Herbert Hoover to Thomas Watt Gregory
Title
Herbert Hoover to Thomas Watt Gregory
Creator
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964
Identifier
WWP19156
Date
1917 August 22
Description
Herbert Hoover consults Thomas Gregory, the Attorney General, on the role of the U.S. Food Administrator.
Source
Hoover-Wilson Correspondence, Hoover Institution, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, California
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
United States Food Administration
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964--Correspondence
Language
English
Text
Hon. Thomas W. Gregory,
United States Attorney General,
Washington, DC
My dear Sir:
An important question has arisen in connection with functions and powers of the US Food Administrator, an office created by Executive Order pursuant to the provisions of the Act of Congress generally known as the Food Control Act, approved August 10, 1917.
Your official opinion is respectfully requested on the following inquiry:
Section 2 of the Food Control Act, gives the President, acting through a delegated agency, power “to enter into any voluntary agrrangements or agreements.”
It has become apparent that to accomplish what is contemplated by the Act, as set forth in Section 1, “to establish and maintain governmental control of necessaries”, it is necessary to enter into certain contracts or agreements with the different trades, which in normal times, if entered into between private parties, would be declared void under the provisions of the anti-trust laws of the United States.
For example, - in order to control and stabilize the price of sugar it would be necessary to obtain an agreement between the Food Administrator and the sugar beet manufacturers in the United States whereby they would bind themselves to sell their output for a price not greater than that determined by the Food Administrator, - to be a fair and just one. It would also be necessary for these sugar beet producers to pool their product and provide for its distribution through the means of a selling agency, - under such regulations as may be provided by the Food Administrator.
Has the President, acting through the US Food Administrator, the power to enter into this class of contracts with parties engaged in the various trades, - or to accomplish the same results by regulations made by the food administrator and accepted by the parties, which contracts would be in violation of the law if entered into between private individuals acting without intervention of a governmental agency.
I will thank you for an early opinion as the situation is becoming very critical.
Yours very truly,
HERBERT HOOVER
United States Food Administrator.
The foregoing requestion for an opinion of the Attorney General is approved.
WOODROW WILSON.
United States Attorney General,
Washington, DC
My dear Sir:
An important question has arisen in connection with functions and powers of the US Food Administrator, an office created by Executive Order pursuant to the provisions of the Act of Congress generally known as the Food Control Act, approved August 10, 1917.
Your official opinion is respectfully requested on the following inquiry:
Section 2 of the Food Control Act, gives the President, acting through a delegated agency, power “to enter into any voluntary agrrangements or agreements.”
It has become apparent that to accomplish what is contemplated by the Act, as set forth in Section 1, “to establish and maintain governmental control of necessaries”, it is necessary to enter into certain contracts or agreements with the different trades, which in normal times, if entered into between private parties, would be declared void under the provisions of the anti-trust laws of the United States.
For example, - in order to control and stabilize the price of sugar it would be necessary to obtain an agreement between the Food Administrator and the sugar beet manufacturers in the United States whereby they would bind themselves to sell their output for a price not greater than that determined by the Food Administrator, - to be a fair and just one. It would also be necessary for these sugar beet producers to pool their product and provide for its distribution through the means of a selling agency, - under such regulations as may be provided by the Food Administrator.
Has the President, acting through the US Food Administrator, the power to enter into this class of contracts with parties engaged in the various trades, - or to accomplish the same results by regulations made by the food administrator and accepted by the parties, which contracts would be in violation of the law if entered into between private individuals acting without intervention of a governmental agency.
I will thank you for an early opinion as the situation is becoming very critical.
Yours very truly,
HERBERT HOOVER
United States Food Administrator.
The foregoing requestion for an opinion of the Attorney General is approved.
WOODROW WILSON.
Original Format
Letter
To
Gregory, Thomas Watt, 1861-1933
Files
Citation
Hoover, Herbert, 1874-1964, “Herbert Hoover to Thomas Watt Gregory,” 1917 August 22, WWP19156, Hoover Institute at Stanford University Collection, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.