New-York tribune., 1918-02-13
\HE average American doesn't think Il
much about the other fellows business

W
while satisfied with his own. Wher
his office or factory mechanism slows dowr
he wants to know about the system his com.
petitors following in order to remedy the
defects in his own. This attitude he carries
home, and takes with him on his periodical
pohtlcal excursions, and into social, church
or club life as we'll. That is wbv wber
CABINETS are falling in Europe, and there is
conflict between the executive and leeisla.
tive powers in Washington he is puzzled
He cannot help knowing that neither The
Ming OF Great Britain and Ireland nor the
President of France has anv considerable
executive power. He cannot help knowing
."e vast increase IN power which has been
thrust upon Mr.. Wilson by war. But the
power of the President of tho ,1n;ted s+atas
IS enormous even in times OF peace. greater
than that of any constitutional monarch He
knows this. Why
one man, we'll qualified to answer was
Grover Cleveland His deeds we're sncb 40
20 seno INTO lnocuous desuetude for long
per'od OF years the party which twice placed
MN IN the White House. His words live
after him. 4A'o
Mr. Cleveland was often in conflict with
ele congress OF the United States, and gem
orally victorious over it. He had CONGRESS-
on his hands, some times when he would
nave preferred to go fishing. He had Con-
gress on his mind when he retired to Prince
TON fourteen years after his memorable
'lgh1 with the Senate over the matter of pat
ronage, he justified his course in lecture
at Princeton, and thus mildly rejoiced in his
triumph over the law-making branch of gov
ernment.
Again the Peoples Agent
The President, freed from the Sena+o,s
claim OF tutelage, became again the inde-
pendent agent of the people, representing a
coordinate branch of their government
charged with responsibilities which. under
ms oath' ne ought not to avoid or divide with
otners' and invested with powers not to he
surrendered, but to be used. under the ou;d-
ance OF patriotic intention and an unclouded
conscience"
MI. Cleveland had been elected to Office on
platform which pledged civil service re-
1orm but even before the election the hun
cry horde of Democracy had been heard to
shouc the ancient slogan: "Turn the rascals
QUIT" Mr.. Cleveland satisfied himself and
his following that by hundreds Of smsnen'
sions from office and the appointment If
worthy Democrats to the vacancies thus
created, ne was fulfilling this pledge. Doubt
less the small army of oficeholders pried
from the payroll remained unconvinced.
when, on the footing of the Declaration
u Andependence," the first scheme of gov
81 et"neno was adopted for the revolted States.
~ ~; Cieveland wrote, 1t contained no provi-
sion Tor an executive officer to whom should
De De entrusted administrative power and dutv.
nose VINO had suffered and rebelled on ac
COUNT OF the tyranny of an English King
were evidently chary of subjectng themselves
TO the chance of repetition of their woes
through an abuse Of the power that might
necessarily devolve upon an American Presi
dent.
Thus, under the Articles of Confedera-
tlon, The United States of America with
out an executive head, as we understand The
term, came to the light, and in it's charter
OF existence it was declared that the art;
cles OF this Confederation shall be inviola |
ply observed by every state, and the Union
shall be perpetual
Early Symptoms of Decay
But the Articles of Confederation lacked
the power to enforce the decree thew con- |
tanned of lnviolable observance of every
state' and the Union, which under their sane
slon was TO De permanent and lasting early
aeveloped symptoms of inevitable decav
1T thus happened that within ten wears
after the date of the Articles of Confedera-
tlon their deficiencies had become so mani
test that representatives of the people were
again assembled in convention to consider
[he situation and to devise plan of gov
ernment that would form "a more perfect
'non' IN place of the crumbling structure
which had so lately been proclaimed as per-
oetual" psA
Mr. Cleveland reviewed the circumstances
"nlch lea up to the establishment of the
once OF President, and commented on the
act that the convention very nearly placed
ne selection of a President in the hands Of
congress, Then he asserted
I'm the scheme of our national govern
nent the Presidency is prominently the peo-
u ,le's once OF course, all offices created by
ne ! conservation, and all government agen-
.les exlss1ng under its sanction, must be
'ecoenlzeo, IN sense, as the offices and
'gencles OF the people-considered either as
m aggregation constituting the national