GETTYSBURG NATIONAL PARK. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY, July 29, 1895. 59 SIR: I am in receipt of your letter of the 27th instant inclosing a copy of a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs asking for a decision from the Comptroller of the Treasury upon the question "whether the filing of a new bond relieves the sureties on a prior bond of the same official from liability after the date of the new bond." Section 8 of the act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat., 208), which authorizes heads of Departments to ask for a decision from the Comptroller, limits such requests to "any question involving a payment to be made under them." I find myself, therefore, without jurisdiction to render the decision which the Commissioner of Indian Affairs asks. I will state, however, that it has been the established practice of the Treasury Department to retain all bonds, which are undoubtedly binding until another bond is substituted for the original bond. Whether they continue binding thereafter is a question which will probably at some time be passed upon by the courts. The appropriations for the Gettysburg National Park, made in the acts of August 18, 1894, and February 11, 1895, to the extent that they provide for objects common to both, are cumulative, while each is available for certain objects not provided for in the other. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY, [Opinion of the Judge Advocate-General.] July 30, 1895. "WAR DEPARTMENT, "JUDGE-ADVOCATE-GENERAL'S OFFICE, "Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War. "The disbursing clerk of the War Department submits a statement of the condition of the appropriation for Monuments or tablets at Gettysburg, 1895,' showing, as he thinks"That liabilities in the nature of contracts, etc., to the amount of $4,879.80 in excess of available funds, have been incurred by the Gettysburg Battlefield Commission, unless it may be that the money appropriated by the act of February 11, 1895, creating the Gettysburg National Park, is applicable, in view of the fact that the liabilities referred to pertain to matters incident to the establishment of the park.' "The Gettysburg National Park Commissioners, after calling attention to the fact that the amount is erroneously stated as $4,879.80, whereas it should be $2,569.80, claim that in reality it is not in excess of appropriations at all, but that so much of the contracts referred to as can not be paid out of the appropriation for the Gettysburg battlefield in the sundry civil expenses act of the last fiscal year, on account of the exhaustion of that appropriation, may be paid out of the permanent appropriation for the park, contained in the act to establish a national park at Gettysburg, approved February 11, 1895. "This act prescribed that it should be the duty of the Commissioners, under the direction of the Secretary of War "To superintend the opening of such additional roads as may be necessary for the purposes of the park and for the improvement of the avenues hereafter laid out therein, and to properly mark the boundaries of the said park, and to ascertain and definitely mark the lines of battle of all troops engaged in the battle of Gettysburg, so far as the same shall fall within the limits of the park.' "And, to enable the Secretary of War to carry out the purposes of this act' the sum of $75,000 was appropriated. "The sundry civil expenses act above mentioned appropriated $50,000 for the following purposes: "For continuing the work of surveying, locating, and preserving the lines of battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and for purchasing, opening, constructing, and improving avenues along the portions occupied by the various commands of the armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia on that field, and for fencing the same; and for the purchase, at private sale or by condemnation, of such parcels of land as the Secretary of War may deem necessary for the sites of tablets, and for the construction of the said avenues; for determining the leading tactical positions and properly marking the same with tablets of batteries, regiments, brigades, divisions, corps, and other organizations with reference to the study and correct understanding of the battle, each tablet bearing a brief historical legend, compiled without praise and without censure.' "In my opinion any contract for an expenditure of the character provided for in this appropriation of the sundry civil expenses act, but in excess of the appropriation, may be paid out of the appropriation of the act of February 11, 1895, provided it falls within the description of the work which the Commissioners were by that act required to have done. Whatever would be a legitimate expenditure under either of these heads, namely, opening of additional roads, marking the bound aries of the park, and definitely marking the lines of battle, would, I think, be a proper charge against this appropriation. "G. NORMAN LIEBER, "Judge-Advocate-General." [Indorsement.] Respectfully returned to the Secretary of War, the opinion of the Judge Advocate-General being concurred in. The appropriation in the sundry civil appropriation act of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 405), was not repealed by the act of February 11, 1895 (28 Stat., 651), by section 9 of which an additional appropriation of $75,000 was made for the Gettysburg National Park. While the clause in the act of August 18, 1894, making an appropriation for the Gettysburg battlefield, contains language which authorizes expenses similar to those authorized by the clause making the appropriation for the Gettysburg National Park in the act of February 11, 1895, each of these appropri ating clauses provides for expenses which the other does not authorize. I am clearly of the opinion, therefore, that to the extent of the expenditures which are common to both, the appropriations are cumulative, while other expenditures can only be paid from the particular appropriation specifically providing therefor. For convenience in accounting, when items might be charged to either appropriation, it is respectfully requested that each single item be charged wholly to one appropriation or the other, and not a part charged to each. R. B. BOWLER, APPROPRIATIONS, ANNUAL OR "PERMANENT SPECIFIC." The appropriation of $4,000 to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to investigate and report upon the importation, etc., of explosives, found in the sundry civil appropriation act of August 18, 1894, providing for the service of the fiscal year 1895, is not a permanent specific appropriation and can not be used after the expiration of that fiscal year. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY, August 1, 1895. SIR: I am in receipt, by your reference, of a letter from West Steever, special agent of the Department, calling your attention to the fact that his salary as special agent from July 1 to 15, 1895, inclusive, amounting to $78, has not been paid. You ask whether you are authorized to pay the same. It appears that Mr. Steever was employed under the appropriation contained in the sundry civil appropriation act of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 392), which reads as follows: "Report upon explosives: To enable the Secretary of the Treasury to investigate and report upon the importation, use, transportation, and manufacture of high and low explosives, with the view of securing by legislation greater security to life and property, four thousand dollars." The act in which this appropriation is contained, began as follows: "That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated for the objects hereinafter expressed, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, namely:" Section 3690 of the Revised Statutes provides: "All balances of appropriations contained in the annual appropriation bills and made specifically for the service of any fiscal year, and remaining unexpended at the expiration of such fiscal year, shall only be applied to the payment of expenses properly incurred during that year, or to the fulfillment of contracts properly made within that year." This section has been further qualified by section 5 of the act of June 20, 1874 (18 Stat., 110), which requires "All unexpended balances which shall have remained upon the books of the Treasury for two fiscal years to be carried to the surplus fund and covered into the Treasury: Provided. That this provision shall not apply to permanent specific appropriations, appropriations for rivers and harbors, light houses, fortifications, public buildings, or the pay of the Navy and Marine Corps; but the appropriations named in this proviso shall continue available until otherwise ordered by Congress." In order, therefore, to make the appropriation under consideration available after the expiration of the fiscal year 1895, except for the payment of expenses properly incurred during that year, or contracts properly made within that year, the appropriation must be one of those mentioned in the proviso to section 5 of the act of June 20, 1874. It is clearly not an appropriation "for rivers and harbors, light houses, fortifica tions, public buildings, or the pay of the Navy and Marine Corps," and the only other appropriation therein mentioned is "permanent specific." What these words "permanent specific" mean has been the subject of some doubt, and the prac tice in the Department on the subject has not always been uniform. Admitting that the appropriation is a "specific" appropriation, I can find nothing in its language, or from the nature of the work provided for, which makes it "permanent." When the digest of appropriations was made, shortly after the appropriation bills were passed, the appropriation was treated by your office and this office as limited to the fiscal year 1895. I see nothing to change the conclusion then reached and therefore am of the opinion that the appropriation is not available to pay for the services rendered by Mr. Steever from the 1st to the 15th of July, 1895. Respectfully, yours, The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. R. B. BOWLER, Comptroller. IN RE APPEAL OF J. W. SILSBY, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI. A United States commissioner is not entitled, under section 847, Revised Statutes, to a per diem fee of $5 for fixing the amount of bail and passing on the sufficiency of the same when the prisoner is surrendered by his bail, such acts alone not constituting a "hearing and deciding on criminal charges" within the meaning of said section. A United States commissioner is not entitled to fees for issuing separate certificates of attendance to each witness, in addition to the usual order to the marshal, such separate certificates being unnecessary. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY, August 2, 1895. Mr. Silsby, a commissioner for the western district of Missouri, appeals from the settlement by the Auditor of his account for the quarter ended September 30, 1894. Among other items the following were disallowed by the Auditor: Per diem charges of $5 for taking bond in cases where the only act was the taking of the bond. The commissioner makes the following explanation: "The defendants were surrendered by their bail, and the commissioner had to not only fix the amount of the bail but pass on the sufficiency of the same, which are judicial acts. The defendant is brought before me after he is turned over to the marshal just the same as if he had been arrested on a warrant, and my duty is to take a new bond or commit the defendant |