The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-04-07
THE NATIONAL WASHINGTON O. THURSDAY APRIL 1901
EXECUTIVE usu1rArroN..

EXECUTIVE usuHrATIoN.''
Senator Carmack Tenn.) last week rose
in his place in the Senate and began a
solemn argument OH the question Of Con.
stitutional powers with regard to the new
order Of the Commissioner of Pensions
He said:
This resolution presents a legal and
Constitutional question, involving the lie.
gal and Constitutional powers of the Elk
| ecutive and the legal and Constitutional
| rights of Congress. / am asking for a
| legal opinion with respect to the legal and
Constitutional rights of this body. and
| naturally seek that opinion from the com
mittee which is properly regarded as the
legal advisers of the Senate.
THE order of the Secretary of the In
terror deals with the matter of pensions,
but the Importance of this resolution is
| not affected in the least by that fact. |
am not asking the Senate to investigate
any question with reference to the effect
| of that order upon the pension roll OF
| upon the annual pension appropriations. l
am asking the Senate to take legal adj
| vice with reference to its own Constitu-
tional rights and privileges as q part OF
the lawmaking Department of this Gov
| eminent. l think. Mr.. President, that le-
gal opinion ought to be given by n COM
| mittee of lawyers"
The Republican Senator's answered Sen
| atOr Carmack's speech quite effectively by
citing a precedent where Commissioner
Lochren made rule that when a man had
| reached the age of s. years he was pre-
| sumed to be incapable Of performing more
! than half mans labor, and at 20, to be
totally disabled.
1t seems to us, however, that they ne
elected to make a much more crushing re-
joinder. The act Of President Roosevelt in
| liberalizing the practice under the Act of
June p. $780, if "usurpation," is hardly
comparable to the real usurpatiOn which
President Cleveland executed when he
| tried to take all the virility and force out
of that act, and narrow it's benefits down
to a minimum. President Cleveland. and
his Commissioner, VIM. Lochren, found the
Act of June q, 1890, on the statute books,
| and it had been executed according to the
will and intent of the Congress which had
passed it. More than 100000 men and
women had been placed upon the pension
rolls in accordance with that interpreta-
ton of the law, and it's Interpretation had
received the virtual approval of two Con-
crosses, which had appropriated money
for the purpose of executing it in that
spirit
The principle of the law was as well
settled as any legislation could be when
Mr.. Cleveland entered Office, and lacking
courage to repeal the law he proceeded to,
in great degree, nullify it. The interpre-
tation which he put upon it's provisions
was absolutely hostile to it's spirit, and to
the manifest intent of the Congress which
enacted it. He went out Of his way to
find pretexts for this, and all the legal
talent of his Administration was set to
work to devise some sharp bubble by
which to justify his action.
The pretext that the law introduced a
new principle into pension legislation and
therefore could not be construed as other
pension laws, emanated from no less a
distinguished source than the Office Of At
torney General. Under this ruling tens of
thousands of deserving men and women
were deprived of their pensions, and
nunufcuS OF thousands nau their ratings
reduced far below what was just and
right. The injury thus done to tile vet
Grams and their widows was far greater
| than the benefits which are likely to result
from the new order.
Mr. Cleveland's action was direct
usurpation of Congressional powers and
functions in the deliberate notification of
the will of Congress. President Roose-
velt's act. on the other hand, is in no
sense '.usurpation." 1t is simply re-
storing to Il law passed by Congress a
large portion of the force and effect which
the Congress that passed it fully intended
it should have.
The difference is between the Execu-
tive interfering to prevent the execution
of a law passed by Congress i'm way
| which would greatly narrow its scope and
effect, and an Executive restoring to that
law the vitality which it had when origi-
nally passed.
This is broad distinction which the
| wayfaring man, though he be fool
should be able to see.