STORIES OF OUR GOVERNMENT.

THE PRESIDENT'S CABINET.

BY THE HONORABLE THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

The executive business of the national government is divided into eight
departments, and the heads of these eight departments are known as
Cabinet officers, and form the President's Cabinet.

It often happens that we use the same name that is used in England for
an officer or an institution, which is not, however, quite the same, and
is sometimes widely different, and we must always be on our guard not to
be confused by such seeming similarity. This is true in our political
life, just as it is true in our sports. For instance, we could not get
an international match between Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, and Oxford
or Cambridge on the football field, because, although football is played
at all of them, yet the game in the American colleges is so different
from that played in the English universities that it would be impossible
to have American and English teams meet on the same ground, any more
than we could put a baseball nine against a cricket eleven. It is just
the same way in our politics. The Senate is sometimes spoken of as
corresponding to the House of Lords; but they really have few points of
resemblance, save that they are both second chambers. So the Speaker of
the House of Representatives is sometimes spoken of as if his position
corresponded to that of Speaker of the House of Commons. This is not
true at all. The Speaker of the House of Commons is, properly, merely a
moderator, like the moderator of a New England town meeting, and his
duty is to preside and keep order, but not to be a Speaker, in our sense
of the word, at all, not to give any utterance to party policy. In the
American House, on the contrary, the Speaker is the great party leader,
who is second in power and influence only to the President himself. The
functions of the two officers have nothing in common, save in the mere
presiding over the deliberations of the body itself.

[Illustration: THE CABINET-ROOM.]

So in England the cabinet officers are all legislators, exactly as the
Prime Minister, their chief, and they are elected by separate
constituencies just as he is. In America the cabinet officers are not
legislators at all, and have no voice in legislation. Instead of being
elected by their own constituencies, they are appointed by the
President, and he is directly responsible for them. It is upon his
Cabinet officers that the President h