Evening star., 1942-12-09

II this were true, then America
could be said to have discarded her
Constitution and gone totalitarian.
The fact is, the President possess
ses no war powers by virtue of his
office. He gets them only when
delegated to him by Congress. A
President cannot declare war. Only
Congress can declare war. Hence,
whatever powers the President ac-
quires or whatever extra powers he
exercises as Commander In Chief
Of the Army and Navy in wartime
are those which have been delegated
to him by Congress.
Delegation Of power Is one of the
most delicate expressions of the
Constitution and 1t means that
Congress cannot delegate to the
Executive any power except in spe-
CHIC instances. The Supreme Court
IN a famous decision by a unani-
nous Judgment in May, 1885, said
that Congress must prescribe legis-
latlve standards. 1t must define in
each law the limits within which 1t
permits the Executive to go and
outside of which the courts must
invalidate any action taken by the
Executive.
Provides Dismissals.
In the Montgomery Ward case,
the War Labor Board-itsef created
by an executive order without any
specific delegation of power by the
Congress-has undertaken to COM
pei an employer to sign a contract
which requires him to dismiss Ger
tain employees if they fail to main
tain their membership in a labor
union. The employer in this case
pointed out that such step would
be violation of the Wagner Labor
Relations Law, which outlaws any
contracts signed under duress and
which cause an employer to dis
criminate as between union and
non-union employees.
Thus, an employe who is not a
member of a union and of course
doesn't pay dues can retain his job
whereas an employe in the same
plant who has been a member of
a union and refuses to pay dues
any longer must be fired by the en-
ployer.
The Montgomery Ward executives
pointed all this out to the War
Labor Board but were told they
must sign the contract anyhow. The
company said it would if ordered to
do so by the President as Com
mander in Chief. The order was
promptly furnished. Now, however,
when the Montgomery Ward people
want to include a provision stating
that they are signing the compul-
sorry order under duress," the War
Labor Board objects.
In the end, whether the Mont
gomery Ward Co. signs the order
or finds its mail order house taken
over by the Federal Government,
the background is the same. The
record will have been made that in
time of war the Government can
insist that mail order house which
isn't engaged in war production
must obey the ukase on compulsory
unioization or suffer the conse-
quences, namely, inability to operate
Its business.
Smith Seeks Inquiry.
It isn't a record of which de-
mocracy can be proud and it will
rise to plague the administration.
Already Representative Smith, DEM
ocrat, of Virginia, who conducted
the sweeping investigation of the
National Labor Relations Board a
few years ago. has introduced a
resolution in the House calling for
q thorough inquiry into the opera
tions of the War Labor Board.
Mr.. Smith is particularly inter-
ested in the effort of the WLB to
regulate the wages of municipal
employees.
1t may be asked, what purpose
can be accomplished by such an
investigation since the Chief Ex-
ecutive is ignoring the Supreme
Court decision concerning proper
delegation of power anyway. The
answer is that majority in the
House is getting ready to use the
power of the purse-the oldest
weapon of a legislative body in all
the history of parliamentary gov
ernment-to obtain respect for its
wishes. Unless the executiv e
agencies obey the law, funds to en-
force specify executive orders may
be denied them.