust the executive officers of the Government to honestly expend it...
...that everywhere, under all circumstances, we present ourselves as being the sole repository of all the wisdom upon the subject, and certify by our conduct no confidence in our country's superior commander...
...How much since—perhaps the Senator from Utah (Mr...
...We are here in response to the sovereign voice of the only people on this earth who afe sovereigns...
...We are the instruments by which the people make the laws of the land...
...Mr...
...We have even had the benefit of his advice...
...President, we have upon occasion read the Official Bulletin...
...It had been emblazoned in the headlines of every newspaper...
...any other court...
...It is our business to have opinions, and we ought to quit challenging the good faith of Members of this body...
...But when the majority, after a short debate determined in favor of the draft, was there .any attempt at obstruction, at throwing anything in the way...
...but there is not as great a percentage of disloyalty in the United States today, in my judgment, as there is of insanity...
...President, that because members see fit to discuss questions, and because they see fit to disagree to propositions, no man has the right to assert that they are thereby obstructing the public business...
...The Senate is one branch of the law-making body...
...President—and I say it * as earnestly as I have ever expressed any idea in my life—that the time has come to quit this sort of thing...
...I have seen bills sen...
...but about eight weeks after that the Attorney General took him by the scruff of the neck and pitched him out of the window, figuratively speaking, because of a blunder that no man ever'ought to have made...
...I may have been wrong...
...Otherwise %ve have no right to have an opinion...
...President, I must go through with the other members of the Cabinet...
...ft THINK a very great deal of Mr...
...that some Senators who must arise to assert in themselves supreme judgment over all those who have given the subject constant, dispassionate, and ceaseless consideration...
...I make no complaint if the President of the United States send a bill to Congress or sends a message saying that he desires legislation of a certain kind, because under the Constitution he has a right to make these suggestions...
...By the Constitution h« is made the Commander in Chief of th» Army...
...Who is charged with that responsibility...
...It is our business to have opinions, and we ought to quit challenging the good faith of Members of this body...
...So one by one the roses are falling...
...The people reserve the right to pass the laws and to pass them by the voices of their chosen delegates...
...It cannot turn over that case for decision to the Senate, and say to the Senate: 'You decide it.' If the Court should do that it would violate its sworn obligation and betray the country...
...If it has a duty to pass laws, then it has a discretion to exercise—an intelligent discretion, it is to be hoped, but whether it be intelligent or non-intelligent, it is a discretion which it must exercise...
...We took the judgment of the committee...
...We are reading some stories from there now that may be similarly exaggerated...
...When a problem is presented to us, are we to exercise our judgment or are we not...
...j^iFI should go to the Secretary of War, what 1 then ? A little over a year ago he was a successful practicing attorney in the city of Cleveland...
...I respect the President of the United States, not only because of his great office, but because of his great attributes as a man, and yet I know two things...
...he had a right to have those views...
...He had been mayor of a great city...
...Matter of Legislation <<f ET US apply these observations to the case " before us...
...Smoot) has the figures, for he'dea]3 in figures a good deaL Mr...
...The President does not ask that kind of'servitude, 1 am sure...
...WATSON...
...I frankly confess he has some advantage over us in regard to certain problems, but we have had some advantage over him...
Vol. 10 • August 1918 • No. 8
