The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-06
IN FOREIGN EYES MT. Roosevelt Seems to For eigners 0 Non Political
 President. THEREFORE EXCEPTIONAL He Has Tried to Discover What Would Be Good for the United
 States.


 and to some extent, therefore, as an exception. He has set before his countrymen an ideal of public life which is in many ways better and higher than those of the political par ties. A political party in a country with a democratic constitution runs the risk of either faction or c9llec- tion of doctrinaires The theory is that in a democratic nation there are two sets of political principles that the state can be worked according to either set, and that there are two parties each identified with one of the rival bodies of doctrine. It Is hardly tenable theory, and a party that talks much of its principles is apt to embarrass itself in the day when it has obtained the opportunity to put them into practice. But if there is no distinction of principle between two parties 1t ceases to be. an easy matter to distinguish them from two asso- citations for the purpose of obtaining the executive for their own ends. The doctrine is usually set out in a less simple form. At any given moment a difference of opinion exists or arises in regard to some public matter of first-rate importance, Electors range themselves according to their view or this one dominant question, and those who are agreed in reference to It agree also to work together to obtain its settlement according to their view and meanwhile to consider as of no importance their differences of opin- ion upon other matters regarded as comparatively insignificant But this theory also fails to cover the facts, except in a vague and general way. The question at issue between parties changes every few years, but the membership of the parties changes comparatively little, because men who have once been associated in public action dislike changing their habits and companions. MT Roosevelt since he first became President has not as rule given his attention or called the attention of others to the doctrines of parties or 10 points about which American politicians usually contend. He does not seem to have asked him self what Is the Republican and what the Democratic program, but rather to have tried to discover what would sbe good for the United States. That ap | pears to ns to be in great part the se- | cret of the hold which he las had | upon the respect and admiration of | his countrymen, though no doubt much Is also due to his personal qual-, ities to his interesting career, and to
 his generous impulse to take a hand in any good work that he may see do- | Ing or to be done. The strenuous life
 which Is his ideal faithfully put into
 practice from his youth has never given him much leisure for deep the- l oretical studies. If has strengthened l his faith in right conduct, and many | of his public utterances have the air of the exhortations of a Carlyle to "re- form first of all ourselves rather than of the discourses of the typical Amerl- | can politician. Mir Roosevelt's polite | cal philosophy takes broader sweep than that of the average party leader
 IL takes account not merely of two | parties. but of the whole nation and
 It's relation to other nations, and MT ] Roosevelt perhaps for that reason, has l taken a keener interest In the Ameri- can navy than any of his predecessors i He Is perhaps the first President who i has ventured tactly 10 reject Wash ington's maxim as to dealings with | foreign nations and to substitute for 1t theory more in accordance with. the modern practice of the United states.
 | One of the most dispitable points in the American constitution Is the ar | rangement which entrusts the execu- | tive power, without responsibility to a parliamentary assembly except in the matter of treaties, to a President elected for four years The fact of direct popular election makes the | President Irresponsible and the sev- erance between the executive and the | legislative powers makes both houses | Of congress less important than parliament which creates and controls 1 the executive. The shortness of the presidential term has results which seem to outsiders bad Tn the first place the whole country Is every fourth year plunged into the political orgy of presidential election, and thls disturbing influence lasts for | something like whole year, Then ev- cry President after his third year of office. if not during tho whole of his first term, Is subject to the temptation
 of framing his policy with an eye to
 his own reelection II has often seemed to us that great boon to the
 United States would he an amendment
 of the Constitution so framed as to
 extend the presidential term of office
 to seven ar eight years without the
 possibility of re-election.-London