The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-07-05
THE POWER OF THE PRESI
DENT.

We do not call the President a die
tator, but for all useful purposes he
is one. Except that he does not have
the power of life and death, there is
little difference between his outhor-
ity and that which the Roman senate
| used to confer on a dictator, or the
authority that Napoleon arrogated to
himself. Indeed, the Roman senate
was never more submissive to the
wishes of the dictators than the con-
gres of the United States is to the
wishes of Mr.. Wilson.
To begin with, he is commander
in chief of the army and navy and
as such may choose the generals and
the admirals who are to lead the ma
tional forces; he may determine
when and where those forces shall
be sent and may exercise full control
over the whole military policy of the
nation. Having also in charge the
foreign relations of the country, he
| may formulate and announce the
foreign purposes of the nation. When
| the time comes for concluding peace
he may name the men who will rep
resent the United States at the inter-
national council; and although he
may not tell them what they shall
agree to, they can make no effective
settlement that he does not approve.
All that of course has been true
at any time in the past, and of every
President in every war. What is new
is changes in the form of our gov
eminent and changes that affect our
daily lives.
| Congress has conferred on the
President the power to reorganize
the government. He may transfer
duties from one department to an
other and either wholly or in part de
prive a bureau or a comission of its
former functions and place them
elsewhere. No doubt the government
needed to be reorganized in the in
terest of efficiency, but heretofore
congress has retained the right to
create departments and assign their
| functions to them. If it were not
that prompt action is needed, the in
itiative might far better be left to
congress.
The President, through his chosen
/ ho hac tho atIthnritIr
and is responsible for all that is
done,-exercises control over almost
every phase of our personal lives.
j Thou shalt and thou shalt not meet
us at every turn. He dictates what
we may and what we may not eat.
He so controls the supply of mater
ials and manufacturing plants that
produce them that we depend upon
him even for the clothing we wear
There were a thousand and one ar
ticles in common, and, we thought,
Indispensable use before the war
that are not now to be had at all;
for those who made them are produc
ing other things. Moreover, if by
chance you can get what you want,
you must pay price for it that may
seem. to you excessive, but that the
President, through his representa-
tives, has fixed.
You can have only as much coal
as an agent permits, only as much
sugar as another agent permits. If
you produce copper, you may charge
only as much as the copper con-
troller will allow. The railways are
all managed by the government,
which makes timetables for its own
convenience rather than for the con-
venience of the public, and which
fixes rates for passenger service and
freight. The President decides what
and how much may be imported or
exported He opens and closes sea-
ports as he thinks proper. By pro-
clamation he distinguishes between
those who may and those who may
not move at will about the country.
If anyone had predicted, say in
| 1910, that such a condition would
come to pass in this country he
would have been called fool. Yet
the condition exists, and no one COM
plains. No one likes to think that it
is permanent, but as things are at
| present no one likes to say that it is
unnecessary.
We are not losing our rights; we
are merely waving them for time,
in order the better to accomplish
task in which failure would mean
parting forever with our personal,
our political and our national free
dom-Youth's Companion.