The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-25

is simple and unpretending, as if his au- thority were not yet paramount.
 If the executive government is feebler in America than in France" says De Tocque- vile. "the cause is more attributable to the circumstances than to the laws of the coun- try.
 As to Foreign Relations.
 "It is chiefly in its foreign relations that the executive power of a nation Is called up- on to exercise It's skill and vigor. If the existence of the Union were perpetually threatened. and if its chief interests were in daily connections with those of other powerful nations, the executive government would assume increased importance in proportion to the measures expected of 1t, and those which it would carry into effect The President of the United States Is the Commander in Chief of the army, but of an army composed of only 5000 men, he commands the fleet, but the fleet reckons but few sails; he conducts the foreign re- lations of the Union, but the United States is a nation without nelBhbors. Separated from the rest of the world by the ocean, and too weak yet to aim at the domina- tion of the seas. 1t has no enemies and its interests rarely come into contact with those of other nations of the globe. The practical part of government must not be judged by the theory of its Constitution. The President of the United l States is in possession of almost royal pre-
  exercise: and those privileges which he can | at present use are very circumscribed. | The laws allow him to possess degree of | influence which circumstances do not per ! init him to employ"
 Tenure of the President. | Later speaking of :he election and ten 1 uro ot the President, De Tocqueville says 1 Hitherto no citizen has shown any dis l position to expose his honor and his life | in order to become President of the United | States; because the power of that office l is temporary, limited and subordinate. The | prize of fortune must be great to encourage adventurers in desperate a game. No | candidate has yet ben able to arouse | the dangerous enthusiasm or the passionate l sympathies of the people in his favor, | for the very simple reason when he is at | the head of a government he has but lit | tie power, but little wealth and but little 1 glory to share amongst his friends; and l his influence in the State Is too small for | the success or the ruin of a faction to de 1 pend upon the elevation of an individual | to power
 Presidential Power Extended. | Entanglements with foreign powers. colonial exploitation and an increase of | the military establishment all augment the power of the President and his influence | over Congress. In proportion to the in- | crease of the foreign and colonial interests ! of the country over the domestic, and the l 1nCreasef or the importance or the military l establishment over the ctNN the power of
 the President Is extended over that of | Congress and the judiciary. The purpose to dominate is hot in the veins of President
 Roosevelt, and his policy seems as if model
 ed upon the suggestion made by De Tocque- | vile. that the way for the executive pow
 CT to be made dominant is through tho
 increase of the expenditures on the service
 of which the President is commander ir
 chief and the multiplication of foreigr
 countentions. The safety of the natinr
 from foreign complications lessens the pow.
 CT of the executive. Anything which
 threatens trouble with the foreign powers
 strengthens the hold of the President upoi l of Congress and the judiciary. which MT
 Roosevelt chooses to regard his rival
 in the government of the United States.
 He has endeavored to overcome the re
 motcness from foreign neighbors eveI
 at the sacrifice of our independence of ac
 tion, and in addition has so engrafted a co | lonial system to give the executive
 source of power independant of Congress
 which did not exist at the time of D | Tocquevlles writing.
 ] As the commander and chief of the arm
 and navy he has taken the hint of D
 Tocqueville conveyed in his comment upo the relations between the power of the ex
 ecutive and the size of the military es
 tablshment. Going hand in hand wit
 the augmentation of the branches of tn
 public service which contribute to executiv power the evidence of that increased pow er is found in the Panama affair and tn famous pension legislation by executive or
 der. neither of which Congress dared l resent
 1 Perhaps an even more dangerous as