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Executive Order 2744 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority

Executive Order 2744—Fixing Salary of, and Vesting Certain Power and Authority in, the Alien Property Custodian Appointed Under Trading with the Enemy Act

Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson
•
Monday, October 29, 1917
•
2 min read (489 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 2 min read (489 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I hereby make and establish the following order: I hereby fix the salary of the Alien Property Custodian heretofore appointed at the sum of $5,000 per annum.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities
Inspect unabridged text ↓

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

Early Statesman synthesis distilling legal jargon into practical meaning, statutory anchors, and structural constitutional impacts.

Signed by President Woodrow Wilson on October 29, 1917, this order concerns Fixing Salary of, and Vesting Certain Power and Authority in, the Alien Property Custodian Appointed Under Trading with the Enemy Act. I hereby make and establish the following order: I hereby fix the salary of the Alien Property Custodian heretofore appointed at the sum of $5,000 per annum. I direct that said alien property custodian shall give a bond in the amount of $100,000, with security to be approved by the Attorney General, and which bond shall be conditioned to well and faithfully hold, administer, and account for all money and property…

Constitutional Assessment: Scrutinized through Article II, Section 2, this action exercises the President's constitutional role as Commander in Chief. Early Framers recognized broad executive discretion in commanding military forces during conflict, provided it remains bounded by congressional declarations and respects civilian domestic courts.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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I hereby make and establish the following order: I hereby fix the salary of the Alien Property Custodian heretofore appointed at the sum of $5,000 per annum.

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I direct that said alien property custodian shall give a bond in the amount of $100,000, with security to be approved by the Attorney General, and which bond shall be conditioned to well and faithfully hold, administer, and account for all money and property in the United States due or belonging to an enemy or ally of enemy, or otherwise, which may be paid, conveyed, transferred, assigned, or delivered to said custodian under the provisions of the trading with the enemy act.

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I hereby authorize and empower the Alien Property Custodian to employ and appoint in the manner provided in the trading with the enemy act in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, and to fix the compensation of such clerks, attorneys, investigators, accountants and other employees as he may find necessary for the due administration of the powers conferred on such alien property custodian by law or by any order of the President heretofore or hereafter made.

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I hereby vest in the Alien Property Custodian the executive administration of the provisions of section 12 of the trading with the enemy act pertaining to the designation of a depositary, or depositaries, and requiring all such designated depositaries to execute and file bonds and prescribing the form, amount, and security thereof.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Merchants, Importers & Commercial Enterprises 🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants 🏛️ Financial Institutions & Monetary Authorities

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Immigration & Border Security 🏷️ Economy & Finance
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The Framers' Constitutional Council

1787 Prism

Evaluating this order against the constitutional debates of 1787 and the limits of Article II executive power.

⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight)
§

"When the President acts in absence of either a congressional grant or denial of authority, he can only rely upon his own independent powers, but there is a zone of twilight in which he and Congress may have concurrent authority."

— Justice Robert H. Jackson, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
JM

James Madison

Separation of Powers & Legislative Primacy

"Power is of an encroaching nature, and it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." — Federalist No. 48 (1788)

Madison would view this order with watchful scrutiny. Operating in the 'Zone of Twilight' where Congress is silent, each such directive establishes an administrative precedent that steadily expands the executive perimeter at the expense of legislative primacy.

Madisonian Stance: Vigilant / Cautionary
AH

Alexander Hamilton

The Energetic Executive & Unified Command

"The direction of war implies the direction of the common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength must be under the direction of the single hand of the Executive." — Federalist No. 74 (1788)

Hamilton would forcefully champion executive discretion here. For foreign entanglements, commerce defense, and national security, deliberative assemblies are too slow and faction-ridden. A unified, energetic Executive exercising swift command is precisely what the Philadelphia Convention intended for national preservation.

Hamiltonian Stance: Strong Prerogative Support
GM

George Mason

Bill of Rights, Due Process & 10th Amendment

"The president will be surrounded by flatterers and sycophants... and the great powers of the executive will gradually absorb the liberties of the people." — Cato IV (Anti-Federalist, 1787)

The Anti-Federalist prism advises continuous democratic vigilance. Even routine administrative directives aggregate centralized federal power away from town halls and state assemblies toward a distant executive apparatus.

Anti-Federalist Stance: Eternal Vigilance Required
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Five Measurable "Constitutional Friction" Dimensions

An objective audit measuring potential separation-of-powers tension against the United States Constitution and established Supreme Court doctrine.

⚖️ Discretionary Twilight Zone
48 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Moderate Friction

Administers commerce or fiscal programs requiring ongoing statutory delegation and legislative oversight.

Benchmark: Power of the purse, taxes/tariffs, and rule of law reserved to Congress.
Dimension 2 • Art. II, §1 & §3

Executive Scope & Faithfulness

Low Friction

Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.

Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment

Federalism & State Sovereignty

High Friction

Creates friction with the Tenth Amendment by conditioning state grants, mandating local compliance, or preempting state police powers.

Benchmark: Police powers and un-delegated responsibilities reserved to the States.
Dimension 4 • 5th & 14th Amendments

Due Process & Individual Rights

Moderate Friction

Applies regulatory or compliance standards to private contractors or commercial entities.

Benchmark: Protection of private property, contracts, liberty, and procedural justice.
Dimension 5 • Separation of Powers

Youngstown Jacksonian Tier

Moderate Friction

The order relies on inherent Article II executive discretion, civil service management, or foreign diplomacy where Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited action.

Benchmark: Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
⚖️ Audit Synthesis

This order operates within Justice Jackson’s Zone of Twilight, resting upon concurrent presidential authority or congressional silence.

Weighted composite: Art. I (25%), Art. II (25%), Federalism (15%), Due Process (15%), Youngstown (20%).
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How to read these dimensions: Executive power expands whenever an administration acts without explicit statutory authorization from Congress (Article I), touches upon police powers historically reserved to the states (Tenth Amendment), or limits private rights and property without judicial process. A low friction score indicates strict concordance with enacted law; a high friction score highlights orders testing the limits of presidential discretion.
Total Words
489
3,040 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
21
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

By virtue of the authority vested in me by "An act to define, regulate, and punish trading with the enemy" approved October 6, 1917, I hereby make and establish the following order: I hereby fix the salary of the Alien Property Custodian heretofore appointed at the sum of $5,000 per annum. I direct that said alien property custodian shall give a bond in the amount of $100,000, with security to be approved by the Attorney General, and which bond shall be conditioned to well and faithfully hold, administer, and account for all money and property in the United States due or belonging to an enemy or ally of enemy, or otherwise, which may be paid, conveyed, transferred, assigned, or delivered to said custodian under the provisions of the trading with the enemy act. I hereby authorize and empower the Alien Property Custodian to employ and appoint in the manner provided in the trading with the enemy act in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, and to fix the compensation of such clerks, attorneys, investigators, accountants and other employees as he may find necessary for the due administration of the powers conferred on such alien property custodian by law or by any order of the President heretofore or hereafter made. I hereby vest in the Alien Property Custodian the executive administration of the provisions of section 12 of the trading with the enemy act pertaining to the designation of a depositary, or depositaries, and requiring all such designated depositaries to execute and file bonds and prescribing the form, amount, and security thereof. And I authorize and expower the Alien Property Custodian to designate any bank, or banks, or trust company, or trust companies, or other suitable depositary or depositaries located and doing business in the United States, as the depositary or depositaries with which said alien property custodian amy deposit any stocks, bonds, notes, time drafts, time bills of exchange, or other securities or property (except money, or cheques, or drafts payable on demand) of an enemy or ally of enemy and to prescribe the bond or bonds and the form, amount, and security thereof which shall be given by said depositary or depositaries. The following sums, or so much thereof as may be necessary, are hereby allotted out of the funds appropriated by the trading with the enemy act to the following named officers: To the Alien Property Custodian ............................ $100,000 To the Federal Trade Commission ............................. 25,000 To the Secretary of the Treasury ............................... 15,000 To the War Trade Board ........................................... 25,000 to be expended in the administration of the powers vested respectively in them by law or by any order heretofore or hereafter made by me. The powers and authority herein vested in said Alien Property Custodian are in addition to the powers and authority vested in said alien property custodian by the Executive order of October 12, 1917. WOODROW WILSON

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

October 29, 1917

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 2744 (Oct. 29, 1917), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-2744-fixing-salary-and-vesting-certain-power-and-authority-the-alien.