The Evening Star (January 1, 1947)
Editorial: End of ‘hostilities’
President Truman’s declaration that hostilities of World War II are at an end represents the first step in what probably will be a slow process of restoring the nation to a peacetime economic basis. It was nearly three years after the 1918 armistice before the United States formally declared World War I terminated. That action was preceded by a congressional resolution ending the “emergency,” somewhat similar in its effect to the presidential proclamation just issued.
Because Congress, in carrying out its desire to hold the reins on presidential powers during the late war period, followed no set pattern in limiting duration of a multitude of statutes, the phraseology varies widely and is susceptible of conflicting interpretation. A recent study of the hundreds of wartime laws by the Department of Justice, however, showed that they fall generally into three categories, viz., those which are restricted to the period of “hostilities” or a certain period thereafter, those which are good during the state of “emergency” and those which are valid as long as a “state of war” continues to exist.
There are fifty-one laws which are affected by Mr. Truman’s declaration that “hostilities” have ceased, probably the most important of which are the plant-seizure provisions of the Smith-Connally Act. However, seizures already made – as in the cases of bituminous coal and certain Great Lakes shipping – will be good for six months. Outstanding also will be reductions in excise taxes and a return to peacetime civil service personnel restrictions for the War and Navy Departments. The full effects of the latter move remain to be determined.
The second and third steps in this process of returning to normalcy will await congressional action. Only Congress can officially end the state of war, although the state of emergency was declared not by Congress but by President Roosevelt in his proclamations of 1939 and 1941. Sixty-eight laws will be wiped out when the state of emergency ends, and about 250 others will go out the window when a state of war no longer prevails.
The gradual approach to this problem of readjusting the nation to a peacetime basis, as exemplified in the president’s proclamation, is in line with the attitude expressed by Sen. Wiley of Wisconsin in a report just submitted to the Senate Republican Steering Committee. He strongly advised against any sudden, wholesale abolition of war time control measures that might have “chaotic effects.”
The net result of Mr. Truman’s action is to throw into the lap of Congress the major responsibility for studying remaining wartime acts and fixing a timetable for their repeal, as future conditions warrant. This should be a cooperative undertaking between the executive and legislative branches, however, in the interest of avoiding the “chaotic effects” envisioned by Sen. Wiley and many others if the task is tackled too cursorily.