The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-08
PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGES
By Frederic ]. Haskin.
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nBlg&HkMHh3 lAh VI " RH4 U N H 84If k3h M lHa hN 1 to Congress 1t contained that express sion, anticipating Steffens's article. which was still in the hands of the publishers. The literary merit of Me- 1 Kinley's messages improved after John Hay became his ranking advisor, and the messages of Cleveland show that he received some help on them. rns literary folk say that even Washing ] tons farewell address shows a good | deal of Alexander Hamilton in 1t. On \ the other hand, J. Pierpont Morgan has the original letter written to James Madison by George Washington. ask Ing him to prepare the farewell ad- dress. and outlining the proposed pa- | per.
 Great care Is taken these days to prevent the premature publication of a presidential message. There has nev- | CT been leak through newspaper men betraying a confidence, but there have been leaks ct the government printing office. During the Harrison adminis- ] tration one of his messages got into a New York paper in advance of its de- livery to Congress-. A thorough inves- tigation followed. It developed that an employe of the government print | Ing ofnce had access to the message and had sold Its contents to the Wash ington correspondent of the paper in question: The fellow was protected by the correspondent, and he is still in the government service.
 Once since then there was A rather serious leak. the offender being a magazine whose editor is a close friend of MT. Roosevelt. Some of the ad- vance copies of the magazine containing a synopsis of the mes sage got into Wall Street. Since that time the magazines have had no l eh fo Ice messages. In that instance, Wall Street showed a fuctuating market as result of the information. Not even the politician awaits forthcom- Ing message with the anxiety and in- terest of the Wall Street contingent. Whenever there is e stock market, stocks stand a chance to rise or fall because of these Presidential utter ances, and this applies to London, Par IS. Berlin and like commercial cen | ters or other countries as we'll as 1t applies to those of our own.
 No other President has So widely consulted others about his messages as has Mir. Roosevelt. He has had a way | of addressing informal notes to Sena- tors, Representatives, and others whom he wished to consult asking | them to come to talk over certain matters with him. He gets the views of all sides on a question and then reaches his conclusion for himself. Men whom he consults about a mes sage do not go around proclaiming the fact from the housetops and the world at large never knows about it.
 Mir. Roosevelt has always been be- forehanded in the matter of preparing his annual messages. No proscrastina- l ton could be tolerated. But this year he has been behind his schedule time. Heretofore he has had the message 6x N@., 4vsth N..VT | before It's delivery to Congress. This time he was only two weeks ahead of the release date. Under present arrangements the press associations are given full control of the distribu- ton of the message, and 1t is said that no other State paper in the world. with the single exception of the in- augural addresses. has the wide cir culation that Is enjoyed by the annual messages to Congress.
 Grover Cleveland Is probably the only President of the United States who ever thought 1t was more import ant for him to say what he felt ought to be said, than that he should be con- tinued in office. Certainly he was the only President who ever devoted an entire annual message to one subject. In 1887 he, decided that he ought to put the tariff question forward as the one great matter which Congress should consider. He wrote his single subject message as a result of that decision. Before he sent 1t to Con- gross Democratic politicians advised him that 1t would be mistake, and that he could not be reelected if he sent 1t. To this he replied that 1t was more important that he send that message to Congress than 1t was that he should be President again.
 He was also the only President who @4r at fo to Congress for a reduction of the surplus at one time and for the crea- tion of a surplus at another. When he finished his first term there was big sum of money in the Treasury, and he sought to have the tariff taxes lowered more for the purpose of re- ducing the surplus than for abolish ing protection. When the Harrison administration had finished its work, the surplus had been reduced to the point where 1t needed replenishing. and Mir. Cleveland was forced to issue bonds for the expenses of the Govern ment.
 MT. Cleveland was the greatest word and phrase coiner who ever sat in the presidential chair, up to the time of Mir Roosevelt "Innocuous desue- tude." "pernicious activity" "offen- sive partisans," and "ghoulish glee" are among the terms he added to the VOCABULARY HE oASbeEB 14lSS Rose Cleveland was something of a literary light and some of the anti Cleveland papers professed to believe that She was the phrase-coiner of the administration, and even went so far as to say that she wrote her brother's messages Women have been accused of many upusual activities in politics, as, for instance. Mrs. Blaine is de- clared to have been responsible for the breach between her husband and President Harrison, and later for his retirement from the Harrison Cabinet; but this seems to be the only case where it was ever changed that a wo- man was the author of a presidential message.
 James Buchanan was the only Prssi- dant who ever denied the right of Con gregs to call Into question the omclal acts of a President. The Houae had passed e resolution creating 6 special oonmittee to investigate some Of his acts. Re forthwith send a message to Congress denying such a right and