The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-16

Tribune.
 A HE extent to which President 9 Roosevelt avails himself of the
 brains and counsel of his "con- stitutional advisers" as he loves to call all the members of the Senate, is little known outside of the circle familiar with his methods and the senators themselves and as they generally regard his consul tation as confidential matter, they seldom or never refer to it. It is a. fact that President Roosevelt, perhaps to a greater degree than any of his predecessors, avails himself freely of the best brains in the Senate. and whether or not he follows the advice given him he at least enjoys the opportunity of learning and weighing the impressions made on a number of trained minds by the various policies he advocates or pur- poses to advocate.
 The President is always forehanded in the preparation of his annual message to Congress. This year the copy was sent to the public printer soon after the Elk ecutive returned from Oyster Bay. The galley proofs having been completely re- vised, the mater was arranged in pages, and just before leaving for Panama, the President approved them and the doeu- ment is now undergoing it's final correc- tion in the government printing office. This will permit, not only of the distri- button of confidential copies to the news papers of this country by mail, but the sending of similar copies ten days rom now to the American embassies Tn Eu- rope as well, so that the foreign press will be able to print copious extracts without the necessity of paying cable tolls.
 One of the reasons which actuate the President in this early preparation of his most important annual official utterance is that it is his custom to submit sec tions of the galley proofs, which he dis sects according to topics, to those mem bers of the Senate whom he regards as best posted on the respective subjects. For instance. to Senators Lodge, Spooner and Foraker, and possibly to senator Knox, he usually sends those portions or the message touching the foreign affairs and relations of the nation; to senators Aldrich, Spooner, Hale and Allison goes tho section dealing with the financial at- 
 fairs of the country; to Senator Hale IS sent the paragraph referring to the navy to Senators Foraker and Proctor the ref erence to the army; to Senator foraker the section affecting Porto Rico, and to Senator Lodge that relating to the Phll- ippines; to Senators Knox and Spooner those sections dealing with legal and constitutional questions, and so on.
 To each Senator the President addresses q confidential and personal note begging the recipient to criticise the inclosure freely and to make any suggestions which seem to him pertinent, and It Is one or the admirable characteristics Of President Roosevelt that no matter how decidedly his advisers differ with him he never takes offense, but, on the contrary, usu- ally requests the dissenter 10 orop III and talk it oyer.'
 Of course. the notes which the Presi- dent sends to his advisers are informal, as is the entire method and for that reason he can disregard the extreme and sometimes cumbersome etiquette of the Senate He does not confine his request for advice to the chairmen of the conl- mittees which deal with the respective topics, and occasionally he even fails to ask the chairmans opinion, but that usually results from the fact that he is pretty familiar with such views as the chairman may. entertain. and, moreover, he has come to respect the views of par tcuar men on given subjects For in- stance, Senator Spooner, though he has never been q member of the committee on interoceanic canals, has always been regarded, both by the President and the Senate, as an authority on the Panama canal, he having, in fact, twice saved the enterprise from legislative disaster by drafting and securing the enactment of essential legislation when the commit tees of the two chambers were in dead lock.
 That the public has never heard of this method employed doubtless to some ex- tent by all Presidents, but to the greatest degree by President Roosevelt is due to the reluctance of senators to discuss the subject or to reveal the fact that they have been consulted by the President Often senators come to Washington, call at the White House and have one or sev-