By virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, as President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, it is hereby ordered and directed as follows: The Secretary of War is authorized immediately to take possession of and operate any or all of the following plants: Hunt-Rankin Leather Company, Summit Street, Peabody, Massachusetts. Leach-Heckel Leather Company, 72 Flint Street, Salem, Massachusetts. John Flynn & Sons, 80 Boston Street, Salem. Massachusetts. B.E. Cox Leather Company, 22 Hardy Street, Peabody, Massachusetts. Morrill Leather Company, North Main Street, Peabody, Massachusetts. Nathan H. Poor Company, 73 Lowell Street, Peabody, Massachusetts. Trimount Leather Company, 70-80 Foster Street, Peabody. Massachusetts. Verza Tanning Company, 107 Foster Street, Peabody, Massachusetts. Richard Young Company, 4 Union Street, Peabody, Massachusetts. Creese & Cook Company, 33 Water Street, Danvers, Massachusetts. Helburn Thompson Company, 18 Goodhue Street, Salem, Massachusetts. Puritan Tannery, Inc., 16 Proctor Street, Salem, Massachusetts. Salem Leather Company, 3 Tremont Place, Salem, Massachusetts. through and with the aid of such person or persons or instrumentality as he may designate, and in so far as may be necessary or desirable, to produce the war materials called for by the Company's contracts with the United States, its departments and agencies, or as may be otherwise required for the war effort, and do all things necessary or incidental to that end. The Secretary of War shall permit the management to continue with its managerial functions to the maximum degree possible consistent with the aims of this order. The Secretary of War shall make employment available under existing collective bargaining contracts to all workers who seek employment in the plant to the extent that they are needed. Possession and operation hereunder shall be terminated by the President as soon as he determines that the plant or plants above listed can be operated without the protection provided by this order. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT The White House, November 20, 1943.
Executive Order 9395 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02)
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Executive Order 9395-B—Possession of Leather Manufacturing Plants Located in Salem, Peabody, and Danvers, Massachusetts
Executive Brief • At a Glance
⏱️ 2 min read (332 words) •
● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate
And directed as follows: The Secretary of War is authorized immediately to take possession of and operate any or all of the following plants: Hunt-Rankin Leather Company, Summit Street, Peabody, Massachusetts.
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Armed Forces & Military Establishments Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
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 November 20, 1943, this order concerns Possession of Leather Manufacturing Plants Located in Salem, Peabody, and Danvers, Massachusetts. And directed as follows: The Secretary of War is authorized immediately to take possession of and operate any or all of the following plants: Hunt-Rankin Leather Company, Summit Street, Peabody, Massachusetts. Leach-Heckel Leather Company, 72 Flint Street, Salem, Massachusetts. John Flynn & Sons, 80 Boston Street, Salem. Massachusetts. B.E. Cox Leather Company, 22 Hardy Street, Peabody, Massachusetts.
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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And directed as follows: The Secretary of War is authorized immediately to take possession of and operate any or all of the following plants: Hunt-Rankin Leather Company, Summit Street, Peabody, Massachusetts.
▪
Salem Leather Company, 3 Tremont Place, Salem, Massachusetts. through and with the aid of such person or persons or instrumentality as he may designate, and in so far as may be necessary or desirable, to produce the war materials called for by the Company's contracts with the United States, its departments and agencies, or as may be otherwise required for the war effort, and do all things necessary or incidental to that end.
▪
The Secretary of War shall permit the management to continue with its managerial functions to the maximum degree possible consistent with the aims of this order.
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The Secretary of War shall make employment available under existing collective bargaining contracts to all workers who seek employment in the plant to the extent that they are needed.
Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted
🏛️ Armed Forces & Military Establishments
🏛️ Executive Departments & Federal Civil Servants
Policy Areas & Topics
🏛️
The Framers' Constitutional Council
1787 PrismEvaluating 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
📐
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
41 / 100 friction index
Dimension 1 • Art. I, §1 & §8
Low Friction
Legislative Encroachment & Purse
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
Low Friction
Executive Scope & Faithfulness
Exercises standard supervisory executive authority to faithfully execute existing statutes.
Benchmark: Faithfully execute laws enacted by Congress vs. unilateral decree.
Dimension 3 • 10th Amendment
High Friction
Federalism & State Sovereignty
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
Moderate Friction
Due Process & Individual Rights
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
Moderate Friction
Youngstown Jacksonian Tier
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
332
2,185 characters
Estimated Read Time
2 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
12.5
High School
Text size:
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Referenced By Later Executive Orders (1)
Subsequent presidents who cited, amended, continued, or revoked this directive in later orders.
Franklin D. Roosevelt • 1945-04-04
Related Executive Orders
Other executive actions signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt around this period.
EO 9395 Nov 20, 1943
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 9395-A—Amending Executive Order No. 9017 of January 12, 1942, To Provide for Alternate Public Members of the National War Labor Board
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Executive Order No. 9017 of January 12, 1942, entitled "Establishment of the National War Labor Board," as amended by Executive Order No. 9038 of January 24, 1942, be, and it is hereby further amended so as to provide for the appointment by the President, for such periods of…
Franklin D. Roosevelt College Level • 1m
EO 9397 Amended Nov 22, 1943
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 9397—Numbering System for Federal Accounts Relating to Individual Persons
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Hereafter any Federal department, establishment, or agency shall, whenever the head thereof finds it advisable to establish a new system of permanent account numbers pertaining to individual persons, utilize exclusively the Social Security Act account numbers assigned pursuant…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 2m
EO 9396 Nov 22, 1943
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 9396—Authorizing the Secretary of War to Issue Citations in the Name of the President of the United States to Army Units for Outstanding Performance in Action
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
The Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed to issue a citation in the name of the President of the United States, as public evidence of deserved honor and distinction, to any organization, unit, detachment, or installation of the Army of the United States or the…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
EO 9399 Nov 25, 1943
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 9399—Authorizing the Secretary of the Navy To Take Possession of and Operate Part of the Plant and Facilities of Remington Rand, Inc., in the Town of Southport, County of Chemung, State of New York
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, pursuant to the powers vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, including section 9 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 as amended, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 2m
EO 9398 Nov 25, 1943
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 9398—Extension of Trust Periods on Indian Lands Expiring During Calendar Year 1944
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
The periods of trust applying to Indian lands, whether of a tribal or individual status, which, unless extended, will expire during the calendar year 1944, be, and they are hereby, extended for a further period of twenty-five years from the date on which any such trust would…
Franklin D. Roosevelt High School • 1m
EO 9395 Nov 8, 1943
⚖️✨ Zone 2 (Zone of Twilight) Constitutional Neutral
Executive Order 9395—Additional Compensation of Enlisted Personnel of the Marine Corps Regularly Detailed as Messmen
📜 Art. II §2: Commander-in-Chief Supervisory Authority
Enlisted personnel of the Marine Corps, including the Marine Corps Women's Reserve, regularly detailed as messmen in a command shall receive the same compensation in addition to their monthly pay as is now or may hereafter be allowed the enlisted personnel of the Navy under…
Franklin D. Roosevelt Post-Graduate Legal • 1m
📜
Scholarly & Legal Citations
Exec. Order No. 9395 (Nov. 20, 1943), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9395-b-possession-leather-manufacturing-plants-located-salem-peabody-and.
