The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1925. PRESIDENT AND SENATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 66, 19 March 1925, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1925. PRESIDENT AND SENATE.

For the cause that lacks assistanoe, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The unfortunate and unnecessary conflict which arose last week between the President and the Senate of the United States has ended in a victory for the Senate. The position into which Mr. Coolidge has been forced is undignified and humiliating, but most people who have followed the controversy will agree that he has only himself to blame. Whatever the personal merits of Mr. C. B. Warren may be—and on this point there is grave difference of opinion in America—Mr. Coolidge made a very bad mistake in judgment when he announced his determination to force Mr. Warren into the office of Attorney-General in spite of the opposition of the Senate. For after the Senate had twice emphatically refused to accept the Warren nomination, the President announced that he would, if necessary, make Mr. Warren AttorneyGeneral while Congress was in recess, and the Senate could not possibly interfere. This threat very naturally roused the Senate to wrath, and Democrats and Republicans were arrayed together against the President, determined at all costs to resist this highhanded encroachment upon their constitutional rights.

Thi3 unpleasant incident lias now closed, perhaps with less damage to the Presidential prestige and authority than might have been anticipated. But the whole episode throws an instructive light upon two of the most interesting factors in American political life—the personal character of the President and the limitations of his powers. Whatever may have been thought before this of "the strong, silent man" who carried the last Presidential election Avith a majority of six or seven million votes, we can hardly doubt that Mr. Coolidge's personal reputation has suffered a certain amount of damage in the conflict. He has always been known as a reserved and self-con-tained man, gifted with that kind of resolution and tenacity of purpose which unsympathetic critics always describe as obstinacy. But it has also been claimed for him that his head was cool and his judgment sound; yet his conduct throughout this Warren episode seems to reveal him as both impulsive and indiscreet. His choice of Mr. Warren as AttorneyGeneral was made without approaching the party leaders in Mr. Warren's State, without consulting the Senate, and even without notifying the President's own most loyal adherents. Even Senator Britten, of Massachusetts, one of Mr. Coolidge's most confidential friends, knew nothing of the Warren appointment till it Avas made public. In fact, Mr. Coolidge in this matter has entirely outrivalled President Wilson's unfortunate habit of leaving his friends in the dark and springing sensational surprises upon his own party. And in this case, except for purely personal motives, it is difficult to see what excuse the President had for selecting Mr. Warren, who has been already subjected to severe criticism because lie is believed to be connected with the Sugar Trust, and because when he was Ambassador to Mexico he deserted his post for some months to organise Mr. Coolidge's election campaign.

To promote this somewhat questionable candidature for high office, Mr. Coolidge has thus sacrificed something of his own personal credit and seriously alienated the confidence and loyalty of his friends. But he lias done something even more dangerous by entering into a direct conflict with the Senate on a question in which Congress could make out an extremely plausible case against him. The powers of the President of the United States are extensive but ill-defined, and Congrese has always been particularly apprehensive of any possible invasion of its constitutional rights by the Executive. It has always been an open question whether the President may select his Cabinet without consulting the Senate, and less than fifty years ago the House of Representatives actually impeached the President for "high crimes and misdemeanours" because, in defiance of Congress, he had dismissed one of his Ministers from office.. This case of President Johnson was quoted by the extreme Democrats in the Senate last week during the debate on the Warren appointment, and it was even suggested that it might prove a useful precedent now. Happily for Mr. Coolidge the Senate has not been forced into the of asserting what

it believes to be constitutional prerogatives by an appeal to the . Supreme Court of the United States. But it is a significant fact that Mr. Coolidge persisted with his project of a recess appointment till Mr. Warren definitely declined the odium and the risk involved; and it seems reasonable to infer that no man who was not personally obstinate and dictatorial and politically shortsighted could have placed himself gratuitously in the unfortunate position that the President now occupies.