The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-03-18
SATURDAY. MARCH 10. 1888



Tn the senate and elsewhere there are some ex-
ressons Of anxiety lest the strong action Of Presi
dent Roosevelt during the last two weeks shall set
dangerous presidents for executive usurpation Of
extreme power.
A survey Of our historical experience fails to
reveal any cause for alarm and many grounds for
qualification and assurance.
The great majority Of our capable Presidents have
had no hesitation in asserting decisive executive
leadership Almost invariably, this has been as
ISOLATED with beneficial results which hardly could
have been obtained otherwise In all our major
national emergencies executive supremacy has been
indispensable.
For Washington and Hamilton to have waited
for congress- or for them to have been oversenstve
in regard to congressional feelings and opposition
certainly would have destroyed our federal expert
ment at the very outset
These two men formulated strong and coherent
plan for meeting the great emergency and put it
through congress with promptness, in spite of some
opposition from jefferson, Madison and other Dem
ocrats.
When Jefferson himself became President in 1901
he had no hesitation in asserting executive init
alive quite as vigorous as that shown by Washing
ton. A consummate political leader, Jefferson had
congress eating out of his hand during most Of his
eight years in Office, in spite of his sponsoring of
many policies very unpopular in certain parts of the
country.
The strength of the executive under Andrew
Jackson is symbozed by his nickname Of odd
Hickory" He prevented South Carolina from multi
fcation and increased prestige abroad through
his strong stand on the French debt problem, but
his policies in regard to the United States bank,
public finance, banking and public works were less
fortunate for the country
The Civil war never could have been won If
Abraham Lincoln had not assumed extreme pow
ers These alone enabled him to meet the draft
issue the emergency in public finance and banking
and the strategic problems involved in holding the
border states in the Union.
Such positive gains as Grover Cleveland was able
to snatch from the hands of greedy politicians and
vested interests were secured because of Cevelands
stubborn determination to follow what he believed
to be the right courts.
The outstanding act in the administration Of
Theodore Roosevelt was his threat to send in fed
eral troops unless the money powers in New York
allowed the anthracite coal strike of 1902 to be set
tied in accord with fairness and justice.
Woodrow Wilson was recognized as the most
vigorous executive leader the Democrats had put In
the White House since the days of Andrew Jack
son. He put the lobby out of business in Washing
ton by excorating it before the American people.
He put through large volume of high construc-
tive legislation in the teeth of powerful opposition.
Even in a campaign period he forced congress to
rush through the Adamson bill in the of
1916 and save the country railroad system from par
alysis. Once war was declared, Wilson had
ferred upon him by congress wider powers than
those exercised by any leading European monarch
at the time.
Thus far, Franklin D. Roosevelt has led more by
personal force and executive aertneSs than by arbi
trary use of extreme executive power.
The extraordinary power held by him was not
achieved by seizure or other usurpation. It legally
and freely was delegated to him by congress. In
that fundamental sense, it was not dictatorship.