Behind the Mirrors: The Psychology of Disintegration at Washington

e government works. The executive represents the general intention, Congress represents the same intention. The party in power owes its position

overnment by business, or government by parties, or executive domination, or whether Congress is the

id appropriation of the virgin wealth of this continent and its distribution among the public, and they had no doubt this was

but the choicest wood thrown away. They are not replanted. While they are so plentiful it

waste of time and effort, checking accomplishment, to seek better adjustments. The object of society is the rapid exploitation of the reso

re trying to readjust ourselves to a practice that is outworn. Having ceased to be pioneers, becoming various and healthily divided, instead of making our system express t

nk that I would lay a profane hand upon that venerated instrument, the Constitution of the United States. I am thinking only of the Constitution

continent,-details of distribution being unimportant where natural wealth was so vast, government by business or government by parties as the agents of bu

on has is imported into the government through elevating the President into a dominant position. In the one case the government is made to work by putting all branches of it under control of o

icient to go around generously so that no one need question his share, when a conflict of interests ar

illustration, be satisfactory to the farmers with one point of view and to Wall Street with another, he must be acceptable to the Irish Americans and to the German Americans and to several other v

isor of all the minorities that go to making a winning national combination must be neutral, he must be colorless, he must not know that his soul is his own. The greatest commo

that he will not have a labor man in his Cabinet. Does he represent Capital? By instinct, by party training, by preference, yes, but capital is so divided that it is hard to represent, and the President, like

he wins one, is the candidacy of his successor, in whose election he is vitally interested; for the continuance of his party in power is the measure of public ap

Carolingians have followed close upon the heels of the great Carl. The institution which in the first decade of the twentieth century was a wonderful example of our capac

differentiated people pursuing a single simple end; one end, one man, many ends, many men is the rule. The greatest common divisor of such masses of men a

stir our inherited feelings as we watch their gracious progress through the movies. Mr. Harding is headed that way and if that Providence which watches over American

on Congress, we see signs of the growth of the happy belief that the

oad of social differentiation than we have and develop like them parliamentary government. By this I do

tten constitution can restrain, which will place the initiative in the legislative branch, whereas I have said, under Mr. Ha

is already

dly to the tenderness he was showing the partner of his political joys, he conceded an authority in the legislative branch which neither the

was its will regarding the old German treaty. Foreign relations are precisely the field where the executive power seems by the Constitution to have been most clearly established, yet it is just here that the legislative branch has made its most r

Senator and knew the Senate views, and that all the agreements he was offering for ratification had been negotiated with scrupulous regard t

ominant position which the Senate has come to

ent became expressly the agent of the Senate. The Senate laid out the limits

, away from the Executive toward the Legislative. It did not attract the attention it deserved because our minds are still full of the past when the Presidency was a great office under Wilso

ters, though Parliament selects them. The power of the King is a convenient fiction. The power of the President

s "thus far shalt thou go and no farther." And when the Secretary of State has gone farther, as in the case of the peace treaty with Germany, the Senate has amended his work. So Senator Penrose did not exagge

peace. He appointed no Senators to the delegation which went to Paris. He did not consult the Senate during the negotiations nor did he ever take pains to keep the Senate informed. He proceeded on the theory that he might sign treaties with perfect c

nd. No commitment was entered into which would exceed the limits set by the Senate to the involvement of this country abroad. Almost daily Mr. President consulted with Senators and explained to them what the American Comm

. No theory of party authority, of executive domination, would save them if they contravened the Senatorial policy disclosed in the Versailles Treaty debate and insisted upon anew to Mr. Hughes's grievous disappointment when the reservation was attached to the separate peace with Germany. When it was realized t

ppose the situation reversed, suppose the Senate rich in leadership, suppose it were Mr. Aldrich instead of Mr. Lodge who sat with Mr. Hughes in the Commission, then the Senate which had made

Mr. Harding's Association of Nations, which was being discussed with the best minds was only Mr. Wilson's league re-cast. The leaders of the Senate met and agreed on a policy. Mr. Knox took it to the President elect. Inste

he League of Nations. It did make a separate treaty of peace with Germany. It did not appoint a member of the Repa

illes Treaty and Mr. Harding's with the Four Power Pact, will negotiate important foreign engagements without informing himself fully of the S

l dominance has broken down and been replaced by the practice of senatorial dominance. No amendment to the constitution has taken place. The President still acts "with the advic

y would suffice, a President, by invoking the claims of party, by organizing public opinion, by judiciously using patronage might put his agreements with foreign natio

ly important to fight over the conflict was in

ance of the domestic problems that the war left will cause Congress to insist upon a free hand to make domestic policies. In the past Congress busied itself about little

conomic interests of constituents are involved. Formerly taxes were small and lightly regar

rge importance will have to be adopted about which there will be a vast difference of opinion. The divergent interests cannot be represented in the White House, for the Presidency embodies the comprom