THE H.B TRIBUTE. FRIDAY, NOV. 3rd., 1916. THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 273, 3 November 1916, Page 4

THE H.B TRIBUTE. FRIDAY, NOV. 3rd., 1916. THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

A recent writer in an English journal has said that “the election of a President of the United States is one of the greatest contradict ions of democratic government that could be conceived.” By the very Constitution which is supposed to embody the essence of democratic principles the people of America are practically and permanently debarred from the direct choice of the man in whom is to be vested for four years the highest executive and administrative capacity in their gift. The President is not chosen, as many Britons probably imagine, by the casting of individual votes by the people of the whole Republic, but at what is called an Electoral College, to which each State sends 'representatives, who are. at least nominally, elected by the people of that State, their number varying according to population. > When, therefore, on Tuesday next, the average American citizen casts his vote for president he will not vote directly for Dr. Wilson or Mr. Hughes, but for a group of gentlemen, who, if elected, will proceed to [Washington in the following year, bringing the results of the poll'with them, and there casting their votes in the electoral college according to the instructions they have received from the voters of their respective States. As a result of this double process, the survival of a time when travelling was tedious and hazardous, _ there have developed in America a big body of professional party managers and electioneering agents, who devote themselves almost exclusively to the organisation and . maintenance of the party machines, and to ‘ influencing” as many totes as they can in the desired direction. As the day of actual election to the college approaches, matters gradually, or. rather, rapidh, develop into a wild exhibition of effervescent enthusiasm, which culminates in a perfect orgv of excited feeling on the day itself. It has been said that a 'Presidential election in the United States begins the day alter the previous one lias closed, and tins is scarcely an exaggeration, lor from that moment the p.nty managers begin looking round to discover weaknesses in their organisation and laving plans for icmedying them. The more general active campaign begins at least a year before the.day is due for the choice of delegates to the college and thus virtually determines who is to be the President, for, although the-e representatives aie theoretically free and independent, and would be quite within their rights to change their minds, in practice they" merely carry out the course dictated by the party vote.

. The national nominating Convention is the great festival of the election, and to be elected a delegate is one of the prizes of the local politician. The choosing of the delegates was formerly done by local Conventions. The party leaders in each Congressional district would summon a meeting to elect its two delegates, and the party leaders in the State would summon a State Convention to elect the delegates at large, usually the four delegates cor. responding to the two Senators. In some States, especially in the south, tnis system still obtains, but in the majority there are now “Presidential primaries.” That is to say, the voters of the parties choose by ballot delegates whom they may “instruct"’ to support* a specific candidate at the Convention. This change, which came before the election of 1912, was due to the widespread and often justifiable feeling that under the Convention system the professional politician and the Central or National Committees of the parties, through their local representatives muffled the popular will. The elec [oral scheme, it will be thus seen, is both intricate and cumbersome, lending itself largely to the introduction of corruption and intrigue, which often defeat the real wifi of the people. _ Moreover, the whole land is kept in a complete turmoil for months, much to the detriment lof the industrial world. Although there are many’ features in common between a British election and an American, it is none the less true that, as a recent writer ha:- put it. the Old Country methods of getting through one are “whirlwhind compared with, the slow’ procedure of hustling Y’ankeeland,” Britain has been known to have three general elections in the course of a year and as many prime ministers, Who are as much chief executives of the United Kingdom as the President is of the United States. There is this great difference, however, that once the Vinci nans cnoos their President they must keep him for four years, unicss Congress turns him out for li h n i“s ind misdemeanours, whena ti < ] i itish 1 rime Minister i o s to fl ( w ill the i i anent he fails to secure; the support of a majority M the representatives of the people, in tne House ot Commons. It is curiously true. too. how often polif il narties m the United States h e been able to ignore and override tne wishes of the people. Again and again the bosses” have nomin t dac net L.te f their own choosing. ano suemu d in exclaim sou < dit mg it tl < i opl I nd i the Viuin isv tin if pusidmtiil government, and ot parties which do not necessarily represent public opinion, but whien an mechanic il aggre o tiji f iocil nohiuiins th I real Itadii i in inns nmol md some lines i jeet.ed.

There is this similarity between English elections and the election of a President for the United States. You can never be sure until the votes are countedl Take the case of Mr. Blaine, who ran for the Presidency in 1884, as example. All was going well and the polling day was in sight, with victory predicted for him on every hand. Then a deputation waited on Mr. Blaine, and he made a speech. In returning thanks a parson, with a taste for alliteration, remarked that the return of Mr. Blaine would mean a defeat for the forces of rum, rebellion and Romanism ’ It was a fine conceit, but it lost Mr. Blaine the election. The opposite party took it up, printed the remark on huge posters and scattered them through every town in the States. The forces of “rum, rebellion and Romanism” were severely insulted and infuriated. “Southern gentlement” who were proud to be rebels not so long before, turned over to the

other side. The saloon keepers, always an influential class, deserted Blaine in a body, and the Roman Catholics, naturally offended at the association of winds, followed suit. It was a triumph for a clever electioneer, who had his machinery in order. That is American all over; and it is one of the many devices that tnay’ be icsoited to in the heav of a Presidential election.

The great belligerent Powers are all engaged in the product ion of aircraft innumerable for the _ purposes of the war. anil the question is asked as to what is Io become of all these machines when the war is over. That they will n<>t lie scra]>ped as useless, but wil] he converted to tlie development of peaceful services. is the opinion held by many men of an eminently practical turn of mind. Mr. Graham Vi bite, who is assuredly entitled to speak with tlie- voice of a wide and varied experience, considers the air the safest medium of transit for passengers and mails in days to come. He pictures a London-North of England service of powerful planes, each carrying fifty passengers. All this within live years, and within the decade “aeroliners” plying between the Mersey and New York. Motor cars (the same expert thinks) will get fewer as planes decrease in cost and the peculiar thrill of aerial flight comes within purses of reasonable reach. The Lord Mayor ot London is not elevated to his high position on account of his imaginative faculties. Yet Colonel Sir Charles Wakefield, the present head of the London municipality, anticipates aero-cars. aero-tixis and '’trollies” of all types at the close of the great war. “I fully expect.” Sir Charles declares, ‘‘to reach my estate at Ilvtlie from the Mansion House (seventy miles) in half an hour or so. And this within, say. two years’.” Woman and baby killing is not the only purpose that Germany can see in her air services, although for the time being it is the object she brings into greater prominence. The Cent?al Powers have been settling derails of the ‘ Balkan Aerial Express," whose route is to be Berlin - Vienna - Budapest - Constantinople. This hist destination is. it is safe to sav. chimerical. Teuton plain's v ill never fly over the Golden Horn. But th< j idea is there, all the same, and backed by rich commercial concerns like the Austrian Lloyd, the Magyar Trade and Banking Company, and rb.e tierman Survey Association. Meetings of the promoters are now being held at Budapest to settie the, amount ot capital required, the most suitable type of aircraft, sites fur the land-ing-places, and the postal interests of the th’e? [’overs concerned. "All these and many other features.” says a writer in that staid journal, the “Weekly Scotsman.” ‘ wg may look for when our aircraft come home to roost, with no fog of war to hide tne almost miraculous development of these machines during the past two momentous years.”

There is but little further news through since yesterday with regard to either of the Rumanian campaigns. The general impression gathered from the reports of the last few days, however, when quietly considered, is that the AustroGerman attack from Hungary has as yet failed of achieving any definite purpose in view, and that any danger that was impending has for the time been averted. Whether the resources of the Central Powers can respond to the appeal which Falkenhayn was reported a day’ or two ago to have made for more met may well be doubted. At present the chief menabe to the Rumanians appears to be directed from the Predeal Pass, from which runs the shortest railway route to Bucharest, thus affording the best promise of some definite spectacular accomplishment to justify’ the boast that 1 an errant Rumania would be speedily chastised. -Even here it would seem that the enemy’s efforts are resulting iu little, if any, progress, and without doubt strong Russian reinforcements would be despatched to tin's point of. gravest apprehension. If we may read the wires literally’, there seems to be now no anxiety with regard to the position or the frontier of Moldavia, the northeastern province of Rumania, or in the south-western corner of Bukowina, where the enemy was making violent endeavours to thrust in between the Russians and the Rumanians. The almost complete silence thnf. has fpllpn nvpr operutlOllS in lit Dil lj i v n indicate that Mack isen b t I u brought to a halt, either bv tne opposition of a strovglv rciniorced Rumanian army, or bv doubts as to the prudence of pressing further on when Falkenhiv n movtm it n so far from i 1 o ci d v ith ui :ess. The appearance on tne scene of General tsukucii iuf, iv Lu li«.ft none siicb. brilliant work in Galicia under Brusiloff, gives earnest of some rapid developments on the southern Rumanian front, and probably accounts for the pause, which Mackensen has seen fit to make.