Bisbee daily review., 1905-08-04
CABINETS DECADENCE.
Under Roosevelt It Has Become
 of Little Importance.
CHANGE IN CHARACTER OF BODY

Advisers of the President Are So
 Reality-SeIdOm Consulted by the
 Present Chief EzecutIve-The One
 Man Rule.
 The presidents cabinet as a body of advisers has become of little impOr- tance under Mir. Roosevelt. The change in the character of that body has not come about instantaneously, but in Mir. Roosevelt's administration the recent unimportance of the cabinet has been emphasized The theory that a cabinet officer must be, first of all, an efficient administrator of his department has developed with the increase and multi plication of the duties of the depart ment itself. Experience, however, has shown that this departure from the original intention has been attended by a distinct loss in the character of the cabinet. Men have been introduced in. 10 it, not under Mfr. Roosevelt alone, who a generation ago would not have been dreamed of for the high and i'm portant place of adviser to the presi- dent. Under him, however, the descent has been Increasingly swift
 The cabinet of the president Of the United States, like the British cabinet is unknown to the law. No provision of the constitution requires the presi- dent to have a cabinet He must ap- point heads of the departments, and he may call upon them whenever he de sires for their opinions in writing. He takes advantage Of his opportunity when he combines the beads of the de partments into a political family with whom he can consult on questions of importance. There is nothing Illegal in the presidents going on in his own way or without the advice of his min isters or any one else. There is no legal or constitutional reason why he should not advise directly with the subordinates of the various cabinet officers. In this respect the American is wholly unlike tie British cabinet, for the latter governs and the crown must accept the decisions of it's minis ters.
 Thoroughly good government in Q democracy cannot be had without close and friendly and proper relations between the executive and the legis- latlve departments. Such relations gre sought in one way on the other side of the water. Under our own system they must be obtained through the in- fiuence exercised by the men who are at the head of the departments, infu- 7 ence due both to their character and to their party standing. Nothing can so injure or can so readily prevent the | establishment of such influence as to | belittle the importance of cabinet off cers as advisers by making them the [ mere administrative heads of their va ! rious offices. The result of this sort of treatment of the members of the cabi- ! net is seen in the attitude of congress ! to them. The cabinet has no longer any Tmpressiveness. Mir. Roosevelt's s | own cabinet is not a political entity. ! Its members cannot be said to consti- ute his political family Their advice is not sought, and their opinions, whether they agree or disagree with | the president, are treated as if they were of no importance.
 ! The advisers of the president used ] to be considered to be of large i'm 1 portance in that capacity, but now they arc advisers merely in name and form, not in reality They differ from one another and still remain in the cabinet
 i MT. Hays advice is usually taken in ! foreign affairs, sometimes it is not. It ! is unlikely that he was consulted in regard to Panama It is known that ] he was ignorant at the time of it's ex- ecution of the Santo Domingo so call ed protocol of Jan. 20. Most of the members of the cabinet are rarely if I ever asked to give their opinions on the political policy of the administration. Among this majority are Secretary ! Hitchcock, Secretary Wilson, Secreta- " Shaw, Secretary Metcalf and See retary Morton. Secretary Hay is not a ! close adviser of the president on gen , eral matters, but Secretaries Taft and Cortelyou and Attorney General Moo dy are echoes of the president. These GOllG dS AACtiA any AD bSAAAe5 etN They are like the cabal of Charles II. or like the kings friends" of George III.
 We have a little interior cabinet which is at least talked to, but the cabinet meeting is no longer held for the purpose of discussing the large af- fairs of state. Cabinet officers are no 1 longer chosen in order that the presi- dent may have at his service the high est ability and the richest experience of the leaders of his party. The cab met meeting itself has become almost an idle form, at which small details of the current business of administration are considered. Then the president, it Is said, asks his four friends or one or two or three of them to remain after ward and to listen to his views on some phase of his policy. This is not
 the kind of government which we used
 to have, and it Is doubtful if we shall always like the rule of one man with out real and influential advisers. It is