A June 1940 Act to expedite national defense empowered the Secretary of the Navy, under the general direction of the President, whenever he deemed any existing manufacturing plant or facility necessary for the national defense, and whenever he was unable to arrive at an agreement with the owner of any such plant or facility for its use or operation, to take over and operate such plant or facility either by Government personnel or by contract with private firms.[314] The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 authorized the President, acting through the Secretaries of War or Navy, to take immediate possession of any plant or plants which in the opinion of the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy were capable of being readily geared to war production. This drastic action came only when the owners refused to give to the United States preference in the matter of the execution of orders, or refused to manufacture the kind, quantity, or quality of arms or ammunition, or who refused to furnish the materials demanded at a reasonable price.[315] The War Labor Disputes Act gave the President a similar power to seize struck industries. It might be exercised with respect to any plant, mine, or facility equipped for the manufacture, production, or mining of any articles or materials which might be required for the war effort, or which might be useful in connection therewith. But a presidential finding was necessary first, that there was an interruption of the operation of the plant, mine, or facility as a result of a strike or other labor disturbance, and that the war effort would be unduly impeded or delayed by the interruption, and that the exercise of such power and authority was necessary to insure operation in the interest of the war effort.[316] Not, perhaps, punitive in its object, but nonetheless related to enforcement of a control program, was the provision of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, permitting the Price Administrator to buy or sell commodities and goods or grant subsidies to assure necessary production.[317] CHAPTER VI REGULATION OF PROPERTY We have seen that the effort to rationalize the national economy in time of economic or war emergency may lead democratic governments to assert a power to acquire the raw materials of production and productive facilities. This power of acquisition may be designed or exercised as a sanction for the coercion of “co-operation” upon the part of the private units of the economy, or it may express the finding that particular stockpiling or production functions can only, or most efficiently be conducted by public agencies.