The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-02-04
The Training of a President

kHMM HE REPUBLICAN PUBLICITY ASSOCIATION, through its
Hall | XII president, Hon. Jonathan Bourne Jr, today "a out the follow
UE4ZrYl ing statement from its Washington headquarters;
MAMI "Up to the time Theodore Roosevelt entered he White House
* all but four of the twenty-four Presidents who had preceded him
&WXz had national legislative experience. The first three a been
GS Delegates to the Continental Congress, ten had served terms
in the Senate. fourteen had been Members of the House of Representatives
and seven had occupied seats in both branches of Congress. Of the four
Presidents who can to the White House without previous service in the
legislative branch of the Government two, Taylor and Grant achieved
distinction in war; one. Arthur, was vice-Presdent and assumed the Pres-
dency upon the untfmely death of Garfield; and one, Cleveland, came into
the public eye by being elected Governor of the State of New York.
at is probable that if the Mexican and Civil Wars had ocused the
attention of the people upon two of u military leaders it would have
become a unwrtten law that a Presidential candidate must have served
terms in either or both Houses of Congress in order to be successful. But
Grover Cleveland to the White House, and with the election of 1884 as a
precedent three other Presidents have BEEN chosen without previous service
time before he entered the White House, and thus may be SAT- to have
participated to some extent in the enactment of laws before they assumed
their executive duties.
ut cannot be said that the country has prohted by it's deserton of the
principle of former years that one but tried legislators should be elected
70 the Presidency. Judge Taft had served in the Cabinet and as Governor
of the Philippines. and hence had an understanding of legislation that he
would not have otherwise possessed, but ven with the knowledge that he
had obtained through his executive positions with the Government it cannot
be doubted that he would have made a more popular President if he could
have relied upon experience gained by previous service in Congress But
the climax has been reached in Professor Wilson. VIII n o nnecu win
the Federal Government in any capacity before assuming the office Of Chief
Executive, his ignorance of practical legislation has been painfully evident
from the start. Constant clashes with Congress have laid emphasis oil the
impossfbnty of substituting merely the theory of Government treated of at
such length in Wilson's earlier writings, for a working knowledge of the
methods followed in the enactment of legislation for governing the country
The apparent willingness of Congress to give approval to suggestions from
Mr. Wilson has been because of the anxiety of the Democrats in control OF
both Houses to maintain party solidarity, and to avoid all indication of
friction between their political leader and his supporters. The war, too. has
given IN added weight to recommendations from the Commander-n-Chief
that they would never have carried in times of peace.
I'm the next two years Congress is % be engaged in the passage of
econstructon legislation that will revoIutionize the economic structure of
the Nation. To get the best results from those laws W e should have a man
in the White House able to put the Interpretation upon them that that people
and Congress intended. Was there " more need for us to return to the
rule of III forefathers and elect a President from among the membership
of the Senate or House? There is ample timber from which, to select some
whose names have been mentioned already"