Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 and Stabilization Act of 1942 as Amended by Stabilization Act of 1944

[Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 and Stabilization Act of 1942 as Amended by Stabilization Act of 1944]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

EMERGENCY PRICE CONTROL ACT OF 1942
AND
STABILIZATION ACT OF 1942
AS AMENDED BY
STABILIZATION EXTENSION ACT OF 1944
July 7, 1944
OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION WASHINGTON« D. C.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
Throughout this collation roman type is used to indicate text which has not been changed since original enactment, and italics are used to indicate amendments. At two places (pages 17-18 and 26) statutory language which is not part of, but is directly applicable to, the amended text is set forth in brackets.
Prepared in the Office of the General Counsel Office of Price Administration
EMERGENCY PRICE CONTROL ACT OF 1942,1 AS AMENDED, JUNE 30, 1944
TITLE I—GENERAL PROVISIONS AND AUTHORITY
PURPOSES ; TIME LIMIT ; APPLICABILITY
Section 1. (a) It is hereby declared to be in the interest of the national defense and security and necessary to the effective prosecution of the present war, and the purposes of this Act are, to stabilize prices and to prevent speculative, unwarranted, and abnormal increases in prices and rents; to eliminate and prevent profiteering, hoarding, manipulation, speculation, and other disruptive practices resulting from abnormal market conditions or scarcities caused by or contributing to the national emergency ; to assure that defense appropriations are not dissipated by excessive prices; to protect persons with relatively fixed and limited incomes, consumers, wage earners, investors, and persons dependent on life insurance, annuities, and pensions, from undue impairipent of their standard of living; to prevent hardships to persons engaged in business, to schools, universities, and other institutions, and to the Federal, State, and local governments, which would result from abnormal increases in prices; to assist in securing adequate production of commodities and facilities ; to prevent a post emergency collapse of values; to stabilize agricultural prices in the manner provided in section 3; and to permit voluntary cooperation between the Government and producers, processors, and others to accomplish the aforesaid purposes. It shall be the policy of those departments and agencies of the Government dealing with wages (including the Department of Labor and its various bureaus, the War Department, the Navy Department, the War Production Board, the National Labor Relations Board, the National Mediation Board, the National War Labor Board, and others heretofore or hereafter created), within the limits of their authority and jurisdiction, to work toward a stabilization of prices, fair and equitable wages, and cost of production.
(b)	The provisions of this Act, and all regulations, orders, price schedules, and requirements thereunder, shall terminate on June 30, 19^5,2 or upon the date of a proclamation by the President, or upon the date specified in a concurrent resolution by the two Houses of the Congress, declaring that the further continuance of the authority granted by this Act is not necessary in the interest Of the national defense and security, whichever date is the earlier; except that as to offenses committed, or rights or liabilities incurred, prior to such termination date, the provisions of this Act and such regulations, orders,
1 56 Stat. 23 ; 50 U. S. C. App. secs. 901-946.
2 Originally “June 30, 1943.“ On October 2, 1942, amended to read “June 30, 1944“ (sec. 7 (a) of Stabilization Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 767). On June 30, 1944, amended to read “June 30, 1945“ (sec. 101 of Stabilization Extension Act of 1944, Public Law 383, 78th Cong., 2d Sess.).
(1)
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price schedules, and requirements shall be treated as still remaining in force for the purpose of sustaining any proper suit, action, or prosecution with respect to any such right, liability, or offense.
(c)	The provisions of this Act shall be applicable to the United States, its Territories and possessions, and the District of Columbia.
PRICES, RENTS, AND MARKET AND RENTING PRACTICES
Sec. 2. (a) Whenever in the judgment of the Price Administrator (provided for in section 201) the price or prices of a commodity or commodities have risen or threaten to rise to an extent or in a manner inconsistent with the purposes of this Act, he may by regulation or order establish such maximum price or maximum prices as in his judgment will be generally fair and equitable and will effectuate the purposes of this Act. So far as practicable, in establishing any maximum price, the Administrator shall ascertain and give due consideration to the prices prevailing between October 1 and October 15, 1941 (or if, in the case of any commodity, there are no prevailing prices between such dates, or the prevailing prices between such dates are not generally representative because of abnormal or seasonal market conditions or other cause, then to the prices prevailing during the nearest two-week period in which, in the judgment of the Administrator, the prices for such commodity are generally representative) , for the commodity or commodities included under such regulation or order, and shall make adjustments for such relevant factors as he may determine and deem to be of general applicability, including the following: Speculative fluctuations, general increases or decreases in costs of production, distribution, and transportation, and general increases or decreases in profits earned by sellers of the commodity or commodities, during and subsequent to the year ended October 1, 1941: Provided. That no such regulation or order shall contain any provision requiring the determination of costs otherwise than in accordance with established accounting methods? Every regulation or order issued under the foregoing provisions of this subsection shall be accompanied by a statement of the considerations involved in the issuance of such regulation or order. As used in the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the term “regulation or order” means a regulation or order of general applicability and effect. Before issuing any regulation or order under the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the Administrator shall, so far as practicable, advise and consult with representative members of the industry which will be affected by such regulation or order, and shall give consideration to their recommendations? In the case of any commodity for which a maximum price has been established, the Administrator shall, at the request of any substantial portion of the industry subject to such maximum price, regulation, or order of the Administrator, appoint an industry advisory committee, or committees, either national or regional or both, consisting of such number of representatives of the industry as may be necessary in order to constitute a committee truly representative of the industry, or of the industry in such region, as the case may be. The committee shall select a chairman from among its members, and shall meet at the call of the chairman. The Administrator shall from time to time, at the request of the committee, advise and consult with the committee with respect to the regula-
3 Added by sec. 102 of Stabilization Extension Act of 1944.
s
tion or order, and with respect to the form thereof, and classifications, differentiations, and adjustments therein. The committee may make such recommendations to the Administrator as it deems advisable, and, such recommendations shall be considered by the Administrator.3 Whenever in the judgment of the Administrator such action is necessary or proper in order to effectuate the purposes of this Act, he may, without regard to the foregoing provisions of this subsection, issue temporary regulations or orders establishing as a maximum price or maximum prices the price or prices prevailing with respect to any commodity or commodities within five days prior to the date of issuance of such temporary regulations or orders; but any such temporary regulation or order shall be effective for not more than sixty days, and may be replaced by a regulation or order issued under the foregoing provisions of this subsection.
(b)	Whenever in the judgment of the Administrator such action is necessary or proper in order to effectuate the purposes of this Act, he shall issue a declaration setting forth the necessity for, and recommendations with reference to, the stabilization or reduction of rents for any defense-area housing accommodatioils within a particular defense-rental area. If within sixty days after the issuance of any such recommendations rents for any such accommodations within such defense-rental area have not in the judgment of the Administrator been stabilized or reduced by State or local regulation, or otherwise, in accordance with the recommendations, the Administrator may by regulation or order establish such maximum rent or maximum rents for such accommodations as in his judgment will be generally fair and equitable and will effectuate the purposes of this Act. So far as practicable, in establishing any maximum rent for any defensearea housing accommodations, the Administrator shall ascertain and give due consideration to the rents prevailing for such accommodations, or comparable accommodations, on or about April 1, 1941 (or if, prior or subsequent to April 1, 1941, defense activities shall have resulted or threatened to result in increases in rents for housing accommodations in such area inconsistent with the purposes of this Act, then on or about a date (not earlier than April 1, 1940), which in the judgment of the Administrator, does not reflect such increases), and he shall make adjustments for such relevant factors as he may determine and deem to be of general applicability in respect of such accommodations, including increases or decreases in property taxes and other costs within such defense-rental area.3 In designating defense-rental areas, in prescribing regulations and orders establishing maximum rents for such accommodations, and in selecting persons to administer such regulations and orders, the Administrator shall, to such extent as he determines to be practicable, consider any recommendations which may be made by State and local officials concerned with housing or rental conditions m any defense-rental area. 'Whenever the A^ninistrator shall find that, in any defense-rental area or any portion thereof specified by him, the availability of adequate rental housing accommodations and other relevant factors are such as to make rent control unnecessary for'the purpose of eliminating speculative, unwarranted, and abnormal increases in rents and. of preventing profiteering, and speculative and other disruptive practices
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resulting from abnormal market conditions caused by congestion, the controls imposed upon rents by authority of this Act in such defenserental area or portion thereof shall be forthwith abolished; but whenever in the judgment of the Administrator it is necessary or proper, in order to effectuate the purpose of this Act, to reestablish the regulation of rents in any such defense-rental area or portion thereof, he may forthwith by regulation or order reestablish maximum rents for housing accom/modations therein in accordance with the standards set forth in this Act.3
(c)	Any regulation or order under this section may be established in such form and manner, may contain such classifications and differentiations, and may provide for such adjustments and reasonable exceptions, as in the judgment of the Administrator are necessary or proper in order to effectuate the purposes of this Act. Under regulations to be prescribed by the Administrator, he shall provide for the making of individual adjustments in those classes of cases where the rent on the maximum rent date for any housing accommodations is, due to peculiar circumstances, substantially higher or lower than the rents generally prevailing in the defense-rental area for comparable housing accommodations, and in those classes of cases where substantial hardship has resulted since the maximum rent date from a substantial and unavoidable increase in property taxes or operating costs3 Any regulation or order under this section which establishes a maximum price or maximum rent may provide for a maximum price or maximum rent below the price or prices prevailing for the commodity or commodities, or below the rent or rents prevailing for the defense-area housing accommodations, at the time of the issuance of such regulation or order.
(d)	Whenever in the judgment of the Administrator such action is necessary or proper in order to effectuate the purposes of this Act, he may, by regulation or order, regulate or prohibit speculative or manipulative practices (including practices relating to changes in form or quality) or hoarding, in connection with any commodity, and speculative or manipulative practices or renting or leasing practices (including practices relating,to recovery of the possession) in connection with any defense-area housing accommodations, which in his judgment are equivalent to or are likely to result in price or rent increases, as the case may be, inconsistent with the purposes of this Act.
(e)	Whenever the Administrator determines that the maximum necessary production of any commodity is not being obtained or may not be obtained during the ensuing year, he may, on behalf of’the United States, without regard to the provisions of law requiring competitive bidding, buy or sell at public or private sale, or store or use, such commodity in such quantities and in such manner and upon such terms and conditions as he determines to be necessary to obtain the maximum necessary production thereof or otherwise to supply the demand therefor, or make subsidy payments to domestic producers of such commodity in such amounts and in such manner and upon such terms and conditions as he determines to be necessary to obtain the maximum necessary production thereof: Provided, That in the case of any commodity which has heretofore or may hereafter be defined as a strategic or critical material by the President pursuant to section 5d of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act, as
amended, such determinations shall be made by the Federal Loan Administrator, with the approval of the President, and, notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or of any existing law, such commodity may be bought or sold, or stored or used, and such subsidy payments to domestic producers thereof may be paid, only by corporations created or organized pursuant to such section 5d ; except that in the case of the sale of any commodity by any such corporation, the sale price therefor shall not exceed any maximum price established pursuant to subsection (a) of this section which is applicable to such commodity at the time of sale or delivery, but such sale price may be below such maximum price or below the purchase price of such commodity, and the Administrator may make recommendations with respect to the buying or selling, or storage or use, of any such commodity: Provided, however, That, with the exception of any commodity which prior to the effective date of this amendatory proviso has been defined as a strategic or critical material pursuant to section 6d of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act, as amended, no agricultural commodity or commodity manufactured or processed in whole or substantiel part from any agricultural commodity intended to be used as food for human consumption, shall, for the purposes of this subsection, be defined as a strategic or critical material pursuant to the provisions of said section 5d of the Reconstruction Finance Cor p oration Act, as amended.3 In any case in which a commodity is domestically produced, the powers granted to the Administrator by this subsection shall be exercised with respect to importations of such commodity only to the extent that, in the judgment of the Administrator, the domestic production of the commodity is not sufficient to satisfy the demand therefor. Nothing in this section shall be construed to modify, suspend, amend, or supersede any provision of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, and nothing in this section, or in any existing law, shall be construed to authorize any sale or other disposition of any agricultural commodity contrary to the provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, or to authorize the Administrator to prohibit trading in any agricultural commodity for future delivery if such trading is subject to the provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended.
After June 30,1946, neither the Price Administrator nor the Reconstruction Finance Corporation nor any other Government corporation shall make any subsidy payments, or buy any commodities for the purpose of selling them at a loss and thereby subsidizing directly or indirectly the sale of commodities, unless the money required for such subsidies, or sale at a loss, has been appropriated by Congress for such purpose; and appropriations for such purpose are hereby authorized to be made3
(f ) No power conferred by this section shall be construed to authorize any action contrary to the provisions and purposes of section 3, and no agricultural commodity shall be sold within the United States pursuant to the provisions of this section by any governmental agency at a price below the price limitations imposed by section 3 (a) of this Act with respect to such commodity.
(g)	Regulations, orders, and requirements under this Act may contain such provisions as the Administrator deems necessary to prevent the circumvention or evasion thereof.
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(h)	The powers granted in this section shall not be used or made to operate to compel changes in the business practices, cost practices or methods, or means or aids to distribution, established in any industry, or changes in established rental practices, except where such ajction is affirmatively found by the Administrator to be necessary to prevent circumvention or evasion of any regulation, order, price schedule, or requirement under this act.*
(i)	No maximum price shall be established for any fishery commodity below the average price of such commodity in the year 1942?
(j)	Nothing in this Act shall be construed (7) as authorizing the elimination or any restriction of the use of trade and brand names; (2) as authorizing the Administrator to require the grade labeling of any commodity ; (
33 As amended by sec. 204 of Stabilization Extension Act of 1944. Formerly read: “at the rate of 90 per centum of the parity price.”
37 From sec. 204 of Stabilization Extension Act of 1944. Reference is to change in loan rate by amendment to sec. 8 (a) (1).
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(b)	All provisions of law applicable with respect to loans under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, shall, insofar as they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this section, be applicable with respect to loans made under this section.
(c)	In the case of any commodity with respect to which loans may be made at the rate provided in paragraph (1) of subsection'(a), the President may fix the loan rate at any rate not less than the loan rate otherwise provided by law if he determines that the loan rate so fixed is necessary to prevent an increase in the cost of feed for livestock and poultry and to aid in the effective prosecution of the war.
Sec. 9. (a) Section 4 (a) of the Act entitled “An Act to extend the life and increase the credit resources of the Commodity Credit Corporation, and for other purposes”, approved July 1, 1941 (U. S. C., 1940 edition, Supp. I, title 15, sec. 713a-8), is amended—
(1)	By inserting after the words, “so as to support” a comma and the following: “during the continuance of the present war and until the expiration of the two-year period beginning with the 1st day of January immediately following the date upon which the President by proclamation or the Congress by concurrent resolution declares that hostilities in the present war have terminated,”.
(2)	By striking out “85 per centum” and inserting in lieu thereof “90 per centum”.
(3)	By inserting after the word “tobacco” a comma and the word “peanuts”.
(b) The amendments made by this section shall, irrespective of whether or not there is any further public announcement under such section 4 (a), be applicable with respect to any commodity with respect to which a public announcement has heretofore been made under such section 4 (a).
Sec. 10. When used in this Act, the terms “wages” and “salaries” shall include additional compensation, on an annual or other basis, paid to employees by their employers for personal services (excluding insurance and pension benefits in a reasonable amount to be determined by the President); but for the purpose of determining wages or salaries for any period prior to September 16, 1942, such additional compensation shall be taken into account only in cases where it has been customarily paid by employers to their employees.
Sec. 11. Any individual, corporation^ partnership, or association willfully violating any provision of this Act, or of any regulation promulgated thereunder, shall, upon conviction thereof, be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000, or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or to both such fine and imprisonment.
Sec. 12. This Act may be cited as the “Stabilization Act of 191$”.™
38 Added by sec. 205 of Stabilization Extension Act of 1944.
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1944