The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-08-25


procity congress in regard to maximum,
and minimum tariff leaving to the pres
ident the power and direction to adjust
it with different nations to meet the
true spirit of reciprocity, and but very
little has been said upon the question
of the right of congress to delegate leg
islative powers to the president.
Section |, article l of the federal con-
stitution provides that Fall legislative
powers herein granted shall be vested
in the congress of the United States,
which shall consist of senate and
house of representatives" but many
precedents have been established which
has enlarged the executive authority
from time to time by act of congress.
In 1909, congress passed an act for
bidding the importation of any mer-
chandise from Great Britain and France.
The same act left it in the power of the
president to enforce it by suspending
the trade by proclamation, and it also
provided that the president could renew
the act in the same way. 1t was prac-
tically saying that the nonintercourse
act, so called was to be suspended or
enforced by the president on conditions
fixed in the act.
1t was contended then that this was
a transfer of legislative authority to
the executive, but the supreme court
held that it was not.
Congress empowered Washington to
lay an embargo upon all ships, whether
foreign or domestoic, when in his opin-
ion the public sefety required it. This
act, think, was never passed upon by
the supreme court. In 1915 President
Madison approved an act passed by con-
gress which gave him the power to re
peal the act whenever satisfactory proof
had been offered that certain discrim-
mating duties prejudicial TO the United
States had been removed, and, as mat
ter of fact, he did repeal that part of
the law by proclamation. The consti-
tutionality of the act, so far as l can
find, was never passed upon by the SUI
preme court.
In 1917 congress prohibited the inn
portation of any foreign vessel carry
ing plaster of paris from any country
which did not permit the United States
vessels to bring the same article. The
president was authorized to repeal the
act by proclamation, in favor of any
nation that should discontinue such reg
ulation. In 1924 congress passed an act
which empowered the president to sus-
pend the act itself, upon satisfactory
evidence being given to the president
by the foreign government affected
thereby, that no discriminating duties
or imports are imposed upon American
vessels. Proclamations suspending that
act have been issued from time to time
from the time of President Adams in
1928, and including proclamations from
Jackson, Polk, Fillmore, Buchanan, John
son, Grant and Hayes. The act OF May
81, 1880, repealed duties upon tonnage of
foreign nations provided the president
found that the foreign country affected
did not impose discriminating duties to
the disadvantage of the United States.
And so it may be shown by various
acts that congress has continually di-
rected the president to do certain things
under certain circumstances, and so far
the supreme court has sustained every
ore of the acts. but each case that has
been decided finding that it was not
the delegation of legislative power to
the president.
The case nearest in point is that of
Marshall Field against Clark, collector,
which decided that the reciprocity clause
contained in the tariff act of 1900,
known as the Mckinley bill, was consti-
tutional. This was the very first act
of commercial reciprocity ever passed,
and while it provided for the free i'm
portation of sugar, coffee, tea, hides, ETC.,
it also provided that the free list should
be suspended, so as to apply against
any country imposing exactions upon our
products, which the president deemed
to be unreasonable. In seeking to avoid
and set aside the so-called Mckinley
law, the point was raised in this case,
by counsel for Marshall Field that con-
gress, leaving the president to deter
mine the fact as to when any other ma
ton Disseminated against us, and leav
ing it to the president to suspend the
act, delegated legislative power to the
president. But the supreme court in a
most exhaustive opinion, delivered by
Justice Harlan, held that that power
given to the president was command,
practically, by the legislative power, di-
recting the president to do certain
things under certain conditions and it
left no discretion in the executive as to
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