William O. Douglas

“ There can be no question but that petitioner is liable for the tax levied by § 901 of the Social Security Act, unless it is exempted by that portion of § 907 which relieves 'an instrumentality of the United States' from that duty. But it seems clear that petitioner is not, within the meaning of the Social Security Act, such an instrumentality. The mere fact that a private corporation conducts its business under a contract with the United States does not make it an instrumentality of the latter. ”

“ Whether the same result would follow in case the cession act had absolutely forbidden a state to impose any tax on petitioner we need not decide. For here Arkansas did have a prior express power to tax petitioner's property. The implied authority which we here find to exist is therefore used not to override an earlier express authority but merely to extend it to a degree. For in final analysis the Arkansas tax does have some relation to the use of petitioner's property. The existence of the implied authority does not therefore do violence to the earlier statutory grant. ”

“ The control reserved by the Government for protection of a governmental program and the public interest is not incompatible with the retention of the status of a private enterprise. See Federal Compress & Warehouse Co. ”