BOOKS.
THE PRESIDENT.•
Tux Presidency of the United States captivates the imagination. Tho elected head of a hundred million people, inhabiting the richest country in the world, seems to enjoy during his four years of office such secure and undisputed power as no other mortal can command. There are, of course, certain chocks on his actions, as the Constitu- tional text-books tell us, but in practice a great President appears to be able to do what ho pleases. Lincoln during the Civil War ruled the North as a stern, beneficent dictator. Mr. Wilson in these equally strenuous days has led his whole people into a European war, and caused them to adopt conscription at the very outset, as well as to agree without a murmur to his tremendous demands for money. It may be thought that the Presidency is not so effective in time of peace, when political faction is not silenced by patriotic reeling. Yet even then the occupant of the Whito House, in virtue of the millions of votes which have placed him there, can exercise an inunehse influence on the fortunes of his country, and, indirectly, on the course of the world's affairs. Ex-President Taft, in this remarkable little volume of lectures delivered at Columbia Univer- sity, disclaims any pretensions on the part of an American President to rival the autocrats of the Old World or the Primo Ministers of Crest Britain and Franco. It may, however, be questioned whether the President is not really more potent for good than any despot, who is necessarily in tho hands of a bureaucracy and a privileged Blass ; while his assured tenure of office for four years gives him an advantage that no Prime Minister, dependent on a majority in an elected House, can hope to possess with equal certainty. Mr. Wilson will not awake one fine morning to find his Cabinet breaking up, because his Cabinet depends on him, and the return of a great Republican majority to Congress would not deprive him of the control of the Exeputive or shorten his term by a single hour.
No man, however, wields absolute power in the strict sense, unless, perhaps, he is alone on a desert island like Robinson Cruse.). Mr. Taft shows that the President has very groat powers—far greater in some respects than English people suppose—but that ho is nevertheless restricted by law and custom and tradition, as well as by the innate good sense which has characterized the founders and rulers of the American Republic in common, we may say, with their kinsmen in Groat Britain and in the Dominions :-
" The constitutional functions of the President seem very broad, and they are. When many speak of his great power they have in mind that what the President does, goes, like kissing, by favour. I bog of you to believe that the Presidency offers but few opportuni- ties for showing power of this sort. Tho responsibility of the office is so heavy, the earnest desire that every man who fills the place has to deserve the approval of his countrymen by doing the thing that is best for the country is so strong, and the fear of just popular criti- cism is so controlling, that it is difficult for one who has borne tho burden of the office for four years to remember moro than a few favours that he was able to confer. There are certain political obligations that the custom of a party requires the President to discharge on the recommendation of Senators and Congressmen. I refer now, however, to a different kind of power with which popular imagination clothes the President, that of gratifying one man, humiliating another, or punishing a third, in order to satisfy the pleasure, the whim or vengeance of a ruler. That does not exist. The truth is that, great as his powers are, when a President comes to exercise them, ho is much more concerned with the limitations upon them than he is affected, like little Jack Horner, by a personal joy over the big personal things he can do."
Mr. Taft confesses that he found the President's patronage very tiresome. There are still ton thousand minor offices which have to be filled by the President " with the advice and consent of " the Senate, and by custom the Senators and Congressmen from each State expect to be consulted as to the disposal of such offices in their State. Why," Mr. Taft asks, " should the President have his time taken up in a discussion over the question who shall be postmistress at the town of Devil's Lake in North Dakota ? " On the other hand, he points out that if every Federal employee were irremovable, the growth of Trade. Unionism in the Civil Service might load to fresh evils comparable with those of the " spoils system." He admits that, as Secretary of War, he was once rewarded for his pains in investigating the case of a boy who had been rejected on medical grounds at West Point ; the fond mother, to express her gratitude, cried : " Mr. Secretary, you are not nearly so fat as they say you are." But as a rule those who seek favours are not amusing. It is interesting to note, by the way, that the President can, and often does, dismiss by his own volition any official in whose appointment the Senate has concurred. Turning to larger issues, we find Mr. 'raft regretting that the President is not empowered to frame a Budget. Congress votes money for innumerable local schemes of public works, pleasing the constituents of this or that Congressman without any regard to the national interest, and there is no chock on this waste. Mr. Taft does not desire that the President, like our Prime Minister, should initiate all public Bills. He takes the rather • Odr Chi.•f Magistrate and his Powers. By William Reward Taft. London: H. Milford. lda. Od. net.) cynical view that there is too much legislation nowadays, and that if a hostile Congress declines for two years to pass any measures in which the President is interested, no great harm is done. " Real progress in government must be by slow stages." " The world is not going to be saved by legislation, and is really benefited by an occasional two years of respite from the panacea and magic that many modern schools of politicians seem to think are to be found in the • words Be it enacted.' " The President influences legislation mainly by his power of veto. He cannot single ,out an objectionable clause and veto it, but must accept or reject a Bill as a whole. Even then a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Congress can override his veto. Mr. Taft does not lament over such differences, which are of course inevitable ; in the long run, no harm comes of them. Ho ridicules the Opposition members who, whenever the President exercises his veto, accuse him of employing " the royal prerogative " to " defeat the will of the people." It is said that men are different but husbands are all alike ; Congressmen are different but in oppo- sition are all alike, and Mr. Taft recalls a bygone Congressman who denounced Van Buron for " aping the royalties of Europe in attempt- ing to create an orangery in the rear of his palace, in which in majestic seclusion he might stretch his royal legs," when the Presi- dent was only seeking, at a small cost, to improve the gardens of the White House. The President, of course, is the direct representative of a hundred times as many voters as the ordinary Congressman, and it is his plain duty to veto any Bill of which he disapproves. Every State Governor is bound in theory to do the same, especially if a Bill, in his opinion, violates the Constitution ; but too often, according to Mr. Taft, they act in the spirit of the Tammany man who, in reply to an objection from Mr. Roosevelt, said : " What the divil is the Constitution between frinds ? "
As the Executive, the President is virtually unfettered, presuming that Congress votes adequate supplies. He is Commander-in-Chief of the naval and military forces, and ho can take such action as will make war inevitable, though it seems to be reserved for Congress to sanction a war outside America such as the United States has now undertaken. Thus Mr. Wilson ordered the occupation of Vera Cruz—an act of war against Huerta—before Congress had given him authority. The President has full control of the Navy and Army in time of war, and can carry out whatever plans he may think best. Mr. Wilson is now a War-Lord in the fullest sense, as Lincoln was in the " sixties," and he can use his discretion in co-operating with the Allies without regard to the opinions of amateur strategists in Congress. In time of peace, his responsibility for maintaining order gives him the right to override the privileges of the separate States, as was made clear in the Dobs.caso, when Cleveland, despite the protests of Governor Altgeld, sent Federal troops into Illinois to protect the railways and the mails. In war time, this duty is more obvious still, and any Gorman intriguers who try to shelter them- selves behind State rights will find Mr. Wilson too strong for them. To illustrate the extent of the President's powers, Mr. Taft recalls the fact that after the Spanish War McKinley ruled Cuba and the Philippines for four years without any authority or assistance from Congress, appointing his own officials, raising taxes, and framing laws for ton million people in virtue of his position as Commander- in-Chief. The President alone can make treaties, and though he cannot ratify them without the consent of the Senate, he is not obliged to ratify a treaty to which the Senate has agreed. When a treaty has been ratified, he is bound by his office to enforce it as a law which is superior to any previous Federal law or any State law, though in the celebrated case of the Chinese in California a treaty was superseded by a later Federal Act. Mr. Taft does not agree with Mr. Roosevelt's theory that the President may do anything which ho is not expressly forbidden by the Constitution to do—that he has, in fact, a residuary power corresponding to the prerogative of the Stuart Kings. We cannot refrain from quoting his witty comment :-
" Mr. Roosevelt, by way of illustrating his meaning as to the differing usefulness of Presidents, divides the Presidents into two classes, and designates them as Lincoln Presidents' and Buchanan Presidents.' In order more fully to illustrate his division of Presidents on their merits, he places himself in the Lincoln class of Presidents, and me in the Buchanan class. The identification of Mr. Roosevelt with Mr. Lincoln might otherwise have escaped notice, because there are many differences between the two, pre- sumably superficial, which would give the impartial student of history a different impression. It suggests a story which a friend of mine told of his little daughter Mary. As he came walking home after a business day, she ran out from the house to greet him, all aglow with the importance of what she wished to tell him. She said, ' Papa, I am the best scholar in the class.' The father's heart throbbed with pleasure as he inquired, ' Why, Mary, you surprise
me. When did the teacher tell you ? This afternoon 7. Oh no,' Mary's reply was, ' the teacher didn't toll me—I just noticed it myself.' " The difference between Mr. Taft and Mr. Roosevelt on this point is largely temperamental. Mr. Taft's excellent book confirms us in the belief that the President who keeps on good terms with Congress and maintains his popularity with the electors has no reason to be concerned about the Constitutional restrictions on his power, though on the other hand it is impossible for him to rule as a tyrant over so free and vigorous a democracy as the American people.
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