Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/837

801 IMPOSSIBILITY OF PERFORMANCE OF CONTRACTS 8oi voluntary character of the cooperation given to the government by these producers, it may be pointed out that the statutory powers of requisitioning, placing compulsory orders, and taking over plants furnished an ultimate legal basis for the control which was thus exercised. While there might in a particular case have been some question as to the power of the government to enforce by compul- sory order the priority which a manufacturer was directed to give to an order from a private corporation for threshing machines, there could be little doubt of the government's power to control the country's entire production of steel, of which there was a serious shortage, by placing orders for the entire output of the steel mills or even by taking over the mills themselves. This potential control was amply sufficient to compel the steel mills to allocate steel as directed by the government. In addition to this control over basic raw materials the govern- ment had an even more complete statutory control over coal,^^ transportation,^^ exports,^^ and imports,^^ and a very ejffective con- trol over labor based in part on the administration of industrial exemptions under the draft laws,^^ and in part in the allocation of labor by the United States Employment Agency. In times of peace it would no doubt be a violent distortion of legal principles for the various departments of the government to use their powers for the purpose of enforcing the ruHngs of a sepa- rate branch of the government. It must be borne in mind how- ever that the powers granted by Congress in the acts passed to deal with the war emergency were conferred not for some specific purpose distinct from the activities of the government as a whole, but for the purpose of the national security and common defense, and further that these powers, although exercised by a number of 21 See Food Control Act of August lo, 1917, § 25. [Public — No. 41 — 65th Con- gress (H. R. 4961)], ^ See Army Appropriation Act of August 29, 1916, 39 Stat, at L., c. 418, p. 619; Amendment to Interstate Commerce Act of August 10, 191 7, [Public — No. 39 — 6sth Congress (S. 2356)]. Railroad Control Act of March 21, 1918 [Public — No. 107 — 6sth Congress (S. 3752)]. ^ See Espionage Act of June 15, 1917 [Public — No. 24 -^ 65th Congress (H. R. 291)]. " See Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 191 7, § 11 [Public — No. 91 — 65th Congress (H. R. 4960)]. 2* See Selective Service Act of May 18, 1917, 40 Stat, at L. 76 and amendments thereto [Public — No. 29 — 6sth Congress (S. J. Res. 123)].