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The Presidential Veto Since 1889

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Katherine A. Towle
Katherine A. Towle
Affiliation:
University of California
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Extract

In 1890, Mr. Edward C. Mason published in his monograph, The Veto Power, the results of his investigation of presidential vetoes down to 1889. In the present note, it is proposed to supplement the earlier study by presenting a short analysis of vetoes between 1889 and 1934.

By 1889, the direct veto had been applied to 435 measures. Of this number, however, over 200 were pension bills vetoed during Cleveland's first administration. Of pocket vetoes, there had been only 16. From 1889 to the close of the Seventy-third Congress in June, 1934, the direct veto was exercised 235 times, and 292 pocket vetoes were recorded. In the hundred-year period from 1789 to 1889, 29 vetoes were overridden by Congress; in the 45 years from 1889 to 1934, 22 met reversal. This increase in the number and proportion of vetoes is attributable to the increased amount and broadened scope of legislation resulting from the complexity of our social and political life.

Type
American Government and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , February 1937 , pp. 51 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1937

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References

1 Mason, E. C., The Veto Power (Boston, 1890), Appendix D, p. 214Google Scholar.

2 See Table I.

3 Harrison, 7; Cleveland, 28 (18 pension, 10 private claims); McKinley, 4; T. Roosevelt, 23 (2 pension, 21 private claims); Taft, 10; Wilson, 9; Harding, 1; Coolidge, 3; Hoover, 3; F. D. Roosevelt (to June, 1934), 15.

4 Harrison, 1; Cleveland, 4; McKinley, 2; T. Roosevelt, 2; Taft, 1; Wilson, 1; Coolidge, 4; Hoover, 4; F. D. Roosevelt (to June, 1934), 1.

5 These include (1) the river and harbor appropriation bill in the Fifty-fourth Congress (1895–97), under Cleveland; (2) the immigration measure with its provision for a literacy test, finally repassed after three previous unsuccessful attempts, during the Sixty-fourth Congress (1915–17), during Wilson's first term; bills dealing with (3) daylight saving repeal, (4) reëstablishment of the War Finance Corporation, and (5) army enlistment in the Sixty-sixth Congress (1919–21), during Wilson's second term; (6), (7), and (8) the bonus bills in the Coolidge Sixty-eighth (1923–25), the Hoover Seventy-first (1929–31), and the F. D. Roosevelt Seventy-third (1933–34) Congresses; (9) war emergency officers retirement act, (10) night postal service pay measure, and (11) fourth-class postmasters' compensation bill—all in the Seventieth Congress (1927–29) of the Coolidge administration; (12) the Spanish War pension increase measure of Hoover's Seventy-first Congress; and (13) Philippine Independence Act of his Seventy-second Congress (1931–).