ANARCHY IN AMERICA.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 187, 23 September 1897, Page 4

ANARCHY IN AMERICA.

President MoKini.ev's sin render lias now become an abdication. He lias finally divested himself of his last remain ng constitutional power, and the country is practically without a President. Like a Merovingian king, he retains the semblance of a ruler, but really holds office only to sign the decrees which other men impose upon him. He is a highly respectable figure-head ; he is an excellent royal-progress kind of Chief Magistrate, travelling about to lay co ner-stones and wish his people prosperity; but a President in the constitutional sense—a President of independent initiative, j alous of his prcro gative, direct representative of the people—ho is not. Four short months have seen him strip away one power af;er another of his great ollice, and tin ow.it. to the clamorous Ics's. First came the surrender of his constitutional power to " appoint . . . officers of the United States." He is now simply a pen to sign the commissions which Senators thrust in his face. Next came hip alandonmciit of the power '"to make treaties." The Hawaiian treaty was not made by the President, but by a clique of bargaining Senators, Fintally, he has given up thcrioht to "recommend to Congress such measures as lip shall judge necessary and expedient." Congressmen have now visited him, and demanded the snirender of this Presidential function Mr McKinley turned it over without a murmur. He prefers to have tiie country know that lie is but the simulacrum of a President. His retreat on the currency question was most undisguised and cowardly. It was no mere rumour that he was proposing to send a message to Congress urging a first step towards currency reform. There was a formal Cabinet meeting. It was formally decided by the President and his official advisers that a message should be sent. Ihe n essage was actually prepared. The Secretary of the Treasury gave out a growing interview about it. Anxious friends of sound money were saying, "At last!" Suddenly all was changed. A hurried vi-it of Congressmen to the White House led to the announcement that thcPiesident wou'd hold back his message and probably not send it at ill. No secret is made of what was back of all this. Sinip'y another shameful bargain had been struck to save the tariff. Here is the Tribune's unblushing account of the intrigue :—" it is known that the Republican managers in the Senate agreed three weeks ago not to press any measure providing for a ennency commission at the present session. The promise was made at a time when the fate of Hie tariff bill was by no means certain, and when it was in the power of tha Opposition at least to delay action on that mtasure indefinitely. 'The agreement provided that there should be no efl'ort on the part of the opponents of the tariff bill to delay action unnecessarily, and that the Republicans should not urge the currency commission scheme at the piesent session, even if the President should send in a message recommending such a commission." And the Tribune's cynical comment on the whole disgraceful transaction is that the message would not have amounted to anything, even if it had been sent, as it was intended only as " a soothing dose for inflamed nerves !" We seem to remember that the Tribune's nerves were somewhat inflamed, along with those of the rest of the community, when the great fight for sound money and the nation's honour was waging last summer. We have not forgotten, if others have, the appeals, the promises which were made in Mr McKinley's name. He asked for and received the support of thousands of Democrats and teus of thousands of Independents, on the ground that he would move speedily and vigorously for a reform of our vicious currency system. As late as in his inaugural address he made fair promises on this subject. Now, at the first fire—before the first fiie —at a mere hint—he runs away. It is a fearful blow, not to his own prestige —that is hopelessly broken—but to the whole cause of currency rcfoim. If Senators can veto a message now, they can next December. The silverites control the situation, slid they control it just as they did in I.Boo—through a wicked betrayal. Dead currency reform is the price paid for the tariff of lSt>7, as the silver profligaey was for the tariff of ISOO. And the men who made Mr McKinley President are taunted, in the face of this monstrous treachery, with being victims of " inflamed nerves" ! But there is something deeper and worse in all this than the fate ot any particular message or incssurc. It signifies that constitutional government has ceased to exist at Washington. No organ or exponent of the popular will now remains there. If it were simply the fact that Congress had become supreme, and that the President had consented to be effaced, the situation would be de* plorable. Congress lias undoubtedly been pushing its usurpation of power dining the past twenty years. 'The secret of is ferocious hostility to Mr Cleveland was more than personal—it was due to its perception that in him a rugged and outspoken opponent of its unconstitutional pretensions had been found. He excited the wild rage of Congress not so much by what he did, as by the fact that he dared to do anything independently, Mr McKinley has changed all that. He and Congress are harmoniously at one, but Congress is the one. Harmony is always attainable by surrender, and the. President has now not only surrendered, but abdicated. This of itself, wc say. would be most deplorable and alarming. But the de sperate nature of the situation is fully seen only when we consider the fact that it ia not Congress, but the clique of bosses in control of Congress, that is now supreme. What are the Republican Representatives from New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, but so many puppets in the hands of Piatt, Quay and Ifaiina ': What does the Republican caucus in ei her House or Senate register but the decree of these men and their fellow-conspirators ? That is what our representative system has come to in practical operation. I!y denying the people the right to nominate, by blackmail and intimidation, a group of political bosses has been cnab'ed to bestride Congiess. Jt is to them, not to Cougress, that the President is ically surrendering his constitutional rights and powers. It was Quay—not on the finance committee, not on the conference committee, having nothing to do directly with the fate of either tariff or currency —it was Quay who went to the White. House and told the President his message must not be sent. Of course, the American people have got to find some way of restoring their government. But they will have to get along without Mr McKinley's help.—He was extinguished himself.—New York Nation.