ROOSEVELTIAN BUREAUCRACY

In a vigorous denunciation of the Administration, Col. Theodore Roosevelt charged that the national government is not only attempting to build a colossal Jacksonian political machine, but it is also trying to break down completely the histrionic separation of powers in the federal system. Demolishing state lines ruthlessly, gathering the reins of government into the hands of the White House, it has used the argument of national crisis to justify its concentration of powers in the hands of the executive.

During a period of social calamity and industrial depression, it is inevitable that representative government give way to a form of administration which is less dilatory, less tolerant, and less compromising. In the crisis of 1932 the people demanded action of the new administration. They were willing to surrender temporarily their historic rights and forget their political philosophy in the interests of prompt, recovery. But two years have passed and the process of strengthening the executive continues. Congress has been surrendering its rights and the rights of other branches of the government to the president. We have in the executive the spectacle of an officer making the laws which it is his duty to enforce. Many of the significant laws affecting the industry of the country have never seen the floor of a legislative assembly, but have been enacted by political appointees responsible only to the executive. In the AAA Congress supinely turned over to officers appointed by the president the right to impose processing taxes on the basic agricultural products.

Since the crisis which justified their assumption of authority has apparently passed, power should be gradually returned to its lawful holders. If government regulation of business necessitates the retention of a numerous bureaucracy, at least that group of officers should be taken from the hands of the president. Selected by a rigid examination system analogous to the English method, they should be removed from the sphere of political partisanship.