The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1903-01-29
The Legislation OF President.

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districting.
The Legislation of President.
Sc Senatorial and other critics have
gone very far agley when they indulge
in criticism of President Roosevelt be-
cause he considers matters of legisla-
tiof-because he even dares to attempt
influencing the formal acts of congress.
Mr. Roosevelt is going not at all aside
from his prerogatives as the chief ex-
ecutlyeo officer of the United States: he
would be culpable under the constitu-
ton if5he did not consider himself, .ex
magno ofncio, a legislative officer for
the nation. When Mr.. Roosevelt tells
a conference of United States senators
that he would like to see enacted such
and such. pieces of legislation, he is
keeping quite within the authority of
his.So office. When he tells them that
such and such is the condition of the
Union, and that such conditions de-
mahId such and such Legislation, he is
butobeying the expressed duties of his
office: When he says that congress
shall enact some law to regulate a
great and growing evil, he is not
stretching so far the provisions of the
constitution as did John Marshall or
anyother formulative judge in inter-
preting the chief law of the land. 1.
The constitution Of the United States
says explicitly that the president "shall
from from time to time give congress in
formation of the state of the Union, and
recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall Judge necessary
and expedient. 1T, therefore, says
I Implicitly, that the president of the
United States shall press upon the i'm
agination Of the members of congress
the sendit ton of Ssaple the wrongs
q. injjustices under which trey are
suffering. He shall not rest until he
has convinced them that the nation
exists for the people, not for the per-
son who has been so fortunate as to
profit from the laws placed on the sta
tute books, and who selfshly opposes
any infringement of those laws by the
law-making power. It shall be his
duty to know what are the conditions
governing the output of the Pennsyl-
vania coal mines, or the product of any
other ''trust," and it shall be his duty
to make this knowledge general, par
ticularly among congressman. And,
furthermore, since it is his explicit
duty to recommend measures, it is his
implicit duty to see that those meas
ures become law. He is culpably neg
ligent unless he use whatever means
are in his power to secure the passing
of 'ssuch measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedient."
Together with this section of the
constitution comes the seventh section
of the first article, the article dealing
directly with legislation, and wherein
the veto power, power which not
even the autOcratlc car OF all the RuS-
sias enjoys in such fullness, is placed
directly and fully in the hands of the
president: The senate may override
him, but the congress of the United
States does not so lightly hold the dis
approval of the president of the United
States. Shall man be provided with
a veto power Of audacious extent, and
not be furnished with the; right of in
itiative power It is not in this way
that good Legislation is effected, that a
correlation of energies is secured.
President Roosevelt has every right,
explicit and implicit, to insist that con-
gress consider trust laws, that it enact
some one or some similar one of anti
trust bills now before it.-St. Paul
Dispatch "