The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-05-29
GOVERNMENT BY CONGRESS.
That Body Constantly Usurps or Linz
it's the Powers of the Nations
Chief Executive.

|. It is true, also, that under the law
and in ordinary times-that is, most
of the time-the president cannot ex-
ercise his appropriate executive func-
tions as he will, nor can he meet the
expectations of the country, says hen.
ry LOOMS Nelson, in "The Hampered
Executive" in Century. Congress
usurps his powers, or limits them, and
will not listen to him. Most of the
time our government is almost wholly
that of congress. Reforms in details
of administration or in matters of
seeming Importance that ought to be
possible in day are made the sub
jects of annual discussion during the
lives of several congresses. Compar-
atively powerless as the fathers in
tended the president to be, he is less
than the intention. Speaking in the
constitutional convention on the sub
Ject of the proposal to make congress
and the president independent of each
other, Madison expressed the opinion
that experience has proved ten
dency in our governments to throw all
pO"Sl lhto thC NOI hC
executives of the states" he continued,
"are little more than ciphers, the legis-
latures omnipotent." Hamilton, writ
ing in the Federalist on the same sub
ject and somewhat betraying his fears
for the future, said: ITO what pur-
pose separate the executive or the
judiciary from the legislative, if both
the executive and the judiciary are
so constituted as to be at the abso-
lutte devotion of the legislative? {.
1t is one thing to. be subordinate to
the laws, and another to be dependent
on the legislative body" The ten
dency described by the one remained,
and the evil foreseen by the other has
grown.
There was time for the making Of
laws for the defense of human liberty
against tyranny; there has come a
time for the administration of law
that the democracy may be as efficient
for good government as it has been
beneficent for the protection and adj
vancement of the individual. There il
little need for new laws; there is much
need for the repeal of hampering and
bad laws. The executive should be
freed from the irons with which he
was bound by the eighteenth century
in behalf of rising manhood, and he
should be also relieved from the i'm.
positions and usurpations which
have developed from ancient principles
diverted into modern prejudices. We
are no longer dependent for our liber.
ties upon the lawmakers, but upon the
courts. We no longer dread the tyran-
ny of the executive, for the courts
are above him also, to restrain and to
punish. In the increas ing complexities
of our civilization, government has be.
come, mainly by reason of our mat.
tention to it. the least responsible OF
our institutions. It is necessary tc
concentrate popular attention, and to
this end responsibility must be estab-
Gshed. The sentiment which loads the
president with responsibility is In
stinctiye, and it will strengthen as time
goes on. This being true, it will even.
tually be essential to give to the pres.
ident the power which ought to ac-
company responsibility. The people
of this country are too intensely prac.
tical to consent for all time to an in
effective executive, and some day they
will realize that what the president
may now be despite the law, he should
be able to do, when the occasion arises,
under the law, for the ultimate truth
is that the law must reign or democ-
racy is a failure.
Wages In England.