by John Marshall Harlan

“ In his estimates submitted for appropriations by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1903, the Secretary named $6,000 'for rent of quarters for the Civil Service Commission.' As the general legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill for that year did not, as it passed the House of Representatives, include that sum, the plaintiffs' agent, in writing, informed the chief clerk of the Interior Department that unless the Senate fixed the rent at $6,000, the plaintiffs would ask possession of the property at the earliest convenient time. ”

“ But the plaintiffs expressed their unwillingness 'to rent the said building for another year at the rate of $4,000 per annum,' or to rent the entire building, including the basement, then occupied by the commission, at a rental less than $6,000 per annum. Without further action on either side, 'the defendants continued in possession of said building and basement during said year, paying,' however, to the plaintiffs, $4,000, the rent specified in the lease for the first year ”