Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-08-29
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! individual businesses each year. 1t
has Jurisdiction to order elimination
of unfair trade practices and to expose
just plain cheating in private business.
| Therefore, the commission may be said
to have vital influence on the lives
and businesses of those whose opera
| tons may be characterized as small
and important only in small communi-
| ties, as we'll as on the great masses
of capital and national trade associa-
lions. Since the commission has shown
a willingness to consider the rights of
individuals to foster their own inter-
ests, some observers believe that it's
prestige will be enhanced and that we
may find in the future that the COM
mission will be popular government
al unit rather than one which business
looks upon with fear.
Throughout the Roosevelt admins
tration we have observed almost daily
announcements that
EfecutlOe the President has
Orders done this, that or
the other thing "by
executive ORDER" In the rush of legis-
lation designed to help us over the
emergency in 1888, executive orders
came thick and fast. No one thought
a great deal about them. 1t was un-
usual for them to emerge from the
White House in such numbers but
believe it was the general desire to
forget the precedent that was being
established, numerically at least, in
the issuing of executive orders because
of the acute conditions in the country.
Subsequently, attention was called
officially to the great number of these
orders and that they had the force and
effect of law. 1t was the more impor-
tant because the Supreme court of the
United States called attention to the
facts. The court depressed far enough
in a weighty opinion which it rendered
to suggest that it was impossible for
the average individual to know what
these executive orders contained; what
inhibitions or prohibitions were pre-
scribed and what rights, if any, a citi-
zen had left.
The American Liberty league, which
is addressing itself consistently to
analysis of governmental affairs, in
forms me that between March 4, 1888,
and the end Of July, 1885, Mr.. Roose-
welt issued more than one thousand
two hundred and fifty executive orders.
The league offices also say that this
is a greater total than the number of
executive orders issued over the pre-
ceding 10 years.
Some fifty new agencies and addi-
tional branches of existing agencies or
| departments have been created by the
simple expedient of an executive order.
These new agencies have embarked
upon all sorts of projects never even
discussed at the time of the enactment
of the law under which they were is
sued.
In addition to the executive orders, 1t
thousand administra-
Orders Upon tive orders have been
Orders issued by officials of
various gencie s
whose sole legal basis for their acts
was an executive order signed by the
President.
"The examples of executive orders
which have been cited show clearly a
usurpation Of legislative power" the
league commented in a statement is
sued the other day. 'By no stretch Of
the Imagination can many Of these or
ders be regarded merely as ministerial
acts in execution of laws enacted by
the congress. Policies are involved
which under the principles Of democ-
racy should be passed upon by the con-
gress, members of which reflect the
varying viewpoints of citizens Of diff
| ferent areas and schools of thought.
So long as the judgment Of the entire
membership of the congress is applied
to important questions balance will
be maintained in the public interest 1t
| is contrary to our scheme of govern
ment to place supreme power in the
hands of single individual as has
| been done in European countries where
parliamentary DOdleS nave become non
entities. Encroachment by the execu-
tive upon legislative prerogatives, IN
violation of the letter or even of the
| intent Of the Constitution, smacks of
autocracy and despotism. 1t is sub
versive of popular government"
| So long as executive orders and ad-
ministrative regulations issued under
them involve only administrative prac-
| tees, there is seldom much public in
terest in them. Always, after enact
ment of legislation, the administrative
agencies designed to carry out the pro-
visions of the legislation issue rules
and regulations interpreting the stat
ute. But it is to be remembered that
in such cases, the authority is In
statute and that statute is in printed
form and widely distributed. In other
words, individuals have an opportunity
to know what the law is and have no
excuse for violations of it. Such is not
the case, however, with executive or
ders. They are issued from the White
nd 1n1 1,