Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-28
The HQSkin Letter 81 r : %:.a
SENATE POWER IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Washington, D. c., June 25.-Std-
dents of politics in relation to the
American government are claiming that
the United States is beginning on a
new cycle of political life. They assert
that for the next few years, probably
a decade. the senate of the United
States will occupy the dominant posi-
ton in governmental affairs.
1t is a matter of historical fact that
since the foundation of our govern
ment, we have passed through a on
tinuous series of cycles, the dominant
leadership shifting from the legislative
again. The development now discerned
is a variation of the usual. in that it
is the United States senate. rather
than the entire body of congress, which
has forged to the front. Heretofore
the succession has been between the
executive branch, headed by the presi-
dent, and the congress as a whole.
To trace the development in recent
times, the close of the nineteenth cen
fury was a period Of legislative con-
troll. There cycles are determined by
a variety of factors, but the one which
brings about the leadership of the con-
gress is the existence of one or more
great national issues. In the close of
the nineteenth century the issue was
the tariff. Such questions as tariff
and taxation are in the hands of the
congress. 1t alone can enact tariff
and revenue laws.
Following the Cleveland panic, the
country was in the mood for a high
protective tariff, and this turned the
public attention to congress, the tariff
framing body. The Mckinley tariff
800 o-o-@~I A-L AhA mas III n
focal point Of the peoples thoughts.
RooseveIt's Domination
Then came the rise of Theodore
Roosevelt. Here was a personality of
extraordinary force and magnetism
coupled with a transition to new is
| sues. The issue Of conservation of
national resources and various other
matters which were more compactly
handled by executive authority than by
legislative, forced attention to the
| The White House held the center of
| the stage for years and congress was
an adjunct merely.
The administration of President
| Taft was a sort of interregum. the
great executive issues being somewhat
| dormant, but the momentum of the
Roosevelt period carried owe until
| the election of Woodrow Wilson, an
| other dominant personality of a type
new to the presidency. This was fol-
lowed by the war which, as a matter
of course, focused public attention on
the president, the ~commander-in ?chief
of the army and navy.
In no previous cycle Of American
development was so much power con
centrated in the executive as during
the war. 1t represented the widest
amplitude of the swing of power from
legislative to executive. 1t will be
remembered how the congress enacted
law after law placing in the hands
of the president practically unlimited
authority. Regulation of the most
fundame entail character was. in some in
stances, imposed by presidential proc
lamation rather than by legislative en-
actment. Prices were fixed in his
nane the railroads We're taken over
and operated. and q multitude of other
government activities carried on.
With the close of the wal the pen
dulum started to swing back again,
bringing in this case an extraordinary
difference.
AS the taxing power lies in the ron
gress as a whole, so does the power of
ratifying treaties lie in the hands of
the United States senate.
One of the elements which brings
about these swings of dominance is the
personality of the chief executive. II
will be remembered that with the treaty
at Versailles, the president fell i'll and
was forced to retire from public notice
and from a conspicuous place before
the people. Coincidentally. the treaty