Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1906-12-22

~ HESE are rather trying times
for those Of us who are not
yet emancipated from the in
u nuenoe Of precedent. There are
those among us--a fair sized and GER
fatnly highly intelligent minority--who
have been experiencing a series Of more
or less disintegrating shocks ever since
the president began to manifest his
apparent lack of veneration for po-
litical tradition. Their present condi-
ton is that OF bewildered wonderment
they realize that the ship Of state has
escaped shipwreck thus far, but they
cannot comprehend the reason there
for.
Yet that reason is far from mys-
terious 1t may be found in the fact
that the American state Is not de-
pendent for It's perpetuity on anything
that has happened In the remote past.
It may be true in q sense that "all law
and order are the result Of carefully
boarded tradition" but the American
commonwealth is law unto itself.
The iconoclastic nature Of no single
member Of It's composite nationality,
be he president or recently naturalized
citizen, can work great and permanent
injury
More than that, we have the repu-
tation of being precedent smashers.
our interest In tradition is not a very
erious matter, and precedent is quite
likely to appeal to our sense of humor.
We follow the somber gowned verger
through the abbey crypts In which so
much of the history of Britain lies
buried, but we are not so overcome by
the environment that we cannot extract
modicum Of amusement from the
pilgrimage. Few OF us are ever so i'm
pressed that we fail TO smile when the
solemn and unlettered guide recites his
perfunctory speech over the tomb Of
the Scottish queen whose sad fortune
and many indiscretions resulted in the
loss Of her head.
So It is that the unconventional
method of any of our executives is
more likely to inspire amusement than
dsquletude. Our national stability and
elasticity have been revealed to all the
outside world In this way. II in no
other We have not patterned largely
after the tradition Of Others and II Is
becoming very evident that we do not
purpose to depend on our own past as
model for present and future conduct
The United States senate Is reputed
10 be the one particular adjunct of our
national legislative system that is still
welded to precedent fortunate
perhaps that IL IS 49, ur tend
ehcy TO swing to the ppuu..lr extreme
II is we'll to be met by restraining
conservatism. 1t is the senate that
sun reserves for itself the privilege Of
being properly indignant at any at
tempted infringement Of its rules Of es-
~olished order. No man, be he way
up or way down." may venture to
ignore the etiquette which precedent
mas saddled upon this august body.
FROM time immemorial--as imme-
morial' that Is as our comparative age
as republic Will permit--it had been
the crstom of the president to with
"'a ms nominations Of cabinet APP
p''htees until his message mad been
sent In to the congress. This time,
however, Mr., Roosevelt sent in his list
LOT confirmation on the first day Of the
session.
=, why did he do it?" was a question
~ framed Itself in many senatorial
u'iho ana found utterance from more
nan one senatorial lip 1t was not that
." was unfamiliar with the practice,