CABLEGRAMS

Levin Daily Chronicle, 6 March 1917, Page 3

CABLEGRAMS

1 Australia-New Zealand Cable Service) EXTRAORDINARY POLITICAL IMPASSE IN UNITED STATES. New York, March 5. President Wilson's statement at tho termination of \the session of Congress disclosed a situation (Uiiparalelled in the history of the country. He said that in the immediate presence of a crisis fraught with subtler possibilities of national danger than any other Government ever hiad been faced with, Congress had been unable to act a 6 a safeguard for the country or to vindicate elementary right; the Senate was unable to act because eleven Senators objected—a Senate mk nority comprised of six Republicans and five Democrats. The Senate had ,no rules whereby a debate could bo iimited; it therefore had proved to be impossible to extend the powers of the IShipp'ing Board or to increase the gold reserve to meet the needs of the new situation. If the President called an extraordinary session, tho Senate's paralysis would remaliu, as the majority was powerless. Thus in the midst of a crisis of extraordinary peril, when 011 Ly definite and decided action could make the nation safe and shield it from war by the aggression of others, that action was impossible, and the impression abroad would be that other Governments could act as they pleased and have 110 fear of the United States' Government acting. The explanation -seemed incredible. The U.S.A. Senate was_the only legislative body fin the world .which could not act when the majority wished; a little group of wilful men thus rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible. The remedy lay in altering the rules of the Senate 60 as to make it able to act. He believed the Senate could 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 the President could do much of what he had asked Congress to do, certain old statutes might raise insuperable obstacles that may nullify the President's power.

When the Senate meets on Monday next, for the. inaugural ceremonies, an attempt probably will be made to amend the Rules. Meanwhile the matter is not being discussed, to the disappointment of the public, which exected the President to act on his own responsibility.