Although all Presidential Orders prior to 1935 were supposed to be deposited with the Department of State, a majority of the earlier orders were in fact, never deposited. It seems that thousands of such orders were simply filed away in the Federal agencies' files and were soon forgotten. Many of such unnumbered orders, when later uncovered, seem in retrospect to have been of great importance. For example, an unnumbered Executive Order dated April 7, 1917, issued on the day after the war was declared on Germany, allowed the removal of any Government employee when his retention was deemed inimical to the public welfare. Because of this lack of system in filing Executive Orders and the custody involved, no one knows exactly how many Executive Orders have ever been issued. It is possible that some, even thousands, today lie in dusty files of Federal agencies and departments, untouched for years. It is also thought that numerous orders may lie in unexplored Presidential papers. Former Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes once estimated that the number of unnumbered Executive Orders exceeded 15, 000, while others have placed the figure as high as 50,000. Occasionally, even at this late date an unnumbered and forgotten Executive Order is uncovered and made public.

After the Department of State began numbering in 1907 the Executive Orders which it then had on file and later received, numerous Executive Orders have been uncovered or orders which when issued were classified and have been later de-classified, have been received and numbered. These orders have been given such suffixes as A, B, C, 1/2 or -1, etc, to be used with the number of the Executive Order corresponding to the nearest date when issued. Such examples are Executive Order 23-1; Executive Order 106 1/2;

Executive Order 130A; Executive Order 310B; Executive Order 344C; and Executive Order 3016X. Because of this type of numbering there are several hundred more numbered Executive Orders than the number given to the latest

Executive Order.

In 1935 the Congress enacted the Federal Register Act (44 U.S. C. 1501, et seq.). This Act required that every Executive Order be filed with the Division of the Federal Register, rather than the Department of State, and it is this Division which now assigns numbers to Executive Orders. Thus in recent years there have been virtually no unnumbered Executive Orders (with the possible exception of classified Executive Orders, discussed in a later section of this report.)

Numbers of Executive Orders run consecutively.

In 1951, a pro

posal to change the numbering of Executive Orders to an annual series was abandoned, largely as the result of opposition from the Department of Justice and the National Archives.

E. Publication of Executive Orders

As pointed out earlier in this paper, prior to 1907 Executive Orders were issued in an unsystematic manner, and there was no complete central file of all Executive Orders. In 1895 there was started the "Documentary Catalog" which listed every Executive Order printed in slip form (i.e., as a single printed sheet) by the Government Printing Office, but there was no central publication or codification.

The Federal Register Act of 1935 (44 U.S. C. 1501, et seq.) finally brought some order out of the chaos into which the filing of Executive Orders had fallen since 1789. This act provided for the custody of Executive Orders

and for the prompt and uniform printing and distribution of them. Primary duty for custody was placed in the Archivist of the United States, and the Public Printer with the Archivist is required to undertake prompt and uniform printing and the distribution of Executive Orders and other documents.

Executive Orders are now printed in the Federal Register and in bound volumes of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations (an annual publication). The first Executive Order to be published in the Federal Register was Executive Order 7316 dated March 14, 1936, which concerned a bird refuge in South Carolina. The text of Executive Orders from Executive Order 7316 appear in bound volumes of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations as follows: 1936-1938, Executive Orders 7316-7905; (2) 1938-1943, Executive Orders 7906-9347; (3) 1943-1948, Executive Orders 9348-10025; (4) 19491953, Executive Orders 10026-10510; (5) 1954-1958, Executive Orders 1051110797; (6) 1959-1963, Executive Orders 10798-11134; (7) 1964-1965, Executive Orders 11135--11263; and (8) 1966-1970, Executive Orders 11264-11574. Executive Orders after Executive Order 11574 appear in temporary volumes of Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations as well as daily issues of the Federal Register.

There is no up-to-date revision of Executive Orders, as distinguished from codification and we know of no effort that is being made to present a codification clear of orders which for one reason or another are not in force and effect today. For example, a person who is interested in ascertaining whether a specific Executive Order of 1930 is still of application is obliged to trace that order through all subsequent compilations. There is no one comprehensive table or digest to which to turn, to learn quickly and conveniently

if that Executive Order still has the force of law.

There is no overall index or digest of Executive Orders.

The

Works Projects Administration Historical Records Survey published in 1944 a two-volume list of index of Executive Orders in the numbered series, running up to Executive Order 8030, December 29, 1938. It is entitled, Presidential Executive Orders. In 1943 the New Jersey Historical Records Survey of the Works Project Administration published its List and Index of Presidential Executive Orders covering the known unnumbered list of Executive Orders from 1789 to 1941. Neither of these publications give the texts or complete summaries of the orders.

Pursuant to the authority contained in the Federal Register Act a new weekly publication entitled "Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents" was inaugurated in July 1965. Volume 1 of the publication is dated Monday, August 2, 1965 for the week ending Friday, July 30, 1965. This publication also publishes the texts of Executive Orders. The first Executive Order appearing in this publication is Executive Order 11236 dated July 23, 1965 and released July 26, 1965. It established the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice.

F. Authorities Cited in Executive Orders.

Virtually all Executive Orders cite some authority upon which they

are issued. Some rely exclusively upon the general powers of the President, some cite specific Federal statutes, while a few of a transitory and noncontroversial nature fail to cite any authority. An example of orders which have not cited any authority is Executive Order 10671, dated June 26, 1956, which directs that United States flags be flown at half-mast in honor of the late Adm. Ernest J. King.

A very large number of Executive Orders cite only broad grants of authority such as, "By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and as President of the United States." Some orders simply state, "By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States." Forms such as these appear to be used when there is no express statutory authority, or when express statutory authority may exists but it is desired to use a catch-all expression. In a few cases the Charter of the United Nations has been given as authority. Executive Order 10422

is an example. It was issued by President Truman on Jan. 3, 1953 to prescribe procedures for making available to the Secretary General of the United Nations certain information concerning United States citizens employed or being considered for employment on the Secretariat of the United Nations.

Many Executive Orders cite both general powers and specific statu

tory authority as authority for their issuance.

G. Classified Executive Orders.

Throughout the years there have been various Executive Orders issued that were classified at the time of issuance and not made public. An example is Executive Order 22451/2, issued on September 14, 1915. It is thought that most such orders have been later declassified, usually years after the event, and made accessible to the public. issued Executive Order 9153-A on April 30, 1942. This order was declassified on June 27, 1946, and its text is found in the 1946, Supplement to the Code of Federal Regulations.

Thus President Roosevelt

Executive Order 9153-A withdrew certain public lands in Alaska

for the use of the War Department for military purposes.