National Affairs: No Inability

Article II of the U. S. Constitution states that “Congress may by law provide for the case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President.” In 1886, the 49th Congress formally established Presidential succession among the Cabinet officers, based on seniority of their portfolios. Last week Franklin Roosevelt was 6,000 miles away in Buenos Aires, farthest any U. S. President had ever got from his White House desk. In hypothetical command of the nation was little old John Nance Garner who last week returned to Washington from Texas. Of the next seven men eligible to succeed to the Presidency, only five were in the country.

Second in line of Presidential succession is the Secretary of State, but Cordell Hull was also 6,000 miles from home. Actual No. 2 man thus became Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau. Behind him came Secretary of War Woodring, followed by Attorney General Cummings. No. 5 man is normally the Postmaster General. With James Aloysius Farley looking up relatives in Ireland, his position fell to ailing Secretary of the Navy Swanson, with Secretary of the Interior Ickes bringing up the rear. Agriculture’s Wallace, Commerce’s Roper, Labor’s Perkins were no nearer the Presidency than they had ever been. When the 49th Congress fixed the order of Cabinet succession, their offices had not been created.

Messrs. Wallace, Roper and Madam Perkins, like everyone else in Washington, knew that what they were missing was an empty honor. Before sailing Roosevelt let it be well understood that, as when Wilson visited Paris and Coolidge visited Havana, there would be no acting President in his absence. With modern means of communication, distance from Washington is no Inability in a U. S. President.