THE ROLL CALL

...Some may find an excuse for the disregard of party obligations, but as I view it, a party platform is the plighted word of men of honor declaring what their policies will be if they attain power...

...Marys Falls Canal...

...I do not believe that there is a Senator in this body who will have the temerity to deny the accuracy of that statement, that for thirty years the transcontinental railroads interposed every conceivable obstacle to the construction of a canal connecting the two oceans...

...of the coastwise vessels are under independent control, and that 8 per cent., as testified by the Commissioner of Navigation, Mr...

...Moreover, it gives encouragement to independent shipbuilders to construct vessels to engage in the canal trade and thus develop an important...

...but as only 8 per eent...

...The foreign shipper, the foreign merchant, the foreign banker, and the foreign underwriter fatten upon American commerce...

...This fact constituted a changed condition...

...Yet we are told, "right or wrong" we should submit...

...give more than $3,000,000,000 a year to the owners of foreign ships that thrive on our commerce...

...Navigation should keep pace with our commerce...

...A Blow At Our Shipping OUR COMMERCE should not be abandoned to the monopoly of foreign nations...

...The treaty imposes no restraint on the United States respecting the regulation of American shipping in its use of the canal...

...RUT it is said that our national honor is affected and that, right or wrong, we should accept the claim of Great Britain...

...They should not alarm a brave and intrepid people...

...There are here printed further extracts from Senator O'GORMAN'S argument, which we commend to the consideration of every reader of "La Follette 's...

...Since when have we become so weak that we dare not assert our national rights...

...The domestic commerce of the United States exceeds that of any other nation...

...American industry...

...Last week were published on these pages extracts from Senator O'GORMAN'S address showing that coastwise vessels do not come within the contemplation of the treaty, and that this was conceded by Great Britain...

...The powerful railroad interests of the United States and England are fighting for the repeal...

...Although Jefferson said this in 1793, was it not prophetic, and does it not describe our condition today...

...Shall Party Pledges Be Betrayed...

...Before the Panama Canal act of 1912 excluded railroad and trust-controlled vessels from the canal it was estimated that one-tenth of the entire tonnage passing through the canal would represent coastwise shipping, and that if the tolls were exacted from the coastwise ves-els they would amount approximately to $1,200,000 a year...

...It is idle to talk of national honor when we seek to meet unfounded demands by inflicting injustice and dishonor upon our own people...

...was not presented to the convention and adopted by that body until after the candidates had been selected...

...Great Britain asks for the repeal...

...But it is said that the American vessels engaged in the coastwise trade have a monopoly and need no further assistance...

...If we prove recreant to our trust the American people will render a verdict whose lesson will have a salutary influence on the public men of the future...

...It is quite true, as I have shown, that the American merchant marine is sadly in need of encouragement...

...Exempting coast craft from the payment of tolls will reduce the cost of shipping through the canal to a minimum, and thereby compel competing roads in the United States and Canada to reduce their rates to a competitive basis...

...If that be, so, by what right or authority do we resolve the doubt against our own people...

...The proper use of the Panama Canal must result in large direct and greater indirect benefit to the people of the country...

...When have we become so feeble that we can not retain advantages of our own...

...EDITOR'S NOTE...

...No railroad ever secured control of a competing water line on this continent without destroying competition...

...We surely owe at least the same good faith to the American people that we profess to feel for a foreign nation...

...It is said that we now have but fifteen ships engaged in the over-seas trade on the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans...

...An improved water transportation has operated as a regulator upon competing railroads, the public at large has been regarded as the beneficiary of the public moneys appropriated for these purposes...

...When did it repudiate a solemn covenant with the American people...

...But before the canal was built the United States acquired title to the Canal zone...

...Its economic advantages were pointed out by the nominees of the party and the thousands of public speakers who advocated their cause...

...If I would counsel the President, I would remind him that whatever we owe foreign nations we owe more to the American people...

...that if any assistance is to be offered by the government the American ships in the foreign trade should get the benefit of it...

...In 1912, 3,000 British vessels passed through the Suez Canal, and during that entire year only two ships flying the American flag passed through the canal...

...and on a freight car carrying 50 tons of freight from ocean to ocean the railroads will receive $60 more than they would if the ships went through without the payment of tolls...

...If it is a subsidy to permit American coastwise vessels to use the Panama Canal without charge, then for these many years we...

...On May 7, 1914, Senator O'GORMAN of New York (Democrat) made a strong and commanding speech in the United States Senate answering the claims of those who support the President's position...

...Must we cower before the mailed fist and give the first manifestation of national decline...

...Last year we spent more than $40,000,000 to improve ;the rivers, harbors, and canals of the Country, but no toll or charge will be imposed dn any vessel in order to secure a return on this outlay...

...In like manner the Panama Canal was to perfect the waterway system of the United States so as to unite the two oceans and connect the two coasts, thereby permitting barges to be loaded at Pittsburgh or St...

...All of our carrying trade is controlled and directed by the foreigner...

...We now hear the cry of subsidy from men, many of whom have grown gray in the defense of privilege and monopoly...

...men who have become masters in the art of political jugglery will assure you that it is a subsidy, but the American people will not be deceived by such protestation...

...Some who use the word have a loose conception of its meaning...

...I can not stop to contemplate what would have become of Democratic prospects in the last presidential campaign if the free-toll plank of the platform had been rejected or repudiated before the election...

...The State of New York has paid out more than $200,000,000 in the construction and maintenance of its canals, but it makes no charge to any vessel using them, believing that the public is fully compensated by the influence the canals exert in the regulation of railroad rates...

...To avoid the possibility of the candidates repudiating the platform, or any part of it, the platform, at the suggestion of the leader of the party, although carefully considered and unanimously approved by the committee on resolutions days before...

...Our American marine has been destroyed, and it was hoped that the Panama Canal would mean its restoration, but the influences that have swept away our shipping now are endeavoring to keep it off the sea...

...These improvements were made, and the money was paid out of the Treasury for the benefit of the American people...

...England has never applied them to herself...

...This is three times greater than the entire traffic on the Suez Canal, but not a dollar of toll was collected on this vast traffic...

...There are twelve of these canals throughout the country and during the last fiscal year more than $2,000,000 was expended in their care and operation...

...the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers were mainly for the purpose of facilitating commerce to and from the Gulf of Mexico...

...A nation worthy the respect of the world can not relinquish sovereign rights under threat from a foreign power...

...When we were colonies of Great Britain we did not yield to her demands "whether right or wrong," and I hope that we have not become so unworthy the heritage of liberty won for us by the blood and sacrifice of the patriots of the Revolution that now, after 138 years of independent existence as a nation, we are ready to yield to her unjust exactions...

...It would be just as fair to cry railroad subsidy under these circumstances as it is to charge ship subsidy...

...If these ships, backed by the power of railroads, were allowed to use the canal there would be an end to competition in transportation because, as Mr...

...When We talk of national honor we may be suspected of insincerity if we do not recognize that a violated party pledge is the rankest kind of political perfidy...

...Now, for the first time in the history of our country, it is claimed that this practice constitutes a subsidy...

...American commerce is made to pay tribute to the steamship interests of London, Hamburg, and Rotterdam...

...England and Germany control the trade of South America, which would be ours if we had a merchant marine worthy of the nation...

...We are now asked to repudiate their declaration, to ignore their rights, and to treat them with a contempt to which American citizens will never submit...

...Our government has expended more than $120,000,000 for...

...The Tehuantepecc Railroad of Mexico, controlled by a British syndicate, fears competition, and its defenders join in the chorus and shout "subsidy...

...Chamberlain, constitutes but 29 vessels fit to pass through the canal, the amount of tolls that would be paid by these vessels on the basis above mentioned would probably not exceed three or four hun- dred thousand dollars a year...

...What is a subsidy...

...Lane, now Secretary of the Interior, who were for many years members of the Interstate Commerce Commission, appeared as witnesses before the Interoceanic Canals Committee two years ago and gave it as their judgment, based on their knowledge and experience, that the only effective way to secure competition and prevent the railroads from making the canal a corporate asset was to exclude all railroad-controlled vessels...

...I should prefer to stand with the President, but I have never bolted a Democratic candidate nor a Democratic platform, and I do not intend now to take my place with the repudiators of party pledges...

...I know there is a vague suspicion that diplomatic reasons require this national abasement, but my judgment, maturely formed and based upon such information as is available, is that the gravity of our international relations has been grossly, though unconsciously, exaggerated...

...As Jefferson said: "The marketing of our productions will be at the mercy of any nation which has possessed itself exclusively of the means of carrying them, and our polities may be influenced by those who command our commerce...

...It is within the memory of the members of the committee that we pursued this course on the advice of the then leader of our part, who declared that he did not want any contest or issue between the candidates and the platform...

...Our commerce has prospered, but we have permitted our navigation to perish...

...Surely if it is a subsidy to exempt independent coastwise shipping from the payment of tolls in the Panama Canal, where the amount collected would be comparatively small, it is a more reprehensible subsidy to spend millions every year on the Soo and other canals for the benefit of a railroad-controlled shipping...

...It can aid in the revival of the American marine, and we shall be again enabled to carry the American flag on the peaceful missions of commerce to the ports of all the world, including those of our sister American Republics...

...Whence came these standards in the affairs of nations...

...It may be argued that proper competition could be secured by a reasonable regulation of rates by the Interstate Commerce Commission, but the regulation of rates can only serve to correct abuses after they develop and oppress the public, while the exclusion of railroad vessels from the canal is an absolute preventive of the abuse...

...Senator O'GOR-MAN made a second point also, that even if the treaty were to be held to apply to our coastwise shipping, there is still no violation of the terms of the treaty in the exemption of American coastwise traffic...

...While the railroads had a monopoly of the coastwise vessels it was not thought that the vast sums of money paid out of the Treasury annually for waterways constituted a subsidy, but now that the railroad vessels can not use the Panama Canal the cry is raised that the government is giving a subsidy to the independent shipowners who may use this waterway...

...He said, "I ask this of you in support of the foreign policy of the Administration" and urged that it be done "without raising the question whether we were right or wrong...

...The improvements op...

...And Senator O'GORMAN also pointed out beyond cavil that treaties do not apply to changed conditions and that therefore the Panama Canal is not burdened by the provisions of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty because conditions have materially changed...

...The Hay-Pauncefote treaty was adopted in 1901...

...When before did the Democratic Party violate party pledges...

...I repeat that one of the chief purposes of the canal was to secure free competition by water route through the canal so as to regulate and control the railway rates on the American and Canadian Railway and the Tehuantepee Railroad through Mexico, now under the control of a British syndicate whose fortunes are vitally affected by this legislation...

...Wilson said in his speech on August 15, 1912, "Railroads will not compete with themselves...

...of the vessels engaged in coastwise trade are controlled by the railroads of the country, or shipping consolidations which are operated in defiance of the anti-trust laws of the land...

...It is either that or a shifting, dishonest, unconscionable pretense whereby a confiding electorate is misled...

...In this emergency every Senator will act according to his own lights...

...Arc we to abandon the Monroe doctrine when every sentiment of the American people calls for its maintenance...

...The United States has expended more than $800,000,000 in river and harbor improvements and the building of canals, not including the Panama Canal...

...Shadows can not disturb a brave man...

...Louis or Kansas City and conveyed to San Francisco, Seattle, and other points on the Pacific coast, bringing back the products of that region for distribution to the Gulf coast and the Missis-sipi Valley...

...No nation can respect another that does not respect itself...

...We are now in the grip of a foreign steamship trust...

...It was recently reported by a committee of the House of Representatives that 92 per cent...

...but it was not rejected...

...More than 40,000,000 tons passed through the Soo Canal in 1912...

...The more expensive you make water transportation the greater latitude you extend to the railroads in the fixing of their rates...

...The American people want peace, but they fear no power on earth...

...Let us not deceive ourselves, Senators, the free-toll plank was the one dominant American note in the campaign of 19.12, and its value to the Democratic Party can not be disparaged when it is recalled that the convention of the Progressive Party adopted the same plank, that the nominee of the Republican Party had already pledged himself to the same principle, and that 14,000,000 citizens of this country by their votes have declared their adherence to this principle...

...Unusual care was taken at the Baltimore, convention to adopt a platform which could be scrupulously respected by the party and its candidates...

...It is estimated that we...

...A party platform should be regarded as a confession of faith by the party promulgating it and should be held sacred and inviolate...

...THOSE who seek to justify the betrayal of party pledges must invent an excuse or openly confess that the declaration of principles adopted at the Baltimore convention was a mere sham to be used only for the purpose of deceiving the American electorate and not for the purpose of being redeemed honestly...

...Realizing that the reasons first assigned for the repeal have made no impression upon the people, some cunning strategist has resorted to the old expedient of dragging a red herring across the trail in order to divert attention from the real question...

...It was then the expectation of both nations that the canal would be built on foreign soil...

...Now that the canal is built, the same malign influence is endeavoring to minimize its service to the public...

...Surely the most that can be claimed by the British advocate is that the question of the interpretation of the treaty is involved in doubt...

...the improvement of the Mississippi River, $23,000,000 for the improvement of the Ohio River, and $11,000,000 for the improvement of the Missouri River...

...We have spent $24,000,000 on the St...

...Every attorney of the trans-continental railroads, American and Canadian and the allied interests, is hoarse shouting "subsidy...

...It costs the government for the upkeep of the •Soo Canal, direct and indirect millions of dollars every year, but no vessel using this canal is required to pay a toll or other charge for the privilege...

...The railroad influence is persistent and we meet it at every point...

...By the act which the pending bill seeks to amend Congress not only prohibited railroad-controlled vessels from using the canal when in competition with the railroads, but conferred jurisdiction upon the Interstate Commerce Commission to compel railroads in all parts of the country to dispose of their interests in their competing water transportation lines...

...Have we no liberty of action...

...The "Subsidy" Plea BUT the opponents of the existing law, seeking an excuse for violation of party pledges, profess to discover that the exemption constitues a subsidy...

...Representations are made that the exemption violates a clause in the Hay-Pauncefote treaty with England...

...Extracts from Speech of SENATOR O'GORMAN in the Senate, May 7, 1914 FOR MORE than thirty years the transcontinental railroads of the country used their powerful influence and resorted to every device to prevent the construction of an isthmian canal...

...It was hoped by some that the exemption to the coastwise trade might be followed in the near future by a like exemption to the few American ships now engaged in the foreign trade, but deny this privilege to the coastwise vessels now and you make it forever impossible to confer it upon the ships engaged in overseas trade...

...have been, paying subsidy to the vessels which formed part of the vast railroad monopoly of the country...

...I would urge the strict observance of every international obligation founded on right and justice, but I would defy the powers of the earth before I would permit encroachments upon our rights of sovereignty...

...Have we not the same right that England had to place our interpretation on the treaty and support it by reason and precedent...

...It was approved and pressed upon the attention of the public in every section of the country...

...It was given prominence in the campaign textbook which was distributed throughout the country by the national Democratic campaign committee, and yet it was as much a subsidy in 1912 as it is now...

...Railroads dread water competition because that means cheaper railroad rates...

...This was the first time in the history of political conventions that such a course was pursued...

...Perhaps "those who claim that the exemption constitutes a subsidy will doubtless explain why they have never raised their voices against the so-called subsidy while the railroads were enjoying the benefit of the system, and why the cry of subsidy Was first heard only when a patriotic effort was made to build up an independent coastwise shipping trade freed from the domination of a grinding railroad monooly...

...We have no control of our own trade...

...Every ton of freight carried through the canal at $1.20 a ton will enable the competing railroads in the United States and Canada, as well as at Tehuantepec, to charge at least that amount as additional freight...

...The American people, not the British government, restored the Democratic Party to power and if we retain power it will be by the favor and confidence of the American people and not by the grace of Great Britain...

...Place a toll on the domestic shipping and for every dollar you collect by way of a toll you enable the railroads to make a corresponding increase in their rates...

...PRESIDENT WILSON insists that Congress repeal the provision of the Panama Canal act passed August 24, 1912, which exempts our coastwise vessels from the payment of tolls in passing through the canal...

...Is "National Honor" at Stake...

...Our foreign shipping is practically destroyed...

...Judge Prouty, and Mr...