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Show LAWS FOR THE PRESIDENT. They Are Very Strict and He Alone Must Obey Them. (Philadelphia North American.) There are a number of unwritten laws which hedge aoout a presiaent ana circumscribe cir-cumscribe his movements. Not that the chief executive could legally be required to observe them, but that he does do so from a deference to custom. That the president must not leave the country even for a day is one of these restrictions imposed, not by statute but by public opinion. This was the reason why President McKinley on his trip south last May. did not cross the boundary boun-dary line into 3'. co, although he very much desired to j tbat country. At El Paso, Tex., ha received Presl-1 dent Diaz's personal representative. From El Paso there extends into Mexico the international bridge which spans the Rio Grande. The president went to the very entrance to the bridge that he might catch a view of the Sierra Madre, and have at least a glimpse of the country into which official custom forbade him to enter. President Harrison a few years before went a little nearer the limit. Half way across the bridge is the line that separates sepa-rates the territory of the two countries, and President Harrison, availing himself of every inch of privilege, walked onto the bridge and up to the line, though he forebore to set foot across it. In compliance with this same sentiment that restrains a president from stepping onto foreign territory, he may not enter any foreign embassy or legation. In Washington the official residence of the representative of another country is as much foreign territory as if it were situated sit-uated across the ocean. The patch of t-md t Vi i ; . r i ti -n ii . 1 hi- -jlinlhor ffni'ftrnmonf tana tnus ownea Dy anoiner government is exempt from taxation and immune I from our legal processes. i In the same way it is prohibited to the president to go aboard a foreign warship. war-ship. This rule, it is explained, has its origin in the precaution against a possible pos-sible plot to adbuct the chief executive. President Arthur is said to have once defied this rule when he accepted an invitation in-vitation to luncheon aboard a foreign warship anchored at Newport. The etiquette of calls, is in like manner man-ner well defined for the president. He may not make a formal call attired in ceremonial dress upon anyone except a president-elect, an ex-president, a president presi-dent of a foreign state of a reignin monarch visiting in this country. Al! others are officially beneath his rank. This, of course, does not apply to informal in-formal calls, which the chief executive, as any private citizen, may make whenever when-ever he likes. Not to receive any but intimate friends on Sunday is a rule to which the earlier presidents were glad to adhere. Even now onlv the most urgent reasons are excuses for interrupting the president's rest on the seventh day. Another rule which is still respected forbids the holding of state receptions or dinners during Lent. It Is a relic of England's religious influence, and originated origi-nated with Washington, who was a communicant com-municant of the Episcopalian church. The precedent which he established has since been adhered to. even by presidents not of that religious faith. A president must never pay a first call except upon the. arrival of the head of a foreign state in Washington. A crown prince even is beneath him in rank, and must make th first social advances. |