AMERICA AND GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16946, 7 March 1917, Page 5

AMERICA AND GERMANY

SENATE MINORITY'S ACTION.

ALTERATION OF RULES PROBABLE,

Australian and N.iJ Cablo Association. WASHINGTON, March 5. Thirty-three Senators have given a pledge to amend the rules, thus preventing "filibustering." Mr Tafc and Mr Wykersham have made statements contending that President Wilson possesses power to arm ships. The Senate minority comprised six Re-, publicans and five Democrats. When the Senate meets on Monday for the inaugural ceremonies an attempt will probably be made to amend the rules. Meanwhile the matter is not being discussed, much to the disappointment of the public, who expected the President to act on his own responsibility. The New York and other newspapers vehemently condemn the filibustering in the Senate.

PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. AMERICA'S PRINCIPLES. DANGERS OF THE SITUATION. WASHINGTON, March 5. President Wilson, in his inaugural address on assuming office for. a second term, said: "The blood of all nations now fighting has made the Americans a composite cosmopolitan people, no longer. provincial, but affected, as to their minds, their industries, their commerce, and their social action by great world currents. America, however, demands nothing herself that she is unwilling to give to other nations. She has been deeply wronged upon the seas, but has refrained from wronging or injuring in return. Now 'she is compelled to .stand firm in a state of armed neutrality; but she may be drawn on by circumstances to a more active assertion of her rights. America, in peace or in war, stood for these principles : That all nations are equally interested in the world's peace and in the political stability of all free peoples; and America is equally responsible with them for their maintenance. That an essential principle of peace is the actual equality of nations in all matters concerning rights or privileges. That peace cannot rest upon the balance of armed power. Any Governments who are not drawing their powers , from the just consent of the governed ought not to be supported by the common thought or purposes or powers of the family of nations/ ' That the seas ought to be equally free and safe for the use of all ..peoples under the rules set up by common agreement and consent, and, as far as practicable, must be equally accessible to all. , That national armaments should be limited to the necessities of national order and domestic safety. That one State ought sternly to discourage anything likely to encourage revolution in other States." Referring to the prospects of war, the President said: "We may be even drawn upon by circumstances, though not by our own purpose or desire, to a more active assertion of our rights as we see them, and to a more immediate association with the great struggle itself. "Any such step, however, will be made with an unselfish purpose," he continued— *' not with any view cf conquest or national aggrandisement." NEW YORK, March 5. President Wilson's statement at the termination of the session of Congress disclosed a situation unparalleled in the history of the country. The President said :. '"In the immediate presence of a crisis fraught with subtler possibilities of national danger than a United States Government ever faced, with a Congress which has been unable to. act as a safeguard of the country or to vindicate our elementary rights, the Senate has been unable to act because 11 senators objected. The Senate has no rules by which debate can be limited, and it therefore proved impossible to extend the powers of our Shipping Board or to increase the gold reserve to meet the needs of the new situation.

"If I called an extraordinary session the Senate's paralysis would remain, as the majority is powerless. Thus, in the midst of a crisis of extraordinary peril, when only definite and decided action can make the nation safe and shield it from war brought on by the aggression of others, action is impossible. The impression that will go abroad will be that other Governments can act as they please, restrained by no fear of our Government acting.

" The explanation £eems incredible. Our Senate is the only legislatiive body in the world which cannot act, when a majority wishes. A little group of wilful men have thus rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible. A ready mode out of the impasse lies in altering the rules of the Senate so that it may be able to act. I believe that the Senate can be relied' on to do this and so save the country from disaster.

What rendered the situation graver was the discovery that, while it had been thought that the President could do very much what he asked Congress to do, certain old statutes have raised insuperable and practical obstacles, virtually nullifying his powers." in a later statement the President added to his reference to the old statutes, which now reads: " They may raise insuperable obstacles and may nullify the President's power."

THE OBSTACLE. WASHINGTON, March 5. A law of 1819 forbids American merchantmen from attacking warships of a Power note hostile to the States.

EVIDENCE OF FPJGHTFTJLNESS. PLOT TO MURDER, THE PRESIDENT. NEW YORK, March 5. At Hoboken a man named Fritz Kolb was arrested at an hotel. His room was filled with bombs and explosives. The police assert that Kolb has confessed that he was seeking to attempt President Wilson's life.