CONGRESS WILL HEED AN ADVISORY VOTE

...We have today peace societies, and their motives are grand and worthy, but we shall have permanent peace on this earth only when that time comes that the great, broad equation of humanity, composing the nations of the earth, shall declare whether there shall be peace or war, and when that broad equation includes not only those who must bear their breasts to the battle storms on the battlefield, but shall include the womanhood of the nations who must bear their share of the burden and the sacrifice of war...

...President, if today there was an occasion where we were called upon to say whether as a body we would vote for war, there is not a Member of this body but would take into account the thought of the sacrifice that the people must bear and the thought of the attitude of the American people toward the proposed declaration of war...

...Instead of leaving that to the uncertain medium that today might be employed to communicate to Congress the sentiment and the purposes of the people, this bill, in an orderly way, seeks to provide that the people of this country may be heard, if Congress in its wisdom, in view of the exigencies of probable war, felt that it was wise to await that decision...

...Congress Will Heed an Advisory Vote By Senator MOSES E. CLAPP From a Speech in the United States Senate on the La Follette Bill For a Popu lar Ballot on the Question of Declaring War OF ALL THE LESSONS taught by this terrible maelstrom of war today there is none, to my mind, so important as the thought that there must come a time when no twelve men can say whether or not we shall have war or peace upon any continent of this earth...

...If this nation should be threatened by war, if as a matter of defense, it was unwise to await the action of a submission to the people of the question, no one would doubt but that Congress would promptly and efficiently respond to the demand for defense and to repel invasion...

...It is only advisory, after all...

...taking nothing, then, from the power of Congress for providing an orderly way of getting that sentiment, that today we all understand must come in an uncertain way, come with no certainty as conveying the real purpose of a people behind the expression...

...It would seem as though a measure of this kind might well be incorporated into the laws of this country not with reference to existing conditions, but it should long ago have been a part of the law of this country...

...but it does contemplate that in this matter of declaring war, when time shall permit of the submission of the question, that the great rank and file of this Republic shall be heard in some effective manner, so far as affecting the presentation of their sentiments upon that question...

...President, this proposed measure takes from Congress no power whatever...

...and yet, Mr...