Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-12-19
4 Bad Veto Has
Unlawful Support

Many well Informed and careful
students al civil government etuSlaey
The veto power of an executive oNet
legislation relic Of The days Of
kings ana eEars Wha Nele supposed
70 possess superior wisdom and to
know better taaa tht people them
selves VIA, laws hey should have
and should ret have, Majority tuie
and sclf.govefnmsnl ate sacrificed
whenever the veto is intefposed, The
Nc,a Is accepted As matter Of fact
handed doWn Il US Ike the original
method Of elee.iuC l, ). Senators by
state legislature. The people finally
saw this mistake in the constitution
and corrected il. In due time they
Wili see Ire veto power Ia its true
light aud eollte, /, In the same man
ner.
In theory cur government Is com
posed of three distinct branches, leg
,s.ative, executive and Judicial In
practice there are only lw0, because
The veto power binds the legislative
and executive as closely rs Siamese
twins, Not only Is the presidents
opinion and vote made equal TO two
thirds Of each house Of Congress. hut
his attitude toward legislation made
known directly or indirectly 10 Con.
grcss while bills are pending before
It, results in notifications and eoni-
aremises contrary 10 the best iudg-
mcnl Of Congress IN hopes of avoiding
veto.
These handieaps ON legislation and
,hwafting the will Of the people arc
bad enough. but when a President
after returning bin with his veto
message, seeks By every possible
means, difect and indirect, to prevent
vote on such bill until such time as
he can, by any method he sees 1T, in.
iluenee or coefce enough votes 20 sus-
tain his veto, he Is then exceeding
his clearly defined constitutional
power over legislation. In the recent
campaign, we were repeatedly warned
that the constitution was the biz
ISSUE. We were admonished to save"
the constitution. It seems We saved
t?) il only to see 1t perverted in
defeating the will of the people and
continuing a rank injustice to the pos.
tai employees.
,, The postal salary bill was passed
by an almost unanimous vote in each
house Of Congress. II was not hasty
Legislation, The bill was introduced
ln December, 1928, and for several
months after hearings were held
Every item had been carefully con-
sidefed by the committee aud so well
did they do their work that Congress
| almost TO man voted Tor II and the
public generally was almost unanl.
| nous for this measure of relief for
postal employees. But Mr.. Coolidge
| assumed TO know more than Congress
and the people what should be done
| and said no TO giving justice to faith
! ful employees. This he did in a veto
message so unfair IN It's statements
| and so weak in its arguments that II
scarcely merits serious consideration
bv any one well informed on the sub
ject matter in the bill he vetoed, Not
word in this whole veto message
indicates thai justice and square
dealing ever entered Mr.. Goolidge's
mind when he prepared il. II might
be summed up in the one word econ
| omy" which was translated into the
proposition that the bill must contain
within itself a provision for raising
the necessare additional revenue. He
failed to explain why he took this
attitude toward this bill and not
other bills, notably the one increas-
ing the four assistant postmasiers
general from $5,000.00 TO $7,50000 a
year. This bill was subject to every
criticism that was leveed at the pos
tai salary bill, but in this instance
Mr.. Coolidge did not feel 50 eeono-
mcal. Mr.. Coolidge failed to ex-
plain why clerk or carrier Is en-
titled to less consideration than an
assistant postmaster general But
that Is only one more Of his incon.
sistencies in dealing with faithful
servants of the public.
The people have right to expect
their Senators and Congressman TO
be consistent and give the postal EN-
ployees a square deal by again voting
| for Senate Bill 1898 as they did IN
June, this time overriding the veto
which is their privilege under the
constitution, notwithstanding the
presidents unwarranted and unlaw-
! ful activities TO the contrary.