388 WRIGHT— POWER TO MAKE POLITICAL DECISIONS. 



passed authorizing the President to embargo arms and munitions 

 bound to American countries in a condition of domestic violenceJ^ 

 In all of these acts power has been delegated to the President to 

 decide when the circumstances contemplated by the act exist and by 

 proclamation to put it into effect. This delegation has been justified 

 on the same theory as delegation in reciprocity acts, that it is 

 delegation to find on a fact and not to determine a policy.'^ The 

 general power of Congress to prohibit importations or exportations 

 has been sustained under the commerce clause. ^^ Congress also has 

 power under this clause to regulate cables, radio and telegraph used 

 in foreign commerce'^* but in this field the President has been held 

 to have concurrent powers : '^^ 



" The President has charge of our relations with foreign powers. It is 

 his duty to see that, in the exchange of commodities among nations, we get 

 as much as we give. He ought not to stand by and permit a cable to land on 

 our shores under a concession from a foreign power which does not permit 

 our cables to land on its shores and enjoy there facilities equal to those ac- 

 corded its cable here. For this reason President Grant insisted on the first 

 point in his message of 1875. 



" The President is not only the head of the diplomatic service, but com- 

 mander in chief of the Army and Navy. A submarine cable is of inestimable 

 service to the Government in communicating with its officers in the diplomatic 

 and consular service, and in the Army and Navy when abroad. The Presi- 

 dent should, therefore, demand that the Government have precedence in the 

 use of the line, and this was done by President Grant in the third point of 

 his message. 



" Treating a cable simply as an instrument of commerce, it is the duty 

 of the President, pending legislation by Congress, to impose such restrictions 

 as will forbid unjust discriminations, prevent monopolies, promote competi- 

 tion, and secure reasonable rates. These were the objects of the second and 

 fourth points in President Grant's message. 



" The President's authority to control the landing of a foreign cable does 

 not flow from his right to permit it in the sense of granting a franchise, but 

 from his power to prohibit it should he deem it an encroachment on our 

 rights or prejudicial to our interests. ... I am of the opinion, therefore, that 



''■1 Moore, Digest, 7: 142-151 ; 37 Stat. 630; Comp. Stat., sec. 7677. 

 ■^2 The Brig Aurora, 7 Cranch 382, 388, approved in Field v. Clark, 143 

 U. S. 649 (1892) ; supra, sec. 60. 



"U. S. V. The William, 28 Fed. 614 (1808). 



7* Pensacola Tele. Co. v. Western Union, 96 U. S. i (1878). 



76 Richards, Acting Att. Gen., 22 Op. 13 ; Moore, Digest, 2 : 462. 



