Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-01-26
~AUTOCRATIC LEGISLATION.
Assumption by Executive officers of
the Functions of Repre-
sentatives.

Secretary Shaw hes issued the ex-
pected ruling allowing the drawback
or rebae of duty paid on by-products,
as well as -four mace from imported
wheat. 1t was expected because it
was asked for by powerful special in
t%erests, and they have a habit of get
ting what they want from this admin
istration when they stand in with it.
1t was expected, says the st. Paul
Globe, because both the treasury de-
partment and the department of JUS
tice have been searching the files and
the presidents for weeks past with
the object Of discovering some ground
for just such action as they have taken.
Nobody has allowed himself to on
slider the propriety of the act or the
limitations that should surround ex-
ecutive authority. The whole Ques-
ton has been not to find out what
ought to be done, what could be done
under a right Interpretation of the
law, but to discover if an %interpreta-
ton of the law could be made, by any
forced or twisted construction, which
would meet the wishes of executive
officers and their powerful friends.
We repeat that we do not quarrel
with the practical effect of the rule.
The millers ought to have free wheat.
They should have 1t because the tariff
on wheat is an utter fraud, a sham and
a lie. The tax is imposed to fool the
farmer into the belief that he is get
ting something in exchange for the
sums tilched from him under the guise
of protective duties en- everything that
he uses. 1t could be wiped out of ex-
istence tomorrow and no farmer in
the United States be d penny the worse
for it. That would conflict with the
plans of the tariff beneficiaries, how
ever, and they insist that it shall re-
main on the books, but that all power
should be taken out of it as far as the
millers are concerned. Hence the rul-
ing of Secretary Shaw, which is so
absurd upon the face of it, SO forced
and strained, that it is below the level
of common contempt.
The most serious aspect of this &C.
ton is one to which we have already
called attention. 1t is the assumption
by executive officers of legislative
functions. If there is any principle
fundamental to this government, it is
the distribution of all power in this
country among the three departments.
executive, legislative and judicial, and
the laying down of the fixed law that
none of these shall pass over the boun-
diaries or trespass upon the powers and
privileges of any other. When this
rule shall be abolished or generally
disregarded, We must have usurpa-
ton; because the department that sue
cessfully takes prerogatives from
another must eventually become su-
preme. Secretary Shaw has no more
right to make a ruling like this, di-
rectly negativing a law regularly
passed by congress. than President
Roosevelt has to order the arrest and
imprisonment Of some citizen without
warrant of law.
The incident is not singular. The
habit is becoming common. One de-
partment officer after another. some
times with a good motive and driven
to Impotence by congressional delay.
sometimes through mere love of
power and desire to increase it, some
times, like Secretary Shaw, wishing
to placate interests SO powerful that
the government itself bows before
them, issues an arbitrary order that
supersedes law and vetoes it. To allow
this without protest is a far more
serious matter than to grant or refuse
a drawback. 1t is 10 consent to the
blending of three departments of gov
eminent in one, to diminish the pre-
rogative of the legislature and trans
fer it to executive officers. No coun-
try is so free and no people SO intelli-
gent that this form of illegal action
can be tolerated with impunity.