Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1919 — EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS [ARTICLE]

EDITORIAL PARAGRAPHS

Truman H. Newberry, charged with complicity in “conspiracy, fraud ana corruption,” in connection with his election as United States senator from- Michigan, is still in the senate, and continues to constitute one of the Republican majority of two in that branch of Congress. He votes and otherwise participates in the proceedings of the senate, giving no sign that in thus exercising senatorial powers and prerogatives he is violating both precedent and propriety. President Wilson gave the Republican senators a convincing proof that he was quite well enough to manage the executive affairs of the government. It is the senate that seems to be unable to function. Let “Doctor” Moses decide whether it is illness or incompetence that afflicts his Republican associates. Republicans are uneasy at the president’s calmness about the treaty. They have' a burden on their shoulders and must carry it even though it galls them. The

case is all the worse with them because there' are no really big, strong men in their number. Senator Fall and his Republican associates who want to conduct the government without the assistance of the executive branch are getting some valuable lessons in constitutional law—and the country is having a little entertainment at the same time. Republican papers are asserting now that the ratification of the treaty with Germany cannot be an issue in the next campaign. Do these organs think Republican senators kill an Issue as readily as they killed the treaty? Business men have been told that the Republican party is their best friend and helper. But the defeat of the treaty was a hindrance both to business and peace. Fraud, conspiracy and corruption as means of carrying elections are not nearly so popular with grand juries as they were last year with certain statesmen. The president demonstrated in a hurry that he is still strong enough to put the senatorial partisans in a hole. In any event, the Republican bosses of congress have made a separate peace with the pro-Germans.