er which purported to come from her husband,
though it was in the same handwriting as all the others. I was therein
advised that, due to the nervous prostration that had followed her
disappointment in this case, she had to take to her bed and had
developed a most serious case of cancer of the stomach. Would I not
restore her to health by withdrawing the first name and replacing it by
her son's? I had to write another letter, this one to the husband, to
say that I hoped the diagnosis would prove to be inaccurate, that I
sympathized with him in the sorrow he must have in the serious illness
of his wife, but that it was impossible to withdraw the name sent in.
The man whom I appointed was confirmed, and within two days after I
received that letter, we gave a musicale at the White House. The first
two people to greet Mrs. Taft and me were this husband and wife, though
the wife had so recently been _in articulo mortis_.

Another great power of the President is his control of our foreign
relations. In domestic matters, the Federal government shares every
field, executive, judicial and legislative, with the states, but in
foreign affairs, the whole governmental control is with the President,
the Senate and Congress. The states have nothing to do with it. The
President initiates a treaty and the Senate confirms it. The Senate,
however, cannot initiate a treaty, the President alone can do that.
Congress' powers to declare war and regulate our foreign commerce are
its chief powers in respect to our foreign relations. So that, except in
ratifying treaties, in regulating commerce and in declaring war, the
President guides our whole foreign policy.

Through the State Department he conducts all negotiation and
correspondence with other governments and according to the Constitution
he receives ambassadors and foreign ministers. Now you might possibly
think that that meant only that he must have a flunky at the White House
to take their cards--but it means a good deal more. He appoints
ambassadors and ministers to other countries and instructs them. He
receives the diplomatic representatives from other countries and does
business with them. He construes treaties and asserts the rights of our
government and our citizens under them. He considers and decides the
rights of other governments and their subjects in a way which
practically binds our government and people. And in order to receive
ambassadors and ministers, he must determine wh