The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-12-29
PRESIDENT JOB
 IS MANKILLIlVC
 WRITES KANSAN

WOTk TUT iou6 Iliuc. IIoUduiy HS never may take his place again as a leader in American politics. Foolish ly his friend have surround his con- dition with mystery. And naturally gossip, not having the facis makes facts, so men say first that he is suffering from complete nervous col lapse; secondly that he has suffered mild apopletic stroke and third that he has a broken blood vessel at the base of his brain.
 The only thing known is that his ailment is nervousness and that 1t affects his capacity for future leader ship. It probably comes from over- strain; overstrain probably upon the arteries of the sixties slowly, tho prematurely, aging under such load of responsibility as no other man ever had on earth before.
 We have created in America a political institution called the presi- dency which must mean death sen- tence to the man who functions fully under it. Every year for score of years the institution has been ac- cumulating power and with the power comes a tremendous responsibility which hardly can be delegated.
 The power is legal and constitu- tional. The responsibility is largely extra legal and superconstitutional but none the less vital function of the office of president The power comes with the administrative work required to keep the greatest single executive unit on earth going every day.
 Cabinet members who are directly responsible for this administrative work, of course, look after the de- tails: but the administrative policy the selection of the chiefs under the cabinet members must come before the president. The more or less intimate knowledge of what is doing in thousand great activities all over the land, and all over the earth in recent days, must be always in the presidents mind and)this consciousness of his power-quite apart from the fearful weight of it's responsibility. must creat physocological impact upon the mind and strain upon the heart which will grind youth out of any human body, however hard that body may be.
 Then add to the merciless sense of power and still more awful sense of responsibility that comes from the fact of political leadership, and we have Frankenstein of human duties made by a free people to curse the man they choose to lead them which makes their choice curse.
 And as if that were not enough we are about to force upon the president leadership of all the nations of the earth. For, if the league of nations works, it will work only because America leads it. And America who takes world power and assumes world responsibility
 Icarus tried to fly to heaven. He got so near the sun his wings melted We have built slowly an institution called the presidency which is so big no man can live who fills it.
 What child is humanity trying to take from God the powers of destiny!
 However that may be- it is interest ing to American readers to know how congress has shriveled under the growing power of the presidency.
 It is not Wilson's power. Roosevelt took it; he had to take it or fail. Taft tried to shirk it, tried to be presi- dent under old constitutional limita- tions and the people cast him out in contumely because he would not kill himself in their service.
 The president constitutionally is supposed to pass upon laws submitted by congress. AS a matter of fact when a president comes into office his party comes with him, and he has to draft laws. to submit policies virtual ly, to say what congress should do and what it should not do, to be the prime mover in national legislation
 More than that the president must prepare public opinion for his policies must exhort, advertise and be the voice interpretive between his party council and the entire people. The second year of his administrative either sees new party come in or he Sees his own party indorsed.
 If his own party is returned by the people the president has to continue his leadership. If the opposition party controls congress it generally fears to take responsibility under an oppo- sition president. That is the situation in congress today.
 The senate is substituting person. al quarrel with the president for leg islative, and he is tremendously busy with rather unimportant things. It is saying the undisputed thing in such a solemn way! So in any case con-