[PUBLIC LAW 457-78TH CONGRESS]
[CHAPTER 479-2D SESSION]
To aid the reconversion from a war to a peace economy through the distribution of Government surplus property and to establish a Surplus Property Board to effectuate the same, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Surplus Property Act of 1944".
SEC. 2. The Congress hereby declares that the objectives of this Act are to facilitate and regulate the orderly disposal of surplus property so as
(a) to assure the most effective use of such property for war purposes and the common defense;
(b) to give maximum aid in the reestablishment of a peacetime economy of free independent private enterprise, the development of the maximum of independent operators in trade, industry, and agriculture, and to stimulate full employment;
(c) to facilitate the transition of enterprises from wartime to peacetime production and of individuals from wartime to peacetime employment;
(d) to discourage monopolistic practices and to strengthen and preserve the competitive position of small business concerns in an economy of free enterprise;.
(e) to foster and to render more secure family-type farming as the traditional and desirable pattern of American agriculture; (f) to afford returning veterans an opportunity to establish themselves as proprietors of agricultural, business, and professional enterprises;
(g) to encourage and foster post-war employment opportunities;
(h) to assure the sale of surplus property in such quantities and on such terms as will discourage disposal to speculators or for speculative purposes;
(i) to establish and develop foreign markets and promote mutually advantageous economic relations between the United States and other countries by the orderly disposition of surplus property in other countries;
(j) to avoid dislocations of the domestic economy and of international economic relations;
(k) to foster the wide distribution of surplus commodities to consumers at fair prices;
(1) to effect broad and equitable distribution of surplus property;