Evening star., 1939-10-08
Many a flushed Fact Revealed
In War Book President Raped
Cherne's Volume, Called Incisive and Painstakina.
Touches Several Spots the New Deal Would
Prefer to Have Left Alone
By Richard L. Stokes.

WAaC manner OF book is Leo M
Cherne's Adjusting Your Business to
War" which President Roosevelt's sar-
casms at recent press conference lifted
from obscurity to national news? OF
what is this volume made that it could
provoke the President into delivering
what his hearers construed as a public
reprimand to Louis A. Johnson, Assistant
Secretary of War, for implementing it
with 600-word preface?
The book, for good measure, has served
to kindle into far-seen flame a feud
smoldering within cabinet department,
with possible repercussions yet to come
on appointments to the posts of Secre-
tary of War and Secretary of the Navy.
1t has been looked at for ammunition by
anti-administration Senators in the cur
rent neutrality debate, which may we'll
affect the conduct and outcome of the
European war.
Not often does a publication, at one
stroke, achieve so many distinctions.
Unhappily for the author, his 2-pound
and opulent tome can scarcely become
best seller. 1t was issued for contiden-
1Udl SASuldVlOll, dG pOOO d SOPy, dAllOAlS
clientele of some 10000 corporations
and executives by the Tax Research In
stitute of America of New York. The
purpose was manifestly that of enabling
big business to begin planning its ad-
justments now, and thus "get the jump"
on smaller enterprises which do not SUBJ
scribe to such services. Cherne (pro-
ry,'
trained at Harvard, is executive secre-
tary of this bureau, the function of
which is to supply its members with
private reports on legislation affecting
business.
Reasons for Reputation.
An examination of the treatise dis
closes numerous reasons why the admin
istration, for the present at least, should
find it expedient to repudiate Cherne's
book as gospel of official inspiration.
One possible source of annoyance is the
earnestness of the authors repeated as
surances that the industrial mobiliza-
ton plan is not New Deal contrivance,
but joint product of the War and Navy
Departments, worked out during the last
20 years on the basis of lessons taught
by the World War.
OF particular untimeliness may have
been considered the books emphasis on
the war powers which the Constitution
vests in the President as commander-in-
chief of Army and Navy. This great
reservoir of authority which the custom
Of the country has permitted to be used
as emergency may require" is declared
to be mot only undefinable but beyond
practical limit" The inference is left
that if Lincoln could extend his war
powers to so sensational a measure as
the emancipation of the slaves, then an
other President, after Congress had de-
clared war, could suspend any law which
in his opinion obstructed victory-for
example, the johnson Act forbidding
loans to debtor nations.
AS an indiScretion even more unseas-
enable may have appeared the books
discussion of topic not so familiar
namely, the extraordinary powers con-
ferred on the President by the National
Defense Act of 1920, which still remains
law. In view of M. Roosevelt's unex-
pected proclamation of limited emer-
gency, it might be embarrassing to recall
that the President, without further
legislation by Congress, is free to use his
own discretion as to when full emer-
gency actually arrives. After declaring
this state of affairs to exist, he may pro-
Sceed at once, Cherne says, to assume
authoritarian control over the Nations
entire economy of resources, industry
and man power; he may commander
materials and plants, place compulsory
orders in factories, fix prices, allot priori-
ties in the use of coal, gas, oil and elec-
tricity and dominate foreign trade by
means of import and export licenses.
Labor Also in Danger
The book is fortnight and drastic in
Its warnings as to the changes which war
would inf1ict on capital, but treats with
gingerly touch the corresponding status
Of labor. Nevertheless, the suggestions
are alarming enough in this respect alone
to account for White House insistence
that Johnson's Endorsement did not sig
nifty administration approval of the
volume.
Among possible measures in wartime
the book lists are revision or suspension
Of State laws prescribing hours and
conditions of women and minors en-
ployed in industry, prohibition of the
migration of workers from one job to
another, standardization of all wages in
.elation to cost of living, a unified en-
ployment service to prevent competition
for labor, compulsory arbitration of dis
putes and enforcement of the work or
fight rule under which artisans ex-
empted for skill in industry may be COM
PEELED to choose between conformity and
shouldering musket.
THE enactment of the National Labor
Relations Act" it is declared, "and the
entire question of collective bargaining
will undoubtedly present one of the more
ticklish problems during war. AS can
readily be understood, the right to strike
will become burdensome one to the
lnstrumentalities of national defense
when exercised in industries which are
producing the needs of the armed forces.
1T is not probable that the right to
strike will be completely terminated,
nor is it probable that the ease with
which it may be asserted under the
Wagner Act will be continued. The
great probability lies in the adoption
Of machinery similar to that now used