The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1897-06-02
POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT.
Adequate Revenue the Aim Of the RE
publican Administration.


What is this administration for? The
people have elected a president and a
congress. Was il to put one man in
the place of another-Sherman in place
of Olney, Gage in place of Carlisle, Hay
in place of Bayard, and SO on? A good
thing, SO far, but was il all? The APP
pointments count for little. The peo-
pie want to know what is 10 be done for
their interests. Government is really
an intensely practical matter TO Amer
leans. A government which makes
them poor-as Cleveland's did-they
bounce. Has the new administration
the wit and the power to do better? Ii
IL can do better the soreness of poll
ticians who do not get what they want
will count for little. If il cannot, that
soreness will catch its semblance of
justification from the general disap-
pointment.
The public is apt to suppose that a
tariff bill which pleases the admin
istration will pass, and one which Of
tends it will fail But the administra-
ton cannot be held responsible for the
preferences of senators and representa-
tiyes, and it would be quite likely to
fail if il should attempt to control
them. 1t can and does express pref
erences, just as it has expressed oppo-
sition to the sugar schedule of the bill
reported to the senate; but the re-
sponsibility lies with the republican SEN
ators and representatives. If they were
to send to the president a bill better
than the present tariff, and yet bill
disgracefully bad in many respects
an extreme supposition-yet it might
be the duty of the president TO sign il
if he believed that no better could be
passed this year. The men in congress
must frame the laws, and the influence
of the administration can rarely be
eXerted with wisdom in trying to die
tate their form.
About foreign matters men are prone
to say that the administration is sole
ly responsible. But that is not at ali
true. Behind the question what ought
to be done is the question what the
country can do with safety. If it has
at any moment n lack of resources,
what sense would there be in n foreign
policy which would involve the risk of
n vastly expensive contest? That was
the foolishness of President Cleveland's
behavior in foreign affairs. Just when
the treasury was in great need, he pro
claimed foreign policy which seemed
particularly likely to invite war. Car
itably, it may be presumed that he did
not comprehend the situation; but the
business world knew, and thereupon
dropped Mr.. Cleveland from its list of
safe men forever. 1t will not do for an
American president to court war with
Great Britain or any other foreign pow
er at time when the treasury of the
United States is, by his own admission,
on the verge of bankruptcy, no matter
what the cause.
The present administration has urged
that the raising of an adequate revenue
must go before any action on interna
tional questions. The case does not adj
NIT of argument. But the administra-
ton is equally right in urging that the
raising of an adequate revenue must go
before any action on the currency ques-
ton. There must be, first of all, the
entire security which ample resources
in the treasury will give. Not one hour
sooner can financial changes be con-
sidered which in their very nature
might disturb the business of the whole
country and the revenue of the treas
ury. 1t is not venturesome to predict
that the president will wait some time
before he invites any such disturbance.
N. Y. Tribune.