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Executive Orders Historical Archive
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Executive Order 6320 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 6320—Amending Code of Fair Competition for Oil Burner Industry

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Tuesday, October 3, 1933
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4 min read (850 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 4 min read (850 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

A Code of Fair Competition for the Oil Burner Industry has been heretofore duly approved by Executive order of the President, dated September 18, 1933.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Private Citizens & Property Owners

Plain-English Translation & Framers' Constitutional Analysis

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

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on October 3, 1933, this order concerns Amending Code of Fair Competition for Oil Burner Industry. A Code of Fair Competition for the Oil Burner Industry has been heretofore duly approved by Executive order of the President, dated September 18, 1933. There had been contained in said code as submitted, and in said code as revised for public hearing, the following provision: "(b) For the protection of the public interest, no distillate burner of sleeve type shall be sold or offered for sale that does not meet the…

Constitutional Assessment: This action represents an orderly exercise of Article II administrative discretion, managing the internal machinery and personnel of the executive branch without abridging the ancient liberties of the people.

Key Directives & Operative Actions

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A Code of Fair Competition for the Oil Burner Industry has been heretofore duly approved by Executive order of the President, dated September 18, 1933.

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There had been contained in said code as submitted, and in said code as revised for public hearing, the following provision: "(b) For the protection of the public interest, no distillate burner of sleeve type shall be sold or offered for sale that does not meet the following specifications: "The burner top rings, top caps and sleeves shall have a thickness of not less than 0.026" and chromium content of not less than 16-18 percent, or alloys of equivalent heat resistance.

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"The burner sleeves shall have a height of 4¾" or more.

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"Distillate conversion burners (class 4(a)) must include all of the following component parts: "Oil container and stand; hand control metering valve or valves; minimum of 6 feet of copper tubing with single burners, and 7 feet with multiple burners; suitable fittings; bases and supports; approved wicking; sleeves; top rings; caps and the necessary bolts and screws for proper installation.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Private Citizens & Property Owners

Policy Areas & Topics

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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

"A feeble Executive implies a feeble execution of the government; and a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government." — Federalist No. 70 (1788)

Hamilton would view this directive as the natural and indispensable functioning of administrative leadership. Without the power to coordinate agencies, manage personnel, and resolve operational ambiguities, the modern presidency would be reduced to an impotent figurehead.

Hamiltonian Stance: Defends Vigor & Dispatch
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
30 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8

Legislative Encroachment & Purse

Low Friction

Operates within delegated statutory execution without modifying legislative appropriations or taxing powers.

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

Moderate Friction

Engages state and local partners in cooperative federalism programs.

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

Due Process & Individual Rights

Low Friction

Focuses on internal governmental operations with no direct impairment of private rights or property.

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
850
5,324 characters
Estimated Read Time
4 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
17
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

A Code of Fair Competition for the Oil Burner Industry has been heretofore duly approved by Executive order of the President, dated September 18, 1933. There had been contained in said code as submitted, and in said code as revised for public hearing, the following provision: "(b) For the protection of the public interest, no distillate burner of sleeve type shall be sold or offered for sale that does not meet the following specifications: "The burner top rings, top caps and sleeves shall have a thickness of not less than 0.026" and chromium content of not less than 16-18 percent, or alloys of equivalent heat resistance. "The burner sleeves shall have a height of 4¾" or more. "Other construction and material specifications must comply with the Underwriters' Laboratories' requirements as specified in their code of April 1932 and amendments to June 1, 1933. "Distillate conversion burners (class 4(a)) must include all of the following component parts: "Oil container and stand; hand control metering valve or valves; minimum of 6 feet of copper tubing with single burners, and 7 feet with multiple burners; suitable fittings; bases and supports; approved wicking; sleeves; top rings; caps and the necessary bolts and screws for proper installation. "Quality of material, workmanship and packing must comply with the Underwriters' Laboratories' requirements as specified in their code of April 1932 and amendments to June 1, 1933." At the public hearing on said code duly held on August 21, 1933, no objection to said provision had been raised. However, in preparation of the final revision of said code for submission to the President, said provision was inadvertently omitted. In consequence, the said code as approved did not contain said provision. By letter of application dated September 29, 1933, the code authority for the Oil Burner Industry, as duly constituted under article VII of said code as approved, has requested that said code as approved be amended by adding thereto, as a new section 12 of article VI thereof, the following provision, hereinafter designated 14909-33 provision A, which is substantially identical with the provision inadvertently omitted as aforesaid: "The sale or offering for sale of any distillate burner of sleeve type that does not meet the following specifications is unfair competition; provided, however, that where a manufacturer of such equipment desires to manufacture a burner of this type, with other materials than those specified, or desires to use a different combination of parts than those specified, such manufacturer shall first apply to the cdde authority for permission to do so and he shall at the same time submit proof that the substitutions requested will offer to the consumer protection and service equivalent to that offered by a burner constructed as herein provided. The code authority will pass upon this petition. If denied, the applicant may apply to the Administrator for permission and the decision of the Administrator shall be final. / "(a) The burner top rings, top caps and sleeves shall have a thickness of not less than 0.026" and chromium content of not less than 16-18 percent, or alloys of equivalent heat resistance. "(b) The burner sleeves shall have a height of 4¾" or more. "(c) bther construction and material specifications must comply with the Underwriters' Laboratories' requirements as specified in their code of April, 1932 and amendments to June 1, 1933. "(d) Distillate conversion burners (class 4(a)) must include all of the following component parts: "Oil container and stand, hand control metering valve or valves; minimum of 6 feet of copper tubing with single burners, and 7 feet with multiple burners; suitable fittings; bases and supports, approved wicking, sleeves; top rings; caps and the necessary bolts and screws for proper installation. "(e) Quality of material, workmanship and packing must comply with the Underwriters' Laboratories' requirements as specified in thfeir code of April, 1£>32 and amendments to June 1, 1933." Pursuant to the authority vested ih me by title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act, approved June 16, 1933, upon due consideration of the facts hereinabove set forth, and upon the report and recommendatiori of the Administrator, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States , do hereby Order that the application of the code authority of the Oil Biirner Industry hereinabove considered, be approved, and that, effective 10 days from the date hereof, Unless just cause to the contrary shoiild be shown by any interested person before Deputy Administrator R. B. Paddock, New Commerce Building, Washington, D.b., at or before 12 o'clock, noon, October 13, 1933, the Code of Fair Competition for the Oil Burner Industry as approved September 18, 1933 be and it hereby is amended by adding thereto, as a new section 12 of article VI thereof, the provision hereinabove set forth and designated provision A. Provided , however, that nothing herein contained shall prohibit the sale, within a period of 30 days from the effective date hereof, of existing stocks of distillate burners of sleeve type which do not meet the specifications set forth in provision A. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Approval recommended: Hugh S. Johnson. Administrator. The White House, October 3, 1933.

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Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 6320 (Oct. 3, 1933), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6320-amending-code-fair-competition-for-oil-burner-industry.