Thomas C. Clark

Thomas C. Clark was the attorney general who raised legal objections when Harry S. Truman proposed drafting striking railroad workers into the Army. During the 1946 railroad strike crisis, Clark argued that the urgency of ending the stoppage did not settle whether the President had constitutional authority to compel workers into military service.

Office and Context

Clark appears in the account as attorney general during a confrontation over the federal response to the railroad strike. With the Cabinet assembled to discuss how to operate the railroads, Truman received no suggestions. He said he would address Congress the next day and the country by radio that night, and announced that he had decided to draft the strikers into the Army.

Objections to the Draft Proposal

Clark questioned whether Truman was exceeding the bounds of the Constitution. The following day, he put his concerns in writing: the Draft Act did not permit the induction of occupational groups, and it was doubtful that the President’s constitutional powers extended to drafting individuals for national purposes. Clark was not alone in opposing the proposal: Sam Rosenman objected as well, and James F. Byrnes was strongly opposed.

Constitutional Conflict

Truman remained unmoved by the objections. The episode places Clark’s legal warning against the President’s immediate insistence that the strike must stop, even before the legality of his plan was resolved. The evidence establishes Clark’s resistance and its constitutional grounds, but does not establish that his objection changed Truman’s position or determined how the strike ended.