Evening star., 1933-12-03
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too strong a way to state its
government by men instead of gov
ernment by laws, and the men" Is
almost wholly one man.
When Mr.. Roosevelt wished TO fol-
low policy OF buying gold at varying
prices fixed by himself and his ad-
visers, and when he found that the
official then in active charge of the
Treasury, Mr.. Dean Acheson, was op-
posed to the policy, Mr.. Roosevelt dis
missed Mr.. Acheson pretty ruthlessly
and put in his place-put, that Is, In
complete control of the Treasury, since
the titular Secretary is wholly out OF
touch-a man, Mr.. Henry Morgenthau,
ir, whose status in public life rests
wholly upon his personal relation to
the President, whose commentator for
the Job lies chiefly in his whole-hearted
assent to the Presidents policy, and
who has had no past experience OF the
sort that Is commonly supposed 10
qualify a man for the Treasury.
personal Government" Liked.
It cannot be doubted that Mr. Roose-
velt likes the power of personal gov
ernment and likes to use it in very
personal way. He is, in effect, his own
Secretary of the Treasury and his own
Secretary of State. When the most
momentus step OF his administration in
the field of foreign relations. recog-
milton of Russia, was taken the Secre-
tarv of State, Mr. Hull, was on the sea,
southwark bound to a conference in
South America which will have little
Importance and few functions beyond
dealing with bodybuilding and air
transport.
Is personal government desirable?
Are we better off with it, or would 1t
be more desirable to have government
by Congress as usual? AS to this there
are two sides. Congress, acting in the
usual way, would never have enacted
some of the economies which Mr..
Roosevelt put in effect after getting
discretionary power. Congress, acting
in the usual way, would never have re-
duced veterans compensation nor have
reduced the pay Of Government en-
ployes
A good test is currency imitation.
Congress last April, among its ex-
traordinary grants Of power to the
President, gave him discretion to do
what he wished about the currency.
At that time many conservatives felt
this was fine. They thought the Con-
gress. If left to itself. would have in
f1ated forthwith-and SO it would.
They felt that with the power lodged
in the President, Mr.. Roosevelt would
be much less likely to initiate than Con-
gress. Indeed, many conservatives
thought that neat trick had been
played upon Congress and the infia-
tionists In the interest of conservatism
and sound money; they thought that
Mr.. Roosevelt had cleverly taken away
from Congress its own power to initiate
and that he would not himself Initiate
or that he would initiate less than
Congress would have.
J, President Is Inf1ator.
Whah has happened is that the Presi-
dent has inflated. He has deprecated
the gold value Of the dollar from. to
put it understandingly, a 100 cents
down to 60 cents. And at this writing
| it seems on the way farther down
Now right here is the test whether
personal government Is more desirable
than government in the usual way by
Congress. Had Congress last spring
dealt with imitation itself, it would have
| done no more than Mr. Roosevelt has
| done. and Congress might even nave
done less. A proposal in Congress last
| Spring to reduce the gold value OF the
! dollar to so cents would, at that time,
| have satisfied the infiationlsts. The
advantage of that would have been that
we would have known where we are.
/ We would have had definite new
dollar of fixed value and business would
! have gone ahead on that basis. What
f, We have as a result of personal govern
ment is continuing doubt about what
| the new dollar is going to be. Mr..
Roosevelt's discretion hangs over the
| whole situation.
| What Congress and the country will
need to decide is whether to continue
| these discretions in the President S
| hands or to resume government by
| Congress in the usual way. A return
| by Congress to the familiar usage would
by no means deprive Mr.. Roosevelt OF
all his power He would still be Presi-
| dent he would still be leader of the
party that has an immense majority
in this Congress. What he would be
obliged to do would be to submit his
| ideas and proposals to the party lead
/ ers, convince the party leaders that his
proposals are sound, and then submit
the ideas to Congress as whole.
Within Congress there would be debate
which would have the effect Of sub
mitting the proposals to public opinion.
Any proposal known as an admins
tainly pass this Congress. Mr.. Roose-
welt would still have much power,
perhaps as much as he needs and as
| much as it is desirable any President
should have.
Whether to resume the usual way or
whether to go on with personal gov
ernment, to continue the existing
grants of power to the President and
give him new ones-this is the question
which the coming session Of Congress
must decide. More narrowly. it must
be decided by the Democratic leaders.
If they go on with personal govern
ment- they, for the Democratic party,
must accept complete responsibility for
all that the President does and for all
the consequences of it.
One Question Before Congress.
One specifically important question,
one among very many, will be before
this Congress. When they passed the
N. r. A. statute last Spring, they in
cluded in it grant of power to the
President under certain conditions to
put any industry under system OF
licensing. and to revoke the license of
any one concern in his discretion. This
is an enormous power; it is what
NJ r. A. Administrator Gen johnson
calls the power of .economic Life and
RESORTS.