Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1915-01-21
(Continuation.)
How tho United States Could In
crease It's Efficiency


crease It's Efficiency.
An American Bundesrath or cOun-
Gil of the nation, would consist of the
Supreme Court enlarged to So mem-
bers by the inclusion of tho most
brilliant and gifted OF men in all
callings throughout the country. 1t
would unite in itself the functions Of
the Senate, the President and the
Supreme Court, and would be limited
by the lower house on the one hand
und have it's policy carried out
through the fundamentally of o
Secretary of State, on the other, who
would have all the cabinet members
under him as head clerks and whose
policy would always have to conform
to that Of the Bundesrath and lower
house. There would be no President,
as we now know the Office, but
commander-in-chief of the army and
navy with certain appointive and
formal routine functions.
The reason why such a form Of
government is so vastly superior to
the American system of divided
functions is that the body which
makes the laws puts them into exc
cution and passes upon them judi
cially.
The absurdity of laws being de-
clared unconstitutional does not exist
in Germany, because the Bundesrath
is the highest judicial authority AS
a rule, few and only tho most inn
portant judicial cases come before it,
but is does not upset laws as do our
courts by declaring them unconstitu-
tional Such an action would be
merely repeating the law, and the
Bundesrath does not pass laws mere
ly to repeal them again.
The VIII of the People Carried Out
in Germany.
There is no danger Of a law not
being in accord with the German
constitution, because the Dundesrath
and Reichstag have the power OF
altering the constitution by majority
vote, and any law passed is of as
much effect as any portion of the
constitution and would have the
effect of repeating any portion Of the
constitution with which it was not
in accord.
In the United States laws passed
by Congress arc inferior to the laws
which are embodied in the form Of
the constitution. That is, we have
two qualities OF law, ordinary law
and the super-law Of the constitution.
And the courts have the power Of
scrutinizing the ordinary laws and
determining whether they agree with
the super-law or not Thus the Su-
preme Court is the final power in the
United States. It's members have life
tenure Of office and are appointed by
various presidents from time to time,
and though the supreme power in
the hand, it is removed at the
greatest possible distance from the
influence of the will OF the people.
It would appear, indeed, that the
American system. had it been in
tended to make the ascertainment
and carrying out oft he viii or the
people as difficult and tedious a pro-
cess as possible, could not have been
more successfully designed The re-
turning of the members of the lower
house from the states as units makes
it impossible for any important third
party to exist. There must always be
only two really contending political
parties. The will of the people can
only be expressed in the substitution
in power Of one political party for
the other. Now each political party
represents certain things The De-
mocrats stand for free trade. anti
imperialism and antitrust condi-
tions, and the Republicans favor
protection, imperialism and trusts.
The Paradox Of American Legis-
lation.
In the last election the Democrats
won, principally on the antitrust
issue. The public expressed its will
on that point But in doing so, it
committed itself to FREQ trade and
to anti-imperialism for the time be-
ing, because even the Democrats
themselves cannot tell decisively to
what issue they owe their power, and
they assume they won on all planks
and attempt to carry them all out
Now it is likely that the public
really prefers high tariff as that has
long been the policy OF the country.
But itswallows low tariff temp
If such be the case. in order to smash
the trusts. If it desires to return to
high tariff. it must relinquish its
antitrust attitude which it probably
does not want to do Therefore, un-
dor the American system it is almost