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Executive Order 9929 ⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight Constitutional Neutral (+0.02) 📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations

Executive Order 9929—Creating an Emergency Board to Invetigate a Dispute Between the Akron, Canton & Youngstwn Railroad Company and Other Carrires and Certain of Their Employees

Harry S Truman Harry S Truman
•
Tuesday, January 27, 1948
•
6 min read (1,216 words)

Executive Brief • At a Glance

⏱️ 6 min read (1,216 words) • ● In Effect
🎯 Primary Mandate

I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate the said dispute.

View all 4 directives ↓
⚖️ Constitutional Footing
⚖️✨ Zone 2: Zone of Twilight
Concurrent Authority / Congressional Silence
📜 Art. II §1: Executive Discretion & Internal Operations
Framers' constitutional debate ↓
🏛️ Scope & Affected Sectors
Executive Branch Departments General Body of the People
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 Harry S Truman on January 27, 1948, this order concerns Creating an Emergency Board to Invetigate a Dispute Between the Akron, Canton & Youngstwn Railroad Company and Other Carrires and Certain of Their Employees. I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate the said dispute. No member of the said board shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railway employees or any carrier. The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the said dispute within thirty days from the date of this order.

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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I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate the said dispute.

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As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by any of the carriers involved or their employees in the conditions out of which the said dispute arose.

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Co. of Chicago Burlington-Rock Island RR Camas Prairie RR Chicago & Eastern Illinois RR Chicago & Illinois Midland Ry Chicago & North Western Ry Chicago & Western Indiana RR Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RR Chicago Great Western /Ry (Inc. S. St. Paul Terminal) Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific RR Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Ry Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Ry Colorado & Southern Ry Colorado & Wyoming Ry Davenport, Rock Island & Northwestern Ry Denver & Rio Grande Western RR Denver & Rio Grande Western RR (Former D&SL) Des Moines Union Ry Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Ry (Iron Range Div.) Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Ry (Missabe Div.) Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Ry East St. Louis…

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Marie RR Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Ry Mineral Range RR Minnesota Transfer Ry Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR co. of Texas Missouri Pacific RR Northern Pacific Ry Northern Pacific Terminal Co. of Oregon Northwestern Pacific RR Ogden Union Ry. & Depot Co. Oregon, California & Eastern Ry Peoria & Pekin Union Ry Port Terminal Railroad Association St. Joseph Terminal RR St. Louis-San Francisco Ry St. Louis, San Francisco & Texas Ry St. Louis Southwestern Ry St. Louis Southwestern Ry.

Constitutional & Societal Entities Impacted

🏛️ Executive Branch Departments 🏛️ General Body of the People

Policy Areas & Topics

🏷️ Infrastructure & Transportation 🏷️ Labor & Employment
🏛️

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
1,216
7,594 characters
Estimated Read Time
6 min
@ 200 words / min
Flesch-Kincaid
12.2
High School
Language Tone Score
+0.02
Constitutional Neutral
How is this scored?
Text size:

Official Archival Text

View Source Document

WHEREAS a dispute exists between the Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad Company and other carriers designated in the list attached hereto and made a part hereof, and certain of their employees represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, and the Switchmen's Union of North America, labor organizations; and WHEREAS this dispute has not heretofore been adjusted under the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended; and WHEREAS this dispute, in the judgment of the national Mediation Board, threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive the country of essential transportation service:

NOW, THEREFORE, #now-therefore

by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C. 160), I hereby create a board of three members, to be appointed by me, to investigate the said dispute. No member of the said board shall be pecuniarily or otherwise interested in any organization of railway employees or any carrier. The board shall report its findings to the President with respect to the said dispute within thirty days from the date of this order. As provided by section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, from this date and for thirty days after the board has made its report to the President, no change, except by agreement, shall be made by any of the carriers involved or their employees in the conditions out of which the said dispute arose. LIST EASTERN REGION Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad Co. Ann Arbor Railroad Company Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company B&O Chicago Terminal RR Co. Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company Boston and Maine Railroad Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Bush Terminal Railroad Company Canadian National Railways Canadian Natl. Rys.-Lines in N.E. Champlain & St. Lawrence Railroad United States & Canada Railroad St. Clair Tunnel Company Central Vermont Railway, Inc. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Co. Pere Marquette District Fort Street Union Depot Co. Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Ry. Co. Cincinnati Union Terminal Company Delaware & Hudson Railroad Corporation Delaware, Lackawanna & Western RR Co. Detroit Terminal Railroad Company Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Co. Detroit Terminal Railroad Company Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad Co. Erie Railroad Company Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company Huntingdon & Broad Top Mt. RR & Coal Co. Indianapolis Union Railway Company Lake Terminal Railroad Company Lehigh & New England Railroad Company Lehigh Valley Railroad Company Maine Central Railroad Company Portland Terminal Company McKeesport Connecting Railroad Monongahela Railway Company Montour Railroad Company New York Central RR (Full Line Agreements) NYC RR-Buffalo and East NYC RR-West of Buffalo Michigan Central Railroad C.C.C. & St. L. Railway Peoria & Eastern Railway L. & J. B. & Railroad Co. Boston & Albany Railroad Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad Chicago River & Indiana (C. J. Ry.) Pittsburg & Lake Erie RR (L.E. & E.) Cleveland Union Terminals New York, Chicago & St Louis RR Co. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. Northampton & Bath Railroad Company Pennsylvania Railroad Company Baltimore & Eastern Railroad Co. Long Island Rail Road Company Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway Co. Pittsburgh, Chartiers & Youghiogheny Ry. Reading Company River Terminal Railway Co. Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway Union Freight RR Co. (Boston) Washington Terminal Company Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co. Lorain & West Virginia Railway Co. SOUTHEASTERN REGION Atlantic Coast Line Atlanta & West Point RR Western Railway of Alabama Atlanta Joint Terminals Central of Georgia Ry. Charleston & Western Carolina Ry. Chesapeake & Ohio-Chesapeake Dist. Clinchfield RR Florida East Coast Ry. Georgia RR Gulf, Mobile & Ohio RR Jacksonville Terminal Company Kentucky &* Indiana Terminal RR Louisville & Nashville RR Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Ry. Norfolk & Portsmouth Belt Line RR Norfolk & Western Ry Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac RR Seaboard Air Line Ry Southern Alabama Great Southern Cin. Burnside & Cumberland River Ry. Cin. New Orleans & Texas Pacific Ry. Georgia Southern & Florida Ry Harriman & Northeastern RR New Orleans & Northeastern New Orleans Terminal St. Johns River Terminal Virginian Ry. WESTERN REGION Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Ry. Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ry. Panhandle & Santa Fe Ry. Belt Ry. Co. of Chicago Burlington-Rock Island RR Camas Prairie RR Chicago & Eastern Illinois RR Chicago & Illinois Midland Ry Chicago & North Western Ry Chicago & Western Indiana RR Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RR Chicago Great Western /Ry (Inc. S. St. Paul Terminal) Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific RR Chicago, Terre Haute & Southeastern Ry Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Ry Colorado & Southern Ry Colorado & Wyoming Ry Davenport, Rock Island & Northwestern Ry Denver & Rio Grande Western RR Denver & Rio Grande Western RR (Former D&SL) Des Moines Union Ry Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Ry (Iron Range Div.) Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Ry (Missabe Div.) Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Ry East St. Louis Junction RR Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Ry Fort Worth & Denver City Ry Wichita Valley Ry Galveston, Houston & Henderson RR Great Northern Ry Green Bay & Western RR Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western RR Gulf Coast Lines-Comprising Asherton & Gulf Ry Asphalt Belt Ry Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western Ry Houston & Brazos Valley Ry Houston North Shore Ry Iberia, St. Mary & Eastern RR International-Great Northern RR New Iberia & Northern RR New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Ry Orange & Northwestern RR Rio Grande City Ry St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Ry San Antonio Southern Ry San Antonio, Uvalde & Gulf RR San Benito & Rio Grande Valley Ry Sugar Land Ry Houston Belt & Terminal Ry Illinois Central RR Chicago & Illinois Western RR Kansas City Southern Ry Kansas City Terminal Ry Los Angeles Junction Ry Louisiana & Arkansas Ry Manufacturers Ry Midland Valley RR Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf Ry Oklahoma City-ADA-Atoka Ry Minneapolis & St. Louis Ry Railway Transfer Co. of City of Minneapolis Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie RR Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Ry Mineral Range RR Minnesota Transfer Ry Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR Missouri-Kansas-Texas RR co. of Texas Missouri Pacific RR Northern Pacific Ry Northern Pacific Terminal Co. of Oregon Northwestern Pacific RR Ogden Union Ry. & Depot Co. Oregon, California & Eastern Ry Peoria & Pekin Union Ry Port Terminal Railroad Association St. Joseph Terminal RR St. Louis-San Francisco Ry St. Louis, San Francisco & Texas Ry St. Louis Southwestern Ry St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co. of Texas St Paul Union Depot Co. San Diego & Arizona Eastern Ry Sioux City Terminal Ry Southern Pacific Co. (Pacific Lines)-excluding former El Paso & Southwestern System Southern Pacific Co. -Former El Paso & Southwestern System Southern Pacific Co.-Former Arizona Eastern RR-Phoenix Dist. Spokane, Portland & Seattle Ry Oregon Electric Ry Oregon Trunk Ry Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Texas & New Orleans RR Texas & Pacific Ry Abilene & Southern Ry Fort Worth Belt Ry Texas-new Mexico Ry Texas Short Line Ry Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern Ry Texas Mexican Ry Texas Pacific-Missouri Pacific Terminal RR of New Orleans Union Pacific RR Union Railway Co. (Memphis) Union Terminal Co. (Dallas) Wabash RR-Lines West of Detroit and Toledo Wabash RR-Lines East of Detroit (Buffalo Div.) Western Pacific RR HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE, #signature

January 27, 1948

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Scholarly & Legal Citations 

Exec. Order No. 9929 (Jan. 27, 1948), https://executiveordersarchive.org/orders/app-executive-order-9929-creating-emergency-board-invetigate-dispute-between-the-akron-canton.