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About The Columbia sentinel. (Harlem, Ga.) 1882-1924 | View Entire Issue (July 25, 1921)
I fol. 39 Senator Thomas E. Wafson p ^oeech On Soldiers Bonus Bill. In The U. S. Senate, July 13, 1921. The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from Georgia is recognised. Georgia. Mr. President, Mr. WATSON of if I may be allowed to refer‘to the obsolete in¬ strument under which this Government was formed and under which it is now supposed to be operating and to support and defend which we all took a solemn oath upon being inaugu¬ rated into office, I will read the following: He— The President— shall from time to time give to the Congress information on the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.' staged here Yesterday we had a very dramatic performance, in which the President of the United States did not give us any in¬ formation, and he did not recommend the pas¬ sage of any measures. He recommended that a measure which had been duly reported from ' one of the Committees of. the Senate, and which had been debated here for several days, should not pass. As a constitutional lawyer, knowing something about the Constitution and having often argued every point in it in courts of law, I say the President of the States had no right to say what he said here yesterday. to give information He has a right us learn which we are not supposed to from the daily papers or from other sources open to the "public. He has a right to recommend legislation, as President Washington did; when it comes to negation, when it' comes to saying “Congress shall not do this, that, the other,” his power is confined to his veto. That is his constitutional power and obligation, and he has no other. The Senate, respecting itself, will always listen respectfully to the President of the United States. It respects his office; it spects the man; but he is the executive, We have"just as much right House to go to the White House, Senate and of tatives, and tell him not to make an ment or not to recommend a measure as he to come here and tell us not to pass it. President of the United States should lift self above debate. It is for us to debate. is also for the House of Representatives to bate. It is not for the President of the States to come here and take part in the and that is what he virtually did yesterday; I am sure that every constitutional lawyer this body must realize that the veto not absolute, is given to him to state his sons why a measure should riot become a law 7 and after he has stated his reasons why measure should'not become a law this ber is not hound by his reasons, hut can upon its own. Otherwise your veto power superfluous, if not ridiculous. In listening to the Chief Executive day I heard expressed in rhetorical form very reasons that had been given us by tary Mellon, as introduced here by the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. seri). Nothing new was heard. Nothing clusive was heard. The question was where it was, except that the highest in the Government by his personal tion evidently sought to overawe the in the discharge of their duties. Once upon a time a King of England that on the House of Commons in He camp in person and asked that a royal decree of his be executed, and immedi¬ ately" there rose throughout “Privilege!” the chamber cry of “Privilege!” lege!” and the House refused to act at all to say a word until the King had The time has been, Senators, when a King France, booted and spurred for the hunt, a whip in his hand, could come before the liament of Paris and order a certain registered, and have it registered, and go to his hunt. It w;as not long before 1 his grandson died in the Powder House, as lyle described, which exploded the whole bon dynasty. That kind of personal rule absolutely antagonistic to our democratic of government. Whenever the President objects to thing we do here let him say it by' his veto. hope he will never come here again and that any measure that has been debated and con be retired to a chloroform presided over by a chloroform Senator, put into a state of permanently suspended mation, while soldiers, wounded or not, begging their bread, almost, on nearly str eet in America. J [y U ♦ & /a Price $2.00 Per Year The other day I promised the Senator from Montana—a State of copper mines, I believe— Mr. MYERS. A State of copper mines and manv other industries. Mr. 'WATSON of Georgia. I thought I would bring the Senator to his feet. Mr. MYERS. I am always ready to stand up for Montana anywhere at any time and at any place. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. And at any length. Mr. MYERS. The Senator from Georgia refers to any length. I think he is capable of that. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. The Senator from Montana, which has copper mines, and which, as we learn, kills wild horses and packs the meat and sells it to the effete East and West to eat as beef— Mr. MYERS. Perhaps the effete State of Georgia, too. of Mr. WATSON of Georgia. Of course, all the effete States the effetest is the State of Georgia, of course. The State of Georgia, however, has never kidnapped a hundred or any number of white miners and deported them from the State without trial and sent them into the wilds of New Mexico. Mr. MYERS. The Senator has his ge¬ ography mixed. Montana has never done any¬ thing of that kind either. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. We can not always depend on newspaper prints, Mr. Pres¬ ident, and I am glad that the State of Montana is innocent in that respect. Mr. MYERS rose. The VICE PRESIDENT. Does the Sen¬ ator fram Qeorgia yield to the Senator from Montana? Mr. WATSON of Georgia. I do. Mr. MYERS. If the Senator will permit me, I am glad he acknowledges that we can not always depend upon newspaper prints. I be lieve he is an editor himsfelt. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. I am an edi¬ tor myself, and I am proud of it. I am also a lawyer, and not ashamed of that. I am t ’ 10 a landowner, and not ashamed of that; and I am also a citizen of Georgia and the son of a rebel soldier, and I am not ashamed of 'that, either. Mr. MYERS. If the Senator will per¬ mit me, I have no reflection whatever to cast upon him for any of those things. If he brings any reflection upon himself in those connections, it will be from himself and not from me. Mr. WATSON of -Georgia, The Senator used the word “rebellion” in his speech the other day. Mr. MYERS. If the Senator will permit me, I think it was correctly used. I think . George "Washington was a rebel. I think many great and honorable and noble men have re¬ belled. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. I must con¬ gratulate the Senator from Montana in gotten out of his scrape so handsomely. In his introductory remarks on the ad¬ justed compensation bill, the Senator from Montana said he would support everything except the qgsh plan. Throughout his speech he showed a most unaccountable acrimony against the word “cash.” Never in my life have I beard the word “cash” lowered to such degrees of depravity, such degrees of degra¬ dation, of disgrace, of ignominy, of shame, hopeless unmanliness. The word “cash” was rung in as often as the Senator from Montana repeated every half hour the speech that he had made the 30 minutes before. Mr. MYERS. Mi*. President, if the Sena tor will permit me, it may be that I do not think as much of cash as he does. I admit that. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. Mr. Presi¬ dent, I was always glad to get my fees in cash; and since the Senator has alluded to the fact that I gm an editor, I am glad to see the sub¬ scriptions coming in iri cash. I do not take subscriptions in cords of wood, nor in the wild horses of Montana, nor in “canned beef” which comes from Montana, and is not canned beef but canned horses. Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, if the Sen¬ ator will yield to me again, I do not know where lie gets his information that we can horses in Montana. It may be that he has been eating some of our canned meat and that he cannot tell canned horse from canned beef. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. I think that is quite likely, I am almost sur§ it ig, Thomson, Ga., Monday, July 25, 1921 never can tell what you eat in some of these restaurants. You go by the bill of fare, and Vhen the words are French yon do not know' wfiat you are eating until after you have eaten it. But the other Senator from Mon¬ tana wanted to amend the packers’ bill so as to give further entrance into our meat market to what he called the wild horses of the West. Of course, that' does not include the present Senator from Montana. Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, I observe that the Senator is not charging up to mo any legislation about wild horses. I am very glad to have him correct the Record, but I am glad to say that, with regard to Mon¬ tana, I am willing to stand for anything which is a fact and anything which either of the Senators from Montana champions in regard to the great resources of that great State. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. I do not doubt that a minute. I do not by any means claim the pending bill to be perfect, but it is before us, subject to amendment; some amendments have already been offered, and I mean to offer one or two if this clique of new Senators allud¬ ed to in my friend’s speech the other day may be allowed to offer an amendment. How old do you have to get before you can offer an amendment in the Senate? Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, judging by the demonstrations of the Senator from Geor¬ gia, I do not think there is any backwardness about new Senators making themselves known or heard here and telling the Senate what it should do. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. I should hope riot. I do not know how long it took the Sen¬ ator from Montana (Mr. Myers) to make him¬ self known, but he is well known now, and he will be well known hereafter. Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, I am very glad to acknowledge that compliment, and I can return it by saying that the Senator from Geoi’gia yas well known before he came to Hie Senate, perhaps better known than he will be when he leaves it; but I will not make any as¬ sertion as to that. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. Of course, the Senator will not, because he does not know 7 . I listened to most of the speech of the Senator, who took great exception to my being out with couple of colleagues at lunch while he was making some of his speech„because a man can not live by bread alone, much less by senatorial oratory alone; he must have a little refresh¬ ment during a four hour speech. Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, if the Sena¬ tor will permit, he is mistaken in regard to his facts. I took no exception whatever to his being out to get refreshments. I only wished that I could have felt honored by having him here all of the time during the time I was making my speech, but I took no exception whatever to his absence. Several Senators. Will the Senator speak louder? Mr. MYERS. If the Senator from Geor¬ gia will yield, I am very glad to know 7 that other Senators here, beside the Senator from Georgia, are interested in what I have to say. That is giving me a fame and renown that I had not before aspired to. Of course, my re¬ marks are directed more particularly to the Senator from Georgia, but I am glad to know that others are interested. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. The Senator from Montana, Mr. MYERS—because I no¬ tice that his colleague has some desire to be considered separately on some of these big public questions—not only found fault with the Senator from Georgia for being absent at lunch, but he found fault with the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Caraway), and if the Senator from Alabama had gotten into the debate—and it is a wonder that he did not— he would have found fault with the Senator from Alabama, because I was lunching w 7 ith both of them. Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, if the Sen¬ ator will permit, he is mistaken. I found fault with none of these distinguished gentlemen. I attributed to them jio fault whatever. What I did complain of in a mild way was that after they were out to lunch they came in, and at least the Senator from Georgia appeared to attribute to me statements which were incon¬ sistent with some statements I had made in his absence. He did not seem to have a correct understanding of just what I had said. That is all the complaint I had to make about the Senator from Georgia. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. Mr. Presi dent, whatever the Senator from Georgia lost by imt hearing trig first half or third of the Issued Weekly Senator’s speech, was recompensed by hearing the second half, which was a repetition of the first, Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, I am very much pleased to know that the Senator from Georgia derived some benefit and improvement from the second half of my speech, and if he will listen to both halves of my speeches here¬ after I am satisfied that he will derive a great deal more benefit, and will be a much better citizen than lie is now. Mr. "WATSON of Georgia, Mr. Presi¬ dent, if the Senator from Montana would con¬ fine his request to something within the bounds of reason, the Senator from Georgia would endeavor to oblige him. Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, if the Sena¬ tor will yield again, as far as length of speech¬ es and being within the bounds of reason are concerned, I am quite content to compare my record with that of the Senator from Georgia and let the Senate and the public judge. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. That is' a very fair proposition. Up to now I have not had any chance to speak at all. Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, if the Sen¬ ator will yield, I do not think that I have in¬ terrupted him quite so much as he interrupted me the other day. But, as he has given me a gentle hint that my interruptions disturb him, I will not interrupt him any more. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. Mr. Presi¬ dent, I did not mean it that way at all. Here is the Record. It shows that I did not inter¬ rupt at the utmost more than a very few min¬ utes, and the Senator is welcome to interrupt me just as long as I speak. Mr. MYERS. The Senator heard only half of my speech. If he had heard it all there is no telling how many times he would have in¬ terrupted me. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. Mr. Presi¬ dent, I would have simply been repeating the interruptions which 1 made when I did inter¬ rupt him. Mr. MYERS. If the Senator may please again, I think that all of his interruptions were repetitions. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. We "will let it go at that. I assure the Senator front Montana that nothing I have said has been said with in¬ tent at all to complain of the interruptions or to wound his feelings. I have the utmost re¬ spect for his character and his ability. His speech was a very fine one, but owing to the interruptions of myself and the Senator from Arkansas he did, as the Record shows, repeat it three times before he sat clown. Mr. MYERS. If the Senator will yield again, I take him at his exact words when he says that owing to his interruptions and the interruptions of the Senator from Arkansas I repeated the speech three times. I am delight¬ ed to know that the Senator from Georgia and the Senator from Arkansas thought my speech was such a fine speech that they made suffi¬ cient interruptions to have it repeated three times. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. Mr. Presi¬ dent, we did think it a very fine speech, and, having devoted the whole morning to reading it, my opinion is confirmed that it was indeed a very fine speech. I notice that the Senator does not interrupt me any more. if Sen¬ Mr. MYERS. Mr. President, the ator will yield, so long as the Senator confines himself to the truth and facts, as when he says my speech was a fine one, I shall not in terrupt him. Mr. WATSON of Georgia. To gain that very much desired object, Mr. President, I will endeavor to tell the truth. If I should^mak- a mistake I will value a correction, and make the correction on the spot. The Senator from Montana (Mr. Myers) 1 seemed to get the word “tip” into his mind, along with the American soldier. The phrase “a mere tip” occurred five or six times in his speech, seeming to convey the idea that the American soldier was here in the attitude of asking a “mere tip.” I must confess, Mr. President, that that thought was new to me, and not altogether pleasant. I do not know of any American sol¬ dier who wants a mere tip. The word “tip” implies menial service, not necessarily degrad¬ ing, always useful, but menial service. Surely the soldier who takes his rifle and confronts the enemy is not doing menial service, and when ho is given a bounty, or a pension, or a bonus, or a farm, or a vocational training, he is not taking a mere tip. Why did the Senator from Montana conceive the idea that thw Amer ^Continued on Page Three.), r No 41
