Opinion of the Court. 337 U.S. vested in permanent federal agencies in their management of the Government-owned housing in the District. The District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act thus appears to have been enacted as a temporary measure supplementing, rather than superseding, the contribution already being made by the permanent federal housing authorities toward meeting the housing crisis. We find no evidence that Congress believed that the managers of any of its housing projects in the District would be "tempted... to demand exorbitant rentals" or engage in the "rent-gouging practices . . ." against which the new Act was directed." It seems obvious that the need for District rent control was not in the operation of Government-owned housing, where the Federal Government already had complete control over the rentals, but was in the operation of privately owned housing, where neither the Federal nor District Government had any control. B. Government-owned, defense housing did not require the new rental control, in the District, that Congress imposed upon privately owned housing by the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act. The increasing number of Government-owned, defense-housing units testified to the satisfaction of Congress and of the Administration with such projects. Rental rates in them were under complete governmental control. At the time of the enactment of the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act, December 2, 1941, defense housing could be constructed in the District, and elsewhere, under § 201 of the Second Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, tically in the Federal courts. It may be considered as settled that so much of the royal prerogatives as belonged to the King in his capacity of parens patriæ, or universal trustee, enters as much into our political state as it does into the principles of the British constitution." Dollar Savings Bank v. United States, 19 Wall. 227, 239. 17 See note 8, supra. 346 Opinion of the Court. 1941, approved September 9, 1940, 54 Stat. 872, 883, or under the Lanham Act, approved October 14, 1940, 54 Stat. 1125.18 Bellevue Houses were built by the Navy under the first of those Acts. The rent control of defense housing under that Act was, in the first instance, expressly vested in the discretion of the Secretary of War or of the Navy, and the tenants were restricted to war workers." This provision was amended, June 28, 1941, so as to give to the agencies administering that housing the same powers and duties as had been given to the Federal Works Administrator as to defense housing constructed under the Lanham Act.20 The rental policy under the Lanham Act, 18 Supplemented by the Urgent Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1941, approved March 1, 1941, 55 Stat. 14, and amended by the Acts of April 29, 1941, 55 Stat. 147, and June 28, 1941, 55 Stat. 361, et seq. 19"... in carrying out the purposes of this section the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy may utilize such other agencies of the United States as they may determine upon: Provided further, That the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, at their discretion, are hereby authorized to rent such housing units, upon completion, to enlisted men of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps with families, to field employees of the Military and Naval Establishments with families, and to workers with families who are engaged, or to be engaged, in industries essential to the military and naval national defense programs, including work on ships under the control of the Maritime Commission. . . ." §201, Second Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, 1941, approved September 9, 1940, 54 Stat. 883-884. For comparable classification of eligible tenants under the Lanham Act, see § 2, 54 Stat. 1126, as amended, 56 Stat. 11-12, 42 U. S. C. (1946 ed.) § 1522. 20 "SEC. 5. The departments, agencies, or instrumentalities administering property acquired or constructed under section 201 of the Second Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, 1941, shall have the same powers and duties with respect to such property and with respect to the management, maintenance, operation, and administration thereof as are granted to the Federal Works Administrator with respect to property acquired or constructed under title I of such Act of October 14, 1940, and with respect to the management, maintenance, operation, and administration of such property so ac Opinion of the Court. 337 U.S. at that time, provided: "That the [Federal Works] Administrator shall fix fair rentals, on projects developed pursuant to this Act, which shall be within the financial reach of persons engaged in national defense: (Emphasis supplied.) § 7, 54 Stat. 1127, renumbered § 304, 55 Stat. 363. This rental policy was thus expressly fitted to the purposes of the defense housing. Those purposes did not call for its further subordination to the control of a District Administrator of Rent Control under other statutory standards fitted to private landlords. This special defense-housing rental policy was further expressly emphasized by Congress in another amendment made applicable to the Lanham Act defense housing January 21, 1942." Therefore, whether or not these further provisions were also to be applicable to Bellevue Houses, which had been constructed under an earlier Act, they became applicable to the many Government-owned, defense-housing units constructed in the District under the Lanham Act. Congress thus evidenced its purpose to insist upon special standards of rentals for its defense housing. It is significant that it did so by Acts approved June 28, 1941, and January 21, 1942. One was enacted quired or constructed under such title." (Emphasis supplied.) 55 Stat. 363. Title I of the Lanham Act, approved October 14, 1940, consisted of §§ 1-3, and in the Act of June 28, 1941, it was given the title "Defense Housing." 55 Stat. 361. "SEC. 6. The second proviso of section 304 of such [Lanham] Act, as amended, is amended to read as follows: 'Provided further, That the [Federal Works] Administrator shall fix fair rentals, on projects developed pursuant to this [Lanham] Act, which shall be based on the value thereof as determined by him, with power during the emergency, in exceptional cases, to adjust the rent to the income of the persons to be housed, and that rentals to be charged for Army and Navy personnel shall be fixed by the War and Navy Departments:'." (Emphasis supplied.) 56 Stat. 12, 42 U. S. C. (1946 ed.) § 1544. 346 Opinion of the Court. before, and the other after, the enactment of the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act on December 2, 1941. This emphasis was repeated on April 10, 1942, in a manner which demonstrated still further that Congress, in its consideration of the Lanham Act, had not overlooked the substantial extent to which that Act related to the construction of defense housing in the District of Columbia. On that date Congress amended the Lanham Act with special reference to operations in the District. It added Title IV. This authorized a $30,000,000 appropriation "to provide housing in or near the District of Columbia (including living quarters for single persons and for families) for employees of the United States whose duties are determined by the National Housing Administrator to be essential to national defense and to require them to reside in or near the District of Columbia." 56 Stat. 212, 42 U. S. C. (1946 ed.) § 1561. The rental control provisions amended on January 21, 1942 (see note 21, supra), already were applicable to such housing. The very § 304 which contained those amended rental control provisions was further amended so as expressly to include the District of Columbia in the term "local municipalities" to which land could be conveyed for street or other public use incidental to a project. See 54 Stat. 1127, 55 Stat. 363, 56 Stat. 212, 42 U. S. C. (1946 ed.) § 1544.22 In the light of the foregoing express provisions for the control of rents in the public interest on Governmentowned, defense-housing projects, there is no ground for implication that the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act conflicts with it. 22 As evidencing a purpose that Government-owned, defense housing constructed under the Lanham Act likewise remain under the general civil and criminal jurisdiction of the respective states and of the District of Columbia, wherever such housing might be located, § 307 of the Lanham Act was amended by the Act of April 10, 1942, to include expressly the District of Columbia. See 54 Stat. 1127, 55 Stat. 363, 56 Stat. 212, 42 U. S. C. (1946 ed.) § 1547. Opinion of the Court. 337 U.S. III. The National Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 emphasizes the conclusion that the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act does not apply to Governmentowned housing in the District. Although the National Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, approved January 30, 1942, expressly empowered the National Price Administrator, under certain limitations, to establish maximum rentals in so-called defenserental areas,23 he never did so in the District of Columbia. That Act, therefore, does not have a direct application to the issue in this case. However, the language of that Act and its policy toward the rent control of Governmentowned, housing accommodations, both inside and outside of the District of Columbia, has a bearing upon the proper construction of the District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act. The National Act is not only consistent with our interpretation of the District Act but it lends support to that interpretation. The National Act left the control over rent to local authorities, except where the National Price Administrator found it necessary to intervene. The decision of the National Price Administrator not to intervene in the District of Columbia was an especial compliment to the existing controls, because the District of Columbia was a typical area calling for competent rent control and, in fact, had been declared by the statute itself to be a "defense-rental area . . . § 302 (d), 56 Stat. 36, 50 U. S. C. App. (1946 ed.) § 942 (d). His satisfaction with the conditions in the District indicates that the local practice followed by the District Administrator of Rent Control, in not attempting to fix the rentals in Government-owned housing, had produced no conditions 23 §§ 2 (b) and 302 (d), 56 Stat. 25-26, and 36, 58 Stat. 633-634, 59 Stat. 306-307, 50 U. S. C. App. (1946 ed.). § 902 (b). |