AMERICAN PROBLEMS

338 Pages·1921·10.618 MB·English

by  WILLIAM E. BORAH

Copyright, Champlain Studio, N.T".
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AMERICAN PROBLEMS
A
Selection of Speeches and Prophecies by
WILLIAM BORAH
E.
EDITED BY
HORACE GREEN
NEW YORK
DUFFIELD & COMPANY
1924
CL.
#
JL_
Copyright, 1924, by
Duffield & Company
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
WHY HAS HAMILTON NO STATUE?
I
January 11, 1911 1
II THE BONUS BILL. July 14, 1921 8
III .THE BONUS AND THE DISABLED SOL-
DIERS. February 13, 1922 16
IV TAXATION FOR THE BONUS. July 6, 1922 18
V LINCOLN THE ORATOR. November 9, 1911 31
VI THE NEED FOR RESTRICTED IMMI-
GRATION.
1916 43
VII FREE SPEECH. April 19, 1917 Jl
VIII AMERICANISM. February 21, 1919 . . . C&Z
IX LEAGUE OF NATIONS. November 19, 1919^105
X THE VERSAILLES TREATY. September 26,^
1921 03p
XI DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE RESOLU-"
TION. April 14, 1921 143
XII THE ISSUE OF THE WAR. March 18, 1918 144
XIII PUBLIC DEBT. February 17, 1921 .... 161
XIV MILITARISM. February 17, 1921 163
XV RECALL OF JUDGES. August 7, 1911 . . . 166
XVI THE ALTERNATIVE. August 19, 1914 ... 181
XVII RESOLUTION IN REGARD TO RUSSIA.
April 20, 1922 188
XVIII RECOGNITION OF RUSSIA, SPEECH IN
SENATE. February 21, 1922 189
XIX RECOGNITION OF RUSSIA, SPEECH IN
SENATE. May 31, 1922 241
XX POLITICAL PRISONERS. March 11, 1923 . 277
XXI PROPOSAL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL
ECONOMIC CONFERENCE.
January 30,
1923 306
XXII SHALL THE CONSTITUTION BE NULLI-
FIED? October 15, 1923 307

PREFACE
There are several reasons why the name of
William E. Borah has taken root with the
American people. One of them may be sum-
med up in the word "independence." Not the
least of them is the confidence, deepening- year
by year, that Mr. Borah is little affected by the
political consequence of his utterance on this
or that public question. Yet his viewpoint on
—
a great number of questions whether or not
—
we agree with him at the time seems to have
become, sooner or later, the viewpoint of a
majority of the people. Witness his fight
against the Versailles Treaty, the fight against
the League of Nations, in which he was a
pioneer; his stand for restricted immigration
and for the release of political prisoners; his
still undecided fight against the soldier bonus;
his fight for the limitation of naval armament.
Indeed it is generally accepted that Mr. Borah
was the originator of the famous Washington
Disarmament Conference. In the Senate the
galleries are packed and his colleagues on both
sides of the aisle listen with professional ad-
miration when Borah takes the floor. Without
—
PREFACE
the Idaho senator's powerful personality and
delivery the written word is robbed of much
power. The speeches are, for some tastes, too
much in the vein of old-fashioned oratory
therefore is the substance often overlooked.
Because they are for the most part buried in
the Congressional Record and because there
is in them much of permanent value, their
presentation in book form is undertaken as a
worthwhile record ofpolitical sentiment.. This
is done with the senator's approval.
Within his own party Mr. Borah is an out-
standing figure in spite of the fact that he has
repeatedly refused to be bound by the organ-
ization program. Yet he has never bolted,
probably never will bolt, and presumably does
not desire, or aspire, to be an active presidential
candi—date. Right or wrong he is a necessary
tonic a progressive within the party; some-
times a radical, but always within the Consitu-
tion.
HORACE GREEN.
AMERICAN PROBLEMS
WILLIAM BORAH
E.

WHY HAS HAMILTON NO STATUE?
(Address delivered at a meeting of the Hamilton Memorial
Society, Washington, D. C, January 11, 1910.)
One must be inexcusably ignorant of his
country's history not to know, and blindly par-
tizan not to be willing to admit, that this Gov-
ernment of ours was the work of no single in-
dividual. Each carried to the work his own
material, but when the task was finished and
the impressive edifice stood forth, scarcely a
piece in the whole mighty structure appeared
in its original form. Out of concession and com-
promise, of clashing judgments and conflict-
ing views, came the finished fabric which has
excited the wonder and challenged the admira-
tion of all the civilized people of the earth.
How
fortunate for us that by this process, all
was done that was done. The confidence and
faith, the doubts and fears of all those men are
interwoven into this heritage of ours. I am
glad that the advices of those who urged a
strong government did not in all their fulness
Eventually, May 16, 1923, the Frazer Statue of Hamilton
was erected and unveiled on the Treasury Building steps in
Washington.
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