The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-15

Wa hone that the London Daily
News does not speak by the card Wheh
if saws that it has reason to beheVe
that President Mckinley will suggest
new general arbitration treaty be-
r, aan ca at Britain and the United
States. containing a clause providing
that before any subject is finally re-
ferred to the court of arbitration, SUCH
reference shall be approved by the
oueen on the one hand and by the
American senate on the other we
have not observed thus far that MI
Mckinley is gifted with a singular
amount of backbone He has, on the
contrary. in numerous instances, yield
ed where he should have stood 1lrm.
These cases of virtual surrender OF
Judgment. however, do not concern the
country at large, except in as far as
they indicate defects of character III
its chief executive.
The question suggested by the
London press, however, bears upon
the prerogative of his office. Ii
Mr.. Mckinley shall surrender any
thing rightfully belonging 20 the posi-
ton of the president of the United
states and turn it over to the senate,
he will have committed an unpardona-
Bile offense. The mistakes of the indi-
viduaI may be rectified; any curtail-
ment of official power remains perma-
nent or is won back only at the cost of
q prolonged struggle. The attempt
of the senate to usurp the pow
er of the executive is no new
thing. President after president has
come into sharp collision with the
members of the upper house, and they
have always been obliged to yield.
They have striven from time to time to
extend the power conferred upon them
by the constitution at the expense of
the executive office.
It is no secret that the senate aims
to dictate all legislation, and to
make both house and president
the mere creatures of its will. 1t
has succeeded in taking away from
the house absolutely the power to orig
mate bills for raising revenue. The
last two tariff bills have been written
entirely by the senate. To the house
was accorded the poor privilege Of
formally introducing and passing
measure, and then the senate calmly
substituted a new one of its own,
which the house could take or leave as
ii pleased. The members of the house,
being fresher from and closer to the
people, were filled with a sense of the
Importance of legislation, and believed
that an unsatisfactory bill would be
better that none when they came to
account to the voters within the short
space of two years. The senate did
not care. Most of its members had still
a long unexpired term to serve and
they were perfectly willing that any
interest should be sacrificed to their
a surety that hereafter every tariff bill
will be framed in the senate That is
the price of its passage.
The senate has striven to take away
from the executive the power OF ap-
pointment and removal One contest
after another has been carried forward
On this ground, and Mr. Cleve-
land, in his first adninistra-
ton, had one of his sharpest
tits with members of the senate who
sought 80 make him their laclzey to
distribute. patronage. He disposed of
them in short order, and ended their
pretensions for the time being. Now
the senate has taken Mr.. McKinIey's
measure, deems him more likely vic
tim and has stretched its claim to the
extreme over the treaty-making power.
1t was made evident, during the discus
sion of the arbitration treaty nego-
tiatsd by Mr. Olney and its defeat by
the senate, to the lasting disgrace of
this country. that the purpose OF that
body was two-fold; first, to cater 20 the
jingo sentiment in the United States:
and, second, to use this occasion to
make itself party to every case to