The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-30
|C. OF C. FAV0RS
 EXTENDING VETO
 FOR PRESIDENCY
Would Give National Exc. cutive Greater Power of
 Rejection.

Because the President must approve a bill as a whole or the entire ap- propriation fails, and because appro- priation bills are frequently presented for action by the President which con- tain as riders provisions of law which nave nothing to do with the apprO- priation, the Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce has been asked to go on record for or against a suggested amendment to the constitution which would permit the President to ap- prove or disapprove any separate 1 items or provisions in any appropria- 1 ton bill.
 The question is presented to the 1 Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce through referendum submitted by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States to the principal organi- ] cations of the country
 1 It is argued that the appropriation 1 provisions of a bill may be entirely in the public interest but those relat- l ing to the rider directly against the public interest. If the President had i power to veto items and provisions in l such bills, he could approve one and l veto the other; but being presented l conjointly the President is now com 1 pelled to approve both or Veto both. The President is thus deprived of the power of using his own discretion and 1 coerced into either accepting that
 which his judgment disapproves, or 1 defeating that which he believes wise and necessary. This lack of power l of the chief executive was declared to | be one of the reasons for the exist ence of what is now known as the pork barrel"
 l Power to veto separate items, it is explained, is a pure economy matter. 1 Without it Congress can put through pork barrel item of appropriation or I a series of such items, which the
 President cannot veto without at the
 same time vetoing the supply bill for
 running the government. This power
 priation is given to many governors,
 separate and distinct entirely from questions of riders. l The National Chamber of Com merce referendum raises the question
 of giving the President also' the power 1 of vetoing riders which is not an
 economy power, but power to prevent l Congress from forcing him to ap- prove legislation by lacking it on to
 an appropriation bill which he can-
 not afford to veto as a whole. Where
 rider legislation is prevented by state constitutions it is not through power 1 to veto, but through a restriction on
 the legislation by a provision that a bill must deal with one subject of ] legislation which must be adequately set forth in the title of the bill.
 ] It was at the request of the Mer- l chants Association of New York that 1 the National Chamber took up the
 veto question. With the referendum
 are affirmative arguments advanced
 by the Merchants Association and its
 representative, William C.. Breed, o1 1 New York. On the other hand, as is invariably the case when the National Chamber asks it's members to pass Judgment upon question, the refer
 endum carries an abstract of the ar gumerits against the proposal to be voted upon.
 The appropriation bills for the
 three sessions of the 62nd Congress covered an expenditure of $1,302,- l139, ,454.60 and represented upwards l of 15 different appropriation meas
 ures i1 each session, many of which came to the President at the conclu-
 sion of the session when there was a 1 great press of legislation and little tinnk in which to consider it. Vetoing
 any of these, it is pointed out, would have meant a serious clogging of the
 business of national government.
 '"The President is practically pow
 erless to prevent these abuses" the
 argument goes on, (which lie at the l root of governmental extravaganza by reason of the fact that he can ex-
 ercise no discretion as to individual
 items, but must accept measures as a
 whole or reject them as a whole. Forty-five days are allowed for the 1 balloting which will close January 23.