Powers of the President during crises

POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT DURING CRISES
J. Malcolm Smith and Cornelius P. Cotter
PUBLIC AFFAIRS PRESS
Washington, D. C.
Copyright, 1960, by Public Affairs Press 419 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, D. C.
Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 59-14964
The use of emergency power in a democracy raises many questions relative to the constitutional basis for its authorization and the manner of its exercise. If used too little and too late a democratic state might be destroyed when the proper use of the emergency power possibly could have saved it. If used arbitrarily and capriciously, its use could degenerate into the worst form of dictatorship.
As a boy I was the chauffeur for a country doctor. One day while driving to see a patient who was gravely ill, the doctor opened his medicine chest and pointed to a glass vial containing morphine. “That drug,” he said, “is the most potent medicine in my chest but requires great skill in prescribing. Used properly it relieves pain and suffering. Used improperly it makes animals of men.” Emergency power bears to government the same general relationship of morphine to man. Used properly in a democratic state it never supplants the constitution and the statutes but is restorative in nature. Used improperly it becomes the very essence of tyranny.
By reference to particular statutes and specific instances this volume affords a graphic picture of the broad extent to which emergency power has been employed by the United States government in recent years. Many will view this development with alarm for the many instances of its use make a lengthy list. Military emergency today is but one type of national emergency. Catastrophes and economic emergencies may also require the exercise of this type of power. Indeed, its use in this day and time has been so frequent that the very term “emergency” is being “shorn of meaning.”
In the present volume the authors describe and comment upon the use of emergency power in the United States since 1933. It is their contention that the use of emergency power was contemplated and provided for in the Constitution. The law also provides restraints upon its use. As Professor McIlwain has concluded, the proper test of constitutionalism is the existence of adequate processes for keeping government responsible. It is comforting to know that these processes exist within our government. The primary requirement of all Americans, then, is to keep government responsible and within these limitations, for only when this is done can emergency power be justified under the law of the land.