The Washington times., 1906-01-09
Responsibility With Authority.

MUCH Is MADE To-Day OF senator
Hale's assertion to his colleagues
that the President, by his latest mes
sage on the Panama canal, commits
back all of the extraordinary powers
that have been committed to him to
Congress for its action" Ii is point
ed out with emphasis that the Presi-
dent specifies no such purpose. 1t
is even suggested that the Republi-
can leader. with characteristic poise,
intended to be sarcastic, although he
spoke Ostensibly for a Republican
Administration and in answer to an
attack upon that Administration
from a Democrat.
The truth of the matter is that
the President did not seek the Eek
traordinary powers" which the Sen
ate was the chief means of intrust-
ing to him. 1t was believed by the
Republican leaders of that body that
If Congress looked TO the Executive
for the administration of the canal
zone and the prosecution of the
work upon the canal. Theodore
Roosevelt would insist upon having
abundant authority to produce those
results. On that ground, and not
at all because the President sought
it, the Republican leaders designated
Senator Spooner to draft the act
under which the President has pro-
ceeded up to this time. The enor-
nous responsibilities it conveyed to
the Executive were with all pro-
priety accompanied by enormous
power. Assuming that Congress
meant to hold the White House
liable for the progress of the work,
the delegation of that power was its
only course.
Yesterday the President submit
ted to Congress, not a message alone.
but a series of reports made to him
as the officer responsible for the
progress OF the work. Those reports
included mass Of details which
could be of only secondary interest
TO Congress unless Congress chose
TO scrutinize them in the light of
its own responsibility to the nation.
II Congress does choose so 10 ex-
anime those reports in that light, if
ii chooses to weigh this particular
administrative act today and that
one tomorrow. and to supervise all
of them all the time, then only one
conclusion is fair-that. having
withdrawn the plenary discretion it
Entrusted TO the President it will
withdraw also the extraordinary re-
sponsibility which it imposed upon
him.
In other words it is for Congress
TO decide. This message and every
such other message as the President
may transmit. gives Congress the
same opportunity. 1t is at least a
fair construction of the Presidents
course that he meant TO give yester-
days message that character. In
which event Senator Hale spoke only
common sense when he stated that
by that message the Executive com
mitted back all the extraordinary
powers that have been committed to
him to Congress. -
But this construction of the Presi-
dents attitude as revealed by the
Presidents message need not stand
alone. 1t is now an open secret that,
in the course of the debate over the
appointment of Joseph B. Bishop,
the President communicated to lead
ing Republican Senators in specific
terms his entire willingness that
Congress should take back the au-
thority conveyed by the Spooner act
whenever it was willing to assume
also the responsibility conveyed by
that act.
There need be no doubt on this
point.