TERMINATION OF WAR CONTRACTS: THE CONTRACT SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1944

Authors

David A. Goldman, member of (Detroit) Michigan BarFollow

Abstract

Enacted with a background of knowledge gained from the termination of more than 25,000 army and navy contracts having an uncompleted value of approximately $17,000,000,000, the Contract Settlement Act of 1944 was the first of the legislative enactments by which Congress seeks to control the possibility of a rising tide of economic difficulties which might otherwise drown the body politic in a flood of cancellation notices. The passage of the act was preceded by extensive public hearings and debates, during which responsible Government officials and leaders of labor and industry expressed their considered opinions. Congress likewise had the benefit of an extensive analysis of the termination and reconversion problem-the Baruch-Hancock report on War and Post-War Adjustment Policies--written with a background of invaluable experience and knowledge gained in the First World War. Moreover, the whiplash of divergent views, frankly expressed, of sincere and thoughtful men who felt the public good demanded that these complex problems be solved by means wholly different from those provided in the act, helped mold this legislation.

Recommended Citation

David A. Goldman, TERMINATION OF WAR CONTRACTS: THE CONTRACT SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1944, 43 Mich. L. Rev. 279 (1944).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol43/iss2/3