Speech #690241512

He proposed the calling of a congress of neutral nations for the consideration of terms of peace. and when the specter of war became nmore menacing. and the danger that the United States would enter It imminent. he offered another resolution declaring it to be the purpose of Congress not to engage in war with any foreign nation unless it be to defend our country in time of an invasion of.our territory. Be repudiated the conventional conception of national honor. declaring that the national honor of the United States can not be violated by any people other than the people of the United States lie opposed the preparedness program on the ground that a large standing Army was not only useless but dangerous. and contended that "the larger the American Army. the smaller the American people." During that Congress he opposed the sending of an army into Mexico to capture Villa. voted against tabling the McLemore resolution. which provided that Americans be warned to stay off arnmed merchantmen flying the flags of belligerent nations. and began the campaign he continued during the balance of his service in Congress for a system of oldage pensions. He inaugurated in that Congress the practice of reporting periodically to his constituents on the.work of Congress. and it would be at these meetings. attended mainly by immigrants. that he would interpret the nobler side of Americathat side which had given to the world some of the greatest fighters for human liberty. He pictured to them the lives of the liberators our country had produced. and distinguished them from the America of the exploiters. whom they had come to know in their struggle for a livelihood. After Interpreting to the immigrant masses he represented the ideals of the Nation they had adopted. he would return to Congress to interpret to his colleagues the hopes which moved the immigrant masses and to tell of the contributions they were making to America. He opposed every effort to restrict inmigration. But to him. to those whom he represented. and to the Nation at large. the most hnportant Congress in which he servedthe most important Congress. for that matter. in the history of our countrywas the Sixtyfifth Congress. to which he was reelected In 1.916 and which was called into special session on April 2. 1917. to comply with President Wilsons demand that the United States declare the existence of a state of war between our country and Germany.