Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-05
A Globe-Trotting Government
[From the North American Reviews
War Weekly

- AOlAl lllS ANOl III <AIliCIlNdh %
War Weekly
The Constitution of the United
States contains no provision forbid
ding in categorical terms either the
President, the Vice President, the
| Supreme Court or the Congress it.
self to leave the country during
terms of office. Both the Legisla-
tive and the Judicial branches of
| the Government stand in this re-
spect precisely as does the EXecu-
tive. So far as any specific inhibi-
tion in set terms is concerned, any
one of them, or all of them, remain
free as a bird to roam the world
over. If the seat of the Executive
may be transferred to Versailles,
the Supreme Court may hold its
sessions in Borneo, while Congress
sits in Siberia. The Constitution
plays no favorites. If its silence
gives consent to roam to one, 1t gives
like consent to all. And, on. the
other hand, If there is in its whole
tenor an implied prohibition against
one of the Governmental trinity eS-
patriating itself, the same prohibi-
tion runs to all.
To be sure, there are varying de-
grees of inconvenience involved in
making the three great sources of
authority internationally peripatetic.
A Congress at Large whose general
address was Somewhere on Earth
naturally would entail some difficult
ties of transportation for so large
body. Yet these difficulties are
by no means insurmountable. AS
a matter of fact the Leviathan
would easily accommodate the
Executive, Legislative and Judicial
branches simultaneously, with abun-
7 lsaNl ~ e.. - w.aN
House, Dr. Grayson and even the
ladies of the Executive branch at
least. The families of the Supreme
Court Justices could easily go along,
and even the wives and children OF
the Senators and Representatives
could be accommodated somehow.
There is no set provision in the
Constitution against it; and the
Leviathan is At large ship. Legis-
lating, undertaking and Executing
might be all at sea, to be sure.
Metaphorically speaking perhaps
there would be no innovating
novelty in this. Why be reaction
ary anyway?
1t may be admitted that a globe
trotting Trinitarian Government
would be unusual. But the occasion
is more than unusual. Nothing like
the war that is over ever occurred
before. Never before was there
such a stage setting for SO stupen-
dous drama. Why should the Gov
ernment of the United States get
into the limelight in driblets only?
Granting that the President and
Colonel House are, and of right ought
to be entitled to the center of the
stage, by what authority, under the
Constitution, might the Legislative
and Judiciary branches, with their
sisters and their cousins and their
aunts, be excluded? 1t is going to
be q big show. The audience is the
whole world. If we are going to
have one branch of the United
States Government and Colonel
House, in an impressive center stage
tableau when the curtain rises, why
not have all three branches?
Maybe the Government at Wash
ington would not still live. But it
would live Somewhere in Europe.
Besides, the Constitution does not
say that the Government has got to
live in Washington. 1t does not
even say Colonel House has got 20
live there. The Colonel and the
Government can live where they
have a mind to. They do not even
have to live anywhere unless they
choose. They can. supervise HUI
manlty from the BOuleVardS or
from the jungles if they like. The
President, the Vice-President, the
Supreme Court Justices. the Sena-
tors and both ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
tives and the Colonel-may per-
ennially trundle on wheels If they
so elect. There is nothing hide
bound about the Constitution unless
you read it that way. Besides, it
Is abolished anyway, and we all
stood by the President when he did
it to win the war. Why be back
ward instead of forwar-looking men
just because the war is over?