Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-01-18
gaaaln9toG Standard
OINul'iA. WASH.
iRIpAl NaRNiNG. jiNllEI IS. 1907.
President Ignores Precedent.

President Roosevelt does not seem
to honor preccdents any more than he
respects public opinions that conflict
with his own ideas. 1t has been the
custom Tor the Executive to recognize
the senate as a coordinate branch
OF the general governments, and among
it, rulc- WA. necessity Tor lolnt-reso-
luton by Congress. formally notifying
the President vi Its organization and
readiness to receive any official COM
munIcatIun he might chOuse to send
t. that body or either branch thereof.
His Strenuositv has, however, detled
this time honored custom, by sending
in all nominations that had accumu-
lated during the Congressional recess,
numbering several hundred.
Manhood is not so perfect that the
assumption OF such prerogatlve does
not carry with it some chance Tor
clash oi opinions and assertion OF out
ragged iii gnity. The Senate had already
appointed Senators Pettus and Hale
OF the ii ut committee, to walt upon
the President and present the JOINT
potntments was received, they post
poned that mission till the next day,
and Senator Penrose, not to be outdone
in the iconoclsstic spirit manifested
BY the Preside mt, Immediately arose
and presented q resolution calling
upon the Presld cnt for all information
relat!n. to the summary discharge OF
negr, soldiers be longing to the Twen'
ty-rifth infantry. Vice President
Fairbanks called the Senator's atten-
ton to the fact that the resolution was
contrary to practice, but Mr.. Penrose
insisted and the Senate acquiesced in
the departure from usage as justifia'
able proceeding under the circum-
stances. II it be held that even the
unwritten rules OF social life are sus-
tanned by precedent, to establish the
line of demarka,ion between civiliza-
ton and barbarism, how much more
essential must it bs for deliberative
bodlee to recognize all the forms of
official intercourse established to guard
against any possible disagreement and
friction that might interrupt public
duty. The result, in this instance,
was that while the Senate went into
executive session, behind closed doors,
that body decided, as termed by one
of its members, to let the nomina-
tions "sweat awhile" establishing a
third precedent which may serve to
still farther widen the breach during
the short and closing session of the
Fifty.ninth Congress between Execu.
tiva and Congress.
1t seems appropriate in this conuec.
ton to refer to fact that at one SEES.
sion of our Legislature, during Terri.
torial days, . deadlock" existed .
whole fortnight over . no more impor.
tant matter than the refusal of the
Council Gas the upper body of the Leg
islativc Assembly was then called) to
receive a message from the House
delivered after that body had ad-
journed. The Council held that, under
joint rule, the House should have
waited till the Clerk had completed
the act of messenger by returning to
his desk.
Men are frequently shown to be,
under excitement, IS querulous Is
school boys, and Is deserving Of CEN
sure, and our strenuous President has
At times -shoyp d remarkable disposi.
ton to violate these safeguards founded
upon wisdom and justified by expsr-