AMERICAN ELECTIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 November 1944, Page 6

AMERICAN ELECTIONS

CHOOSING THE PRESIDENT

“Every four years, in war or inj peace, come wind or high weather, i the American people pass through the throes of an election which might well be revolutionary in all its implications. Yet Americans accept the verdict of the people and proceed with the job in band as if nothing had happened. During three serious wars, the United States has submitted to this ordeal. In the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln appealed to the people not to swap horses while crossing the stream, yet he went through all the processes of a re-election, in a country rent and divided. During the first 'World War. Wilson was re-elected on a promise to keep us out of war, yet when he took us right into it, the peopie abided by his decision. And so, today, Roosevelt is submitting to the same tests in a far more serious crisis, said Mr. Sydney Greenbie, special assistant to the American Minister and head representative of the United States Office of War . Information, when he gave to Wellington Rotarians recently a brief description ol the methods of electing the President of the United States and the powers which the President'exercises. Mr. Greenbie went on to give examples of the power of American public opinion and to show that while it may be difficult to .many people to describe the Constitution and to tell exactly how a president is elected, nevertheless, “let any dare to challenge any one of these rights, and every American will know how to defend them and why.. These rights are most clearly defined in the method of electing a president,” he,said. ‘ for the President of the United States is not, as under the British system, a member of the legislative body and responsible to it. He is an independent representative of the people, separate and apart from. Congress. As such he has greater powers than any dictator, yet he exercises them only according” to established law'.

POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT. “There are many powers, but they can be classified as three great powers: He has the power to appoint all the policy-making officials who are responsible to him, personally. The members ol: his Cabinet are not responsible to Congress, , but to him. Secondly, he is the Commander-m-Chief of the Army and Navy, and during an emergency he can appoint anyone to carry out any programme he finds necessary. Thirdly, he is the representative of his nation to foreign Governments. But foremost he is the leader of public opinion. The one check on his power is that he is dependent upon the House of Representatives for the funds with which to carry out his policies. How is this president elected? The original intention was not that he should -be elected by direct popular vote. He was to be chosen by a body of electors appointed by the State Legislatures. These electors were free to select a president and a vicepresident of their own choice, but with the growth of the party system in America, it immediately became the custom for each of the two big parties to select both a president and vicepresident and for the electors to carry out the will of the voters. “The electors still nominally elect the President, but they must vote as a unit in each State. Each State has electors equal to the number of representatives in both houses of Congress. Each elector has one vote, /dl the electoral votes of the State go to the Presidential candidate who has the majority vote in that State. That majority may be a small one. But the whole weight of the population of that State is thrown in one direction or another.

“One peculiarity of this system is that occasionally a President may be elected even, though he has only a minority of the popular vote. One reason for this is that a congressman may represent a district containing 800,000 people and another only 80,000 people, but each represents only one electoral vote. Another reason is that“each State has two senators regardless of its size, and each represents an electoral vote.” He gave as an illustration of how this works, Maine and New York. Maine has 800,000 people and five electoral votes. New York has 14,000,,000 people and 47 electoral votes. Were the electoral votes based on oopulation alone. New York should have 75 electoral votes as against Maine’s 5. But the practical effect is to give to the States with a small population a certain equality in power with the States with a large population, making for checks and balances in the national situation.