The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1907-11-02


mercial grandeur had been reached for the nation
but owned by the few to the oppression of the
time of earnest consideration is at hand, dur
ing which the presidential methods will be scrut-
nized with watchful eye, to wherein the great
good has been consciously or unconsciously accom-
panied by unfairness.
Reform applied severely in some quarters and g-
nored in others, is not even half of good reform
Punishment administered to one offender and with
held arbitrarily from another, is merely persecution
in the of law, and evil perpetrated in the
of righteousness. To call railway magnate an
undesirable citizen because of his violation of the
law in the administration of his financial power and
to elevate to a cabinet position another railway
magnate who had confessedly violated the law in
necessary rivalry with his competitors, is to the
thoughtful man such an extravagant abuse of power
as to make eventual notification of much of the
presidential purpose and to work evil for the cause
of reform by making reform itself an Objectionable
thing in the popular mind
The executive of this nation is in the present hour
possessed of an authority, by popular sufferance,
never heretofore accorded to a President of this
republic Extra constitutional privileges freely
allowed by the popular will The danger to Our in
sttutons is ignored An obliteration of the sharp
dividing lines between the several departments of
government is permitted. All these things not
only allowed, but welcomed and approved by the
populace because of belief that using extravagant
authority, the President is devoting that authority
to achieve the peoples rights. Thus he stands at
upon the safest and most delicate ground ever
occupied by a chief executive Supported in ad-
mited violation of our old ideals he obtains his sus-
tenance solely from the popular view that he is
discharging his duty trustee of the popular pur
1ll..4 IL
ton of his own-no favoritism-and that he and his
successors will be as ready to relinquish the extra
constitutional privilege as he has been that
privilege.
1t will not be deemed by thoughtful men an
Just reflection upon the exercise of the presidential
if one shall call attention to the dan
gers which are associated with the exercise of un-
limited power by President, whose authority is by
the letter and the spirit of our constitution a limited
one. In the present case the danger is two-fold
First that in the name of needed reform of specific
evils the President shall achieve an abiding change
in the character of our government; and second,
that in the name of the square deal he shall punish
such offenders as are personally repugnant to him.
and shall cherish and foster such offenders as have
the advantage of his personal regard
The people of the United States want genuine
form impartiay applied In the belief that the
present chief executive is actuated by this high and
holy sentiment they aprove him; but if they shall
find that, even in some small and yet appreciable
degree, his resoluteness is vanity, his opposition to
individual wrong-doers is personal dislike of the
offenders and not the offense, and that he pro-
Lect other individual wrong-doers for the sake of
aersonal friendship there will be the most terrific
SCATTERING of an idol that the nation has ever seen
The best friends of President Roosevelt, and the
men who most vvidly admire his policies, cannot
render better service to him or the nation than to