The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-02-12

Who Is Ruling the United
States7
According to plans that seem to have
been worked out in considerable detail,
If reports speak truly, the executive
offices are to be removed from Wash
ington for a considerable period dur
winter and early spring. How far
from Washington they will go opinions
differ, but wherever they go the cabi-
net itself will remain in Washington.
So long as the executive, offices re-
main at the capital members of the
cabinet have been able to keep them
selves more or less advised and to ex-
ert considerable influence over execu-
tive business even though they could
not see the president very often. The
new plan will make their powers OF In
Lervention much less.
Clearly the cabinet Is not ruling the
United States, or If it is it does not
know that such is the fact. Indeed
cabinet officers in many cases today
feel themselves to be crippled and ham
pered to an extent that has never be-
fore been true.
Abdication of the cabinet and its loss
of power and the illness of the presi-
dent make it a very urgent question
where the real executive authority is
now actually lodged. This question Is
in Washington, but on which may pub
lie men are curiously specializing.
The truth of the matter is that we
have today what is practically gov
eminent by momentum Having start
ed some years ago with certain policies
and purposes, machinery has been es-
tabllshed for the purpose of carrying
them out or putting them into effect.
Governmental machinery begets other
machinery, and it is sad but true OBJ
l NIYrag.
ideas which in many cases are obso-
lete. Conditions which have inter
| vened since present administrative
| plans were first embarked upon would
| naturally have brought about an ex-
| tensive modification Of those plans.
as we are still working along the old
| lines. There is no definite guiding
| hand at the wheel, and 1t would seem
| that those who are closest to the eX-
| ecutive are probably not interested in,
or at all events incapable of passing
| upon. the greater problems of admins
| ira ion. So things go on from month
! to month largely upon the. stored en-
ergy or reserve power of the mechan-
| ism itseIf.--New York Journal of Com
merce Qnd).
viscount Grey Removes Mis-
givings.
No one can reasonably take excep-
| ton to Lord Grey's manner Of stating
! the case for America. A straightfor-
ward, perfectly clear perfectly appre-
| ciative statement of the reason why the
United States has hesitated to accept
| the treaty and the league Of nations
obligations, his letter is n plea for pa
| thence on the part of the people OF
| overseas nations and an assurance TO
| Americans that their. hesitation will not
| 1. l1f Inff
war tendency toward q reassertion OF
| national self-interest, apparent in the
Eastern hemisphere chiefly through the
effort to secure territorial advantages,
takes, in the United States, so the Wis
count implied, the somewhat less ag=
gresslve form of an effort to keep the
nation free from undesirable entangle-
ments. He shows how the entrance
into the league of nations for the
United States involves departure from
former policies, and reminds his read
| ers that even nations that, unlike the
United States, had long been used to
European alliances were not altogether
| free from hesitation in taking the new
step Perhaps most important Of all
in its general effect, Is his explanation
OF the difference between the relation
Of the American president and CON
ministry and house of commons In the
business of ratifying treaties Not
every American has noted the full sig
nificance of this difference, an ex
PLANTATION that makes clear to other
peoples the possibility of future con-
flct between the executive and leEis-
lative branches of the American gov
eminent in carrying out the terms OF
the treaty is calculated to win tolera
ton Of such reservations as appear
necessary to forestall such conflict
Christian Science Monitor Qnd),
A Business Man for Presi-
dent?
1t is not necessary that a. president
should know how to operate a manu-
featuring or mercantile establishment
himself to be able to understand what
the business of the country needs.
Sometimes a. man who has merely
looked on comprehends the problems
best. There are many men in the
United States who would doubtless
men of actual business experience hut
that experience is not essential. The
term business man" falls short Of eX =
pressing what peorle have in mind
when they are really asking for gu
perior type of administrator in the
pressing economic and industrial prob
lens that confront US, in contrast with
the old, familiar political nominee
J drawn from the ranks of extreme par
ty ees.-Indianapolis Star Qnd
. Rep.
Apparently everybody has remedy
for the ills of the country except the
men who are in a position to apply