★
Executive Orders Historical Archive
Cite
Executive Order 6871 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 6871—Concerning Amendments to the Code of Fair Competition for the Cotton Garment Industry Approved by Executive Order No. 6828, August 21, 1934

•
Friday, October 12, 1934
•
3 min read (578 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 3 min read (578 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

President of the United States, do hereby approve and adopt the report and recommendations of said committee and do order: 1.

⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People

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 12, 1934, this order concerns Concerning Amendments to the Code of Fair Competition for the Cotton Garment Industry Approved by Executive Order No. 6828, August 21, 1934. President of the United States, do hereby approve and adopt the report and recommendations of said committee and do order: 1. That paragraph numbered 1 of Executive Order No. 6861, dated September 28, 1934, be and it is hereby revoked. 2.

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

▪

President of the United States, do hereby approve and adopt the report and recommendations of said committee and do order: 1.

▪

That paragraph numbered 1 of Executive Order No. 6861, dated September 28, 1934, be and it is hereby revoked. 2.

▪

That the effective date of said amendments to Articles III and IV of said Code be stayed to and including December 1, 1934, after which date said amendments shall be in full force and effect. 3.

▪

That the committee heretofore appointed and constituted by the National Industrial Recovery Board, consisting of Willard E. Hotchkiss, Chairman, W. Jett Lauck, and Donald M. Nelson, be continued, with instructions further to investigate the protests of the Sheep Lined and Leather Garment Subdivision of the Cotton Garment Industry and report its findings and recommendations therein on or before November 15, 1934. 4.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Branch Departments 🏛️ General Body of the People
🏛️

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
📐

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
38 / 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

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%).
ℹ️
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
578
3,603 characters
Estimated Read Time
3 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
16
Post-Graduate Legal
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

Whereas Executive Order No. 6828, dated August 21, 1934, approved certain amendments to the Code of Fair Competition for the Cotton Garment Industry, including amendments to Articles III and IV thereof, which latter amendments by their terms were not to become effective until October 1, 1934, and Whereas Executive Order No. 6861, dated September 28, 1934, stayed the effective date of said amendments to Articles III and IV of said Code of Fair Competition to and including October 15, 1934, and directed the National Industrial Recovery Board to appoint a committee of three impartial persons to hear protests, investigate the facts and report its recommendations concerning said amendments on or before October 10, 1934, and Whereas the Cotton Garment Code Authority and various members of the Cotton Garment Industry, protestants against said amendments, had stated that if such an impartial committee were appointed to determine the issues involved, said protestants would abide by the conclusions of such committee, and Whereas the National Industrial Recovery Board, pursuant to said Executive Order duly appointed Willard E. Hotchkiss, W. Jett Lauck and Donald M. Nelson, three impartial persons who had not theretofore formed an opinion concerning the subject matter of said amendments, as such committee, which said committee thereafter heard protests, investigated the facts and on October 10, 1934, did report its recommendations in the premises: Now, Therefore , by virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933 (ch. 90, 48 Stat. 195), and in order to effectuate the purposes of said title and of my said Executive Order No. 6861, dated September 28, 1934, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, President of the United States, do hereby approve and adopt the report and recommendations of said committee and do order: 1. That paragraph numbered 1 of Executive Order No. 6861, dated September 28, 1934, be and it is hereby revoked. 2. That the effective date of said amendments to Articles III and IV of said Code be stayed to and including December 1, 1934, after which date said amendments shall be in full force and effect. 3. That the committee heretofore appointed and constituted by the National Industrial Recovery Board, consisting of Willard E. Hotchkiss, Chairman, W. Jett Lauck, and Donald M. Nelson, be continued, with instructions further to investigate the protests of the Sheep Lined and Leather Garment Subdivision of the Cotton Garment Industry and report its findings and recommendations therein on or before November 15, 1934. 4. That the National Industrial Recovery Board forthwith appoint a committee of three impartial persons, which committee shall investigate the effects of competition between the products of prison labor and sheltered workshops on the one hand and of the cotton garment industry on the other, study the operation of the Prison Labor Compact especially as to the enforcement of the standards of competition with private industry established therein, and report to the National Industrial Recovery Board concerning said matters not later than December 1, 1934. 5. That on or before January 15, 1935, the National Industrial Recovery Board report to me as to exceptions to and exemptions from the Code of Fair Competition for the Cotton Garment Industry, as amended, which may have been granted under the provisions of Article XV of said Code as amended. 6. That this Order shall be subject to my further orders in the premises. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT The White House, October 12, 1934.

📜

Scholarly & Legal Citations

Exec. Order No. 6871 (Oct. 12, 1934), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-6871-concerning-amendments-the-code-fair-competition-for-the-cotton.