282 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



introduced during an ordinary session are special, local or personal in 

 whole or in part, while far the larger part of the committee work and 

 public debate appears to be devoted to special or local interests ! Nat- 

 urally little time and thought are left for general laws, touching alike 

 the entire citizenry; and naturally the custom of special legislation 

 under party control opens easy way for such machine organization that 

 a half-dozen shrewd manipulators may assume leadership in either 

 house and completely dominate legislation. So far has this tendency 

 run that it is to-day a grave question — the gravest in our history — 

 whether our current laws are framed in the interests of our ninety mil- 

 lions or in the interests of special privilege reducible in the last analysis 

 to a scant dozen " captains of industry " : and hence whether after all 

 representative government is inherently and permanently stable. The 

 " propensity " of the congress " to legislate too much " has indeed been 

 checked from time to time in the manner forecast by Morris ; for while 

 some administrations acquiesce, others hold out for a stricter conform- 

 ity with the constitution. George Washington sought to carry out the 

 intent of the instrument framed under his chairmanship, and was so 

 savagely assailed for " usurpation " that he declared death preferable 

 to public service; Abraham Lincoln carried forward the administrative 

 affairs of his terms through sheer force of personality, aided indirectly 

 by the military activity of the time; no less competent authority than 

 the present president of the United States once signalized Grover Cleve- 

 land's insistence that the presidency carries power coequal with those 

 of the congress as the notable feature of his administrations ; and Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt's policy was consistently parallel and still more vigorous, 

 even to his final and most trenchant presidential message pointing out 

 the unconstitutionality of an item in the sundry civil act passed as his 

 term closed. Meantime some heads of executive departments shrank 

 from assuming administrative responsibilities; yet under growing 

 necessity they have gradually become our chief administrative officers. 

 Verily the price of indefiniteness as to the administrative function 

 in our fundamental law has been large ! Not only have confusion and 

 friction arisen, with enormous attendant expense, but the relatively 

 simple duties of administration are ill-performed. The advocates of 

 waterway improvement were among the first to notice that nearly all 

 our waterway enactments to date are special, and tend to magnify rather 

 than merge sectional and political interests; and that the flood of spe- 

 cial bills and local items has so far diverted effort from general legisla- 

 tion that even unto this day the country lacks fundamental laws relating 

 to waters, and is weakly perpetuating monarchial common-law doctrines 

 not only unsuited to current conditions but such as the constitution was 

 designed to annul or forestall ! The waterway workers are no longer 

 slow to condemn methods which have permitted — if indeed they have 



