100 years ago in The Record
Sunday, March 4, 1917
The 64th Congress ends its term today without approving President Woodrow Wilson’s request for special “armed neutrality” powers, thanks to a bipartisan filibuster that The Record calls an act of “Twentieth-Century Treason.”
Five of the President’s fellow Democrats, including New York’s James A. O’Gorman, joined seven Republicans in blocking legislation that would have authorized Wilson to arm U.S. merchant ships. The President requested this authority following an escalation of German submarine attacks against shipping bound for France and Great Britain. The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany last month to protest the unrestricted submarine warfare strategy.
The filibuster could delay action for months unless the President, who begins his second term tomorrow, calls a special session of the 65th Congress. The new House of Representatives normally does not report for duty until December. The lower house approved the armed neutrality bill by a 403-13 vote last Thursday.
A White House spokesman describes the filibuster as “the most reprehensible in the history of any civilized nation.” In a statement released tonight, the President himself says there’d be no point in calling a special session until the Senate rules are changed to abolish the filibuster.
“The Senate has no rules by which debate can be limited or brought to an end, no rules by which dilatory tactics of any kind can be prevented. A single member can stand in the way of action, if he have but the physical endurance,” Wilson notes.
“In the midst of a crisis of extraordinary peril, when only definite and decided action can make the nation safe or shield it from war itself by the aggression of others, action is impossible.
Despite the headline of its editorial for tomorrow’s edition, The Record concedes that “the shame of these pro-German Senators does not constitute legal treason [since] we are not at war with Germany, although Germany is at war with us. Therefore the aid and comfort given by these men is excepted from the definition of the Constitution and their necks are safe.
“But in the eyes of the nation they stand out as representatives of men who, because of a preference for peace at any price, or a preference for a foreign potentate, were willing to drag the stars and stripes in the dust and in one of the greatest crises of history lower the standing of their country for all time.”
In a further sign that war is close regardless of the Senate, National Guard troops from Albany have been assigned to protect the Congress Street Bridge and the Delaware & Hudson Bridge in Troy.