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The Commoner.
APRIL 25, 1913
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Wilson Follows Plan Begun by Washington
Wallace T. Hughes, -writing to the Chicago
Record-Herald, says: President Wilson's plan
in addressing congress was foreshadowed hy his
writings in 1897, when he was pursuing the
quito distinguished but less conspicuous calling
of professor of jurisprudence and politics at
Princeton university.
In his work on "The State," he expressed
himself quite freely upon the habit of presi
dents in sending messages to congress instead
of addressing that body in person, and one
might have read between the lines that if ever
the time came when the college professor was
president ho would revert to the ea'rliest prac
tice and, Washingtonliko and kinglike, appear
beforo the national assembly and speak in be
half of his ideas in a sort of "address from the
throne."
On page 378 of the volume mentioned he
wrote as follows:
"The sovereign (British) is not a member of
the cabinet, because George I. could not speak
English. Until the accession of George I. tho
king always attended cabinet councils. George
did not do so, because he could not either under
stand or bo understood in tho discussions of the
ministers. Sinco his time, therefore, tho
sovereign has not sat with tho cabinet.
"A similar example of the interesting easo
with which men of our race establish and
observe precedents is to be found in tho prac
tice on the part of presidents of tho United
States of sending written messages to congress.
"Washington and John Adams addressed con
gress in person on public affairs; but Jefferson,
tho third president, was not an easy speaker,
and preferred to send a written message; sub
sequent presidents followed his example as of
course. Hence a sacred rule of constitutional
action!"
With less Irony and more philosophy he on
page 546 gave the following summary of his
theory of greater co-operation between the
president and congress:
"Washington and John Adams interpreted
this clause to mean that they might address
congress in person, as tho sovereign in England
may do; and their annual communications to
congress were spoken addresses. But Jefferson,
the third president, being an ineffective speaker,
this habit was discontinued and the fashion of
written messages was inaugurated and firmly
established.
"Possibly, had the president not so closed the
matter against new adjustments, this clause of
the constitution might legitimately have been
made the foundation for a much more habitual
and informal and yet at the same time much
more public and responsible interchange of
opinion between the executive and congress.
Having been interpreted, however, to exclude the
president from any but the most formal and
ineffectual utterance of advice, our federal exe
cutive and legislature have been shut off from
co-operation and mutual confidence to an extent
to which no other modern system furnishes a
parallel.
"In all other modern governments the heads
of the administrative departments are given the
right to sit in the legislative body and to take
part in its proceedings. The legislature and
executive are thus associated in such a way that
the ministers of state can lead the houses with
out being misunderstood in such a way that
tho two parts of the government which should
be most closely co-ordinated, the part, namely,
by which the laws are made and tho part by
which the laws are executed, may be kept in
close harmony and intimate co-operation, with
the result of giving coherence to the action of
the one and energy to the action of the other."
In delivering a message to congress oratori
cally, he took advantage of the opportunity to
try out what years ago he ventured to cham
pion, so it waa not an impulse, but a very do
liberate action along what apparently had be
come a profound conviction of presidential
duty.
Somewhere recently a writer on Woodrow
Wilson's favorite books mentioned Waiter
Bagehot's very able and charming treatise on
The English Constitution" as one of tho pre
ferred bits of reading in the president's library.
It may be easily imagined that that work, pub
lished many years ago, contributed Its influence
.toward bringing President Wilson to his present
action.
. la that work Bagehotcontrasts the American
way of complete separation of legislative and
executive with tho British governmental form.
In his view "tho efficient secret" of tho English
constitution lies in the close union, tho nearly
complete fusion of tho legislative and execu
tive powers, the connecting link being tho cabi
net which, in short, is a committee of tho legis
lative body selected to be tho executive body,
with a member of tho parliament serving as its
head in the role of prime minister.
Wroto Bagehot: "This fusion of the legisla
tive and executive functions may, to those who
have not much considered it, seem but a dry and
small matter to bo the latent essence and effec
tual secret of tho English constitution; but wo
can only judge of its real importance by looking
at a few of its principnl effects, and contrasting
it very shortly with its great competitor, which
seems likely, unless care bo taken, to outstrip it
in the progress of tho world.
"That competitor is tho presidential system.
The characteristic of it is that tho president is
elected from tho people by one process and tho
house of representatives by another.
"The independence of the legislative and ex
ecutive powers is the specific quality of presi
dential government, just as their fusion and
combination is the precise principle of cabinet
government.
"First, compare the two in quiet times: The
essence of a civilized age is, that administra
tion requires tho continued aid of legislation.
One principal and necessary kind of legislation
is taxation. Tho expense of civilized govern
ment is constantly varying. It must vary If the
government does its duty.
"The miscellaneous estimates of the English
government contain an Inevitable medley of
changing items. Education, prison discipline,
art, science, civil contingencies of a hundred
kinds, require more money one year and less an
other. The expense of defense the naval and
military estimates vary still more as tho dan
ger of attack seems more or less imminent, as
tho means of retarding such danger become more
or less costly.
"If the persons who have to do the work aro
not the same as those who have to make tho
laws there will bo controversy between the two
sets of persons.
"The tax-imposers are sure to quarrel with
tho tax-requirers.
"The executive Is crippled by not getting tho
laws it needs, and tho legislature is spoiled by
having to act without responsibility tho execu
tive becomes unfit for its name sinco it can not
execute what it decides on; tho legislature is
demoralized by liberty, by taking decisions of
which others (and not itself) will suffer tho
effects. '
"In America so much has this difficulty been
felt that. a semi-connection has grown up be
tween the legislature and the executive. When
the secretary of the treasury of the federal gov
ernment wants a tax ho consults upon it with
the chairman of tho financial committee of con
gress. "He can not go down to congress himself and
propose what he wan.ts; he can only write a
letter and send it. But he tries to get a chair
man of the finance committee who likes his tax;
through that chairman he tries to persuade the
committee to recommend such tax; by that com
mittee he tries to induco tho house to adopt
that tax.
"But such a chain of communications is liablo
to continual interruptions; it may suffice for a
singlo tax on a fortunate occasion, but will
scarcely pass a complicated budget we do not
say in a war or a rebellion we are now com
paring the cabinet system and the presidential
system in quiet times but In times of financial
difficulty.
"Two clever men never exactly agreed about
a budget.
"After saying that the division of tho legis
lature and the executive in presidential govern
ments weakens the legislative power, it may
Beema contradiction to say that it also weakens
the executive power. But it is not a contradic
tion. "After saying that the division of the legis
lature and the executive In presidential govern
ments weakens the legislative power, it may
seem a contradiction to say that it also weakens
the executive power. But it Is not a contra
diction. "Tho division weakens the wholo aggregate
force of government the entire imperial power;
and therefore it weakens both its halves. The
cxecutivo is woakencd in a vory plain way.
"In England a strong cabinet can obtain th
concurrcnco of tho logislaturo in all acta which
facilitate its administration; it is itself, so to
speak, tho legislature. But a prosidont may be
hampered by tho parliament, and is likely to bo
hampered.
"Tho natural tendency of tho mornbers of
every legislature Is to mako thomsolvea con
spicuous. They wish to gratify an ambition
laudable or blamablo; they wish to promoto th
measures they think best for tho public welfare;
they wish to mako their will folt in great affairs.
All these mixed motives urgo them to oppose
tho executive. They aro embodying tho pur
poses of others if thoy aid; they aro advancing
their own opinions if they defeat; they aro flrBt
if they vanquish; thoy aro auxiliaries if thoy
support. Tho presidential govern
ment, by its nature, divides political lifo Into
two halves, an oxccutlvo hnlf and a legislative
half, and by so dividing It makes neither half
wortli a man'H having worth his making It a
continuous career worthy to absorb, as cabi
net government absorbs, his wholo soul.
"Tho statesmen from whom a nation chooses
under a presidential system aro much inferior
to thoso from whom it chooses under a cabinet
system, while tho selecting apparatus Is also far
less discerning.
"All these differences aro more important at
critical periods, because government 'itself is
more important. A formed public opinion, a
respectable, able and disciplined legislature, a
well-chosen executive, a parliament and an
administration not thwarting each other, but
co-operating with each other, aro of greater
consequence when great affairs aro in progress
than when small affairs are in progress."
Mr. Wilson's innovation is, theroforo, an in
novation only to our modern American eyes. He
not only is returning to tho original American
practice of the original president, which Ameri
cans are not now accustomed to, but ho la under
taking a fusion of the legislative and cxecutivo
more nearly approaching that of tho British, to
which the English are, of course, wholly accus
tomed. While the American governmental theory Is
one of complete separation of tho three great
branches, it Is probable that tho degree of co
operation contemplated by tho president is not
so great as to prove harmful or, in fact, to
prove otherwise than beneficial.
THE FRIEND WHO UNDERSTANDS
Laurie J. Quinby is writing many fine things
these days for the Omaha Chancellor. Under
tho headline, "Tho Friend Who Understands,"
Mr. Quinby writes:
Every desire for commendation, for an ap
proving word, or glance or nod, Is a confession
of weakness. Yet so long as wo are clothed in
mortal flesh, wo shall manifest jomo form of
weakness, and this is a wcakneuw that does no
harm.
In every walk of life there are heroic souls
wlfo struggle and aspire, alone, unappreciated,
unattended, for whom there is never a' word of
recognition or encouragement. Is it Strang
that sometimes these grow bitter?
There are others whoso wholo lives are spent
In fond hope3 of being of some valuable ser
vice to mankind. In quiet, modest and unpre
tentious ways, they work their Ideals, only to
pass on unhonorcd and unsung, until at last tho
world that has been waiting for tho service they
sought to render awakes to a realization of that
service. Is it strange that in their lonely lives,
such as these can hug to their heart of hearts
the dear friend who does see and know and
understand? Were It not for these, tho lives
of such would bo barren indeed, so far as any
personal comfort may concern them.
No one who ever performed a worthy deed,
did so in tho hope of any form of reward. Had
he expected it, that expectation had proved him
unworthy of It. Yet there can be no harm in a
wider cultivation in the world of that spirit of
appreciation which sometimes we see in the mel
low tints of the eye of an understanding friend,
who extends a sympathetic hand, or who in
tender speech utters a hopeful word. The world
is too prone to await the success of the inno
vator before It reaches out to him a helping
hand. It is heroic to succeed in one's ideals, so
let him who does succeed have just honor, but
the most heroic soul is he who strives unassisted
and unencouraged, who knows not the plaudits
of admiring crowds and who has not even a
crust upon which to feed. When these know
the devotion of an understanding friend, their
cup of gratitude runneth over.
'uj-..t,tiir jm.,,tAiii)vt' it,i.