Evening star., 1943-02-19
Pay Ceiling
Legal Ruling
Denied Public
Congress Didn't Get
Text Of Opinion by
Attorney General
BY DAVID LAWRENCE,

ny bhNID Law hENSE.
President Roosevelt writes to Rep
resentative rDoughton, chairman of
the House Ways and Means Com
mittee, that before the recent Execu-
tive order fixing a ceiling on salaries
was issued, an opinion from the
Attorney General was obtained
which attested to the legality of
the order.
But the text OF the legal opinion
has not been made public, nor vas
1t transmitted to the House Ways
and Means Committee. The Ameri-
can people are entitled to the text
Of the opinion, for 1t is plainly not
q legal question which the Attorney
General decided but a sociological
or political question.
The President wrote:
Il could not exercise the discre-
ton vested in me by the Congress
to adjust salaries without finding
that 1t is gross inequity in war
time to permit one man to receive
q salary in excess of $4,000 q year
while the Government Is drafting
another man and requiring him to
serve with the armed forces for $500
year. The correction of such
inequities, believed, would aid in
the effective prosecution Of the
war"
1t would be interesting to know
how the inequity was corrected by
stopping at $4,000. Do the mem
bers Of the armed services feel now,
when they get 5000 a year and the
executives Of business get $4,000.
such limitation will aid In the cf-
fective prosecution OF the WARP"
Public Should Know.
This isn't matter of law but OF
arbitrary political opinion, and If
the Attorney General sheds light
on how this inequity was corrected,
the public is entitled to know his
reasoning.
1t may be, of course, that the
Attorney General merely ruled that
the President could arbitrarily linn
1t salaries wherever he pleased and
that Congress gave him such power.
II so, one looks in vain for the
record In the congressional debates
which would even remotely show
that Congress had any such inten-
tion. Again and again the Supreme
Court and the lower courts have
read the debates in Congress or re-
ports Of congressional committees
to find out what the legislative in
tent happened to be.
In this case, there is a plain rec
ord that Congress acted on the
assumption that the President
would not do what he finally did.
Indeed, it sometimes happens that
a specific issue paralleling later
dispute develops discussion. In this
instance, here is an excerpt from
the debate:
Senator Vandenberg Of Michi-
gan-If this language means any,
thing at all as it is written today
and I do not see how it could come
from the sources the Senator (Mr. |
Brown of Michigan) indicates, un-
der the circumstances-it means |
that the President would have a
right to adjust all prices, wages and |
salaries solely for the purpose of |
correcting gross inequities, which |
means for social reform purposes, |
II he desires, regardless of any |
effect on the conduct of the war
Is not that true? Could he not, un-
der that language, reduce all in
comes to $4,000 by executive order?"
Senator Brown of Michigan-I
desire to 60 into that subject later,
but 1t is my judgment that the au-
thority is not contained in a bill
which stabilizes salaries as of Sep
tember Is, 1912. I will say to the
Senator that the representatives of
the two large organized labor or
gsnizations agreed with that view in
the committee"
Administration Spokesman.
Senator Brown was in charge of
the anti-inf1ation bill on the floor
OF the Senate. He was spokesman
for the administration. On his in
depreciation, other members of the
Senate had a right to rely, fer it
was assumed he was speaking for
the administration and knew its
plans and purposes.
Nowhere in the debate is there the
slightest record of any intention to
reduce, for instance, pre-war SAL
aries, yet the executive order issued
by the President went back to salary
contracts made as much as 10 years
ago between top executives and their
companies for compensation in ex-
cess Of $67, 200.
The repeater" proposed by Rep
resentative Disney Of Oklahoma
stipulates that salaries should be
permitted which were in existence
on December 7, 194l-the day Of our
entry into the war-but that new
salaries must not go beyond s25 900
net. This, however, is the legislative
body speaking, and that's where the
power to legislate really belongs.
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