Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It is a delicate business to base speculations about the purposes or construction of a statute upon the vicissitudes of its passage. Here we have as against the arguments of the claimant the fundamental and necessarily governing consideration that rightly prevailed below. A liability in any case is not to be imposed upon a Government without clear words. ”

“ It is obvious that the words as they stand cannot be applied to sales by producers to third persons; for it would be absurd to suppose that the United States undertook to pay not only such additional sum as might be awarded but also the last 25 per centum of the price as fixed, leaving the buyer to retain that amount. The claimant admits this, but insists that however read the pragraph cannot be followed without correction. ”