The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-05-08
THE PRESIDENTS POWER
WHAT RoosEVELT,WHEN GOVERNOR,
WROTE ON HIS OFFICE.

Tho Great Power or tile President and
Ills Tremendous Influence - Compares
Him with Heads OF other Nations
Mistakes 10 May Possibly Make.
In IFS issue Of November 6 the
Youths Companion published an arti-
Gle upon The Presidency" by Theo-
dore Roosevelt The editor in a note
says that the article was written by
Mr.. Roosevelt IN 1900 while he was
governor Of New York and previous
to the Republican National convention
which nominated him for vice-presi-
dent
THE views expressed in the article
are, therefore" says the editor. chose
Of an outside observer and are not
to be regarded as those of an incum-
bent Of the office. II will be clear to all
readers that the writer Of the article
could not have foreseen the place he
was destined to occupy before its pub
lication."
Mr.. Roosevelt says In part:
THE president of the United States
occupies a position of peculiar impor-
lance. In the whole world there is no
other ruler, certainly no other ruler
under free Institutions, whose power
compares with his. OF course, a des-
potic king has even more, but no con-
stitutional monarch has as much. in
the republics of France and switzer-
land the president is not a very inn
portant officer, at least, compared with
the president of the United States.
I'm England the sovereign has much
less control in shaping the policy Of the
nation, the prime minister occupying
a position more nearly analogous to
that of our president. The prime min
lister, however, can at any time be
thrown out of Office by an adverse vote,
while the president can only be re-
moved before his term is out for some
extraordinary crime or misdemeanor
against the nation.
"Of course, in the case of each there
is the enormous personal factor of the
incumbent himself to be considered en-
tirely apart from the power of the
office itself. The power welded by
Andrew Jackson was out of all proper
ton to that welded by Buchanan, al
though in theory each was alike. So a
strong president may exert infinitely
more influence than a weak prime min
lister, or vice versa. But this is merely
another way of stating that in any Of
flee the personal equation is always
Of vital consequence.
THE president and congress are mu-
tually necessary to one another in mat
ters of legislation, and the president
and the senate are mutually necessary
in matters Of appointment. Every now
and then men who understand our con-
stitution but imperfectly raise an out
cry against the president for consulting
the senators in matters of appoint
ment and even talk about the senators
'ursurping' his functions. These men
labor under misrepresentation.
'The senate has no right to dictate
to the president who shall be appoint
ed, but the senators have an entire
right to say who shall not be appointed
for under the constitution this has
been made their duty. In practice,
under our party system, it has come
to be recognized that each senator has
a special right to be consulted about
the appointments in his own state, if
he is of the presidents political party.
often the opponents of the senator
in his state do not agree with him in
the matter of appointments, and some
times the president in the exercise of
his Judgment finds it right and desir-
able to disregard the senator. But the
president and the senator's must work
together if they desire to secure the
best results.
But although many men must share
with the president the responsibility
for different individual actions. and al
though congress must, of course, also
very largely be a factor in his useful
ness, yet the fact remains that in his
hands is infinitely more power than
in the hands of any other man in our
country during the time that he holds
the office; that there is upon him al
ways a heavy burden of responsibility
and that in certain crises this burden
may become so great as to bear down
any but the strongest and bravest man
1T is easy enough to give bad adj
ministration, but to give good admin
istration demands the most anxious
thought, the most wearing endeavor
no less than very unusual powers Of
mind. The chances for error are lin
itless, and in minor matters, where