Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-07-16
bRYAN'S VIEWS
OF presidency
NOMINEE WRITES ARTICLE FOR
GOLFERS WEEKLY.
Says Chief Executive Must Have keen
DiSCernmenf and Great Moral
COurage-Ought to Enter Office
without Thought or Ambition for
Second Term.

NEW YORK, July 14.-William j.
i Bryan has written an article entitled
| MY Conceptions of the Presidency"
| for the July IS issue of Golfers
| Weekly, in which he says:
'The presidents power for good
or for harm is often overestimated.
This government is a government of
checks and balances; power is dis
tributed among different departments,
and each of them works in co-opera-
tiOn with others. In the making of
laws, for instance, the president joins
with the senate and house; he may
| recommend, but he is powerless to
| legislate, except as a majority of the
senate and the house concur with
also independent of each other, each
| having veto over the other, and
the president has a veto over both,
except that the senate and house can,
by two-thirds vote overrule the
presidents veto. The influence of
the president over legislation is,
therefore, limited; he shares respon-
sibility with large number of the
peoples representatives
Even in the enforcement of law
he is hedged about by restrictions. He
acts through an attorney general
(whose appointment must be approv-
ed by the senate), and offenders
against the law must be prosecuted in
the courts, so that here again the re-
sponsibility is divided. In the max
ing of important appointments, too,
he must consult them and is of neces-
sity compelled to exercise care and
discretion.
"The most important requisite in a
president as in other officials is that
sympathy shall be with the whole
people, rather than with any fraction
of the population. He is constantly
called upon to act in the capacity of
judge-deciding between the i'm
portunities of those who seek favOrs
and the rights and interests of the
people, Unless his sympatihies are
right the few are sure to have an ad-
vantage over the many, for the masses
have no one to present their claims.
They act only at elections, and must
trust to their representatives to pro-
tect them from all their foes.
Second, the president must have a
knowledge of public questions and the
ability to discern between the true
and the false; he must be able to
analyze the conditions and to detect
the sophistries that are always en-
ployed by those who seek unfair ad-
vantages.
! "He must possess the moral cOur-
age to stand against the influences
that are brought to bear in favor of
special interests. In fact, the quality
of moral courage is as essential in a
public official as either right sympa-
thies or trained mind.
"The president must have COUNSEL
lors, and to make wise use of coun-
sellers, he must be open to conviction.
The president is committed by his
platform to certain policies, and the
platform is binding; he is also COM
mitted to certain principles of gov
ernment, and these he is in duty
bound to apply in all matters that
come before him."
"But there is wide zone in which
he must act upon his own judgment
and here he ought to have the aid
of intelligent, conscientious and faith
full advisers. The law provides these
| to a certain extent in giving him
cabinet and the vice president ought
to be made a member of the cabinet
ex officio, in order, first that the
president may have the benefit of his
wisdom and knowledge of affairs, and
second that the vice president may
NC DetlSI pItpdIeu W tdhc up tnc
work of the president in case of a
| vacancy in the presidential office.
There are ought to be cordial rela-
tions also between the president and
those who occupy positions of trust
in the coordinate branches of the
government for our government is not
a one-man government, but a gov
ernment in which the chosen repre-
Isentatives OF the people labor together
to give expression to the will of the
voters.