1879. It is true the act of August 8, 1888 (25 Stat., 386), provides:

"That the act of Congress approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, chapter fifty-two, section two, be, and the same is hereby, amended, so that whenever any circuit and district court of the United States shall be held at the same time and place they shall be authorized and required, if the business of the courts will permit, to use interchangeably the juries in either court drawn according to the provisions of said act."

But it does not change the provision of law regarding the manner in which juries shall be drawn. On the contrary, it clearly implies that there shall be separate juries for the district and circuit courts, but authorizes and requires their use interchangeably when the business of the courts will so permit.

If the judges of the circuit and district courts in the northern district of California have seen fit to appoint separate jury commissioners, and these commissioners have in fact performed the services required of them by the act of June 30, 1879, there is nothing in the clause in the appropriation providing for their compensation which deprives these separate commissioners of the compensation earned by them, although both served at the same time, for strictly speaking, although the terms of the circuit and district courts may be contemporaneous, yet there are in fact separate terms of different courts. The items disallowed by the Auditor will therefore now be allowed.

R. B. BOWLER,
Comptroller.

CONSTRUCTION OF AN ACT FOR THE PAYMENT OF A SPECIFIED AMOUNT TO THE PERSON NAMED THEREIN.

The specific amount which the Secretary of the Treasury has been directed to pay to a claimant named in an act must be paid to him notwithstanding the sum actually due to satisfy the claim referred to in the act is less than the amount appropriated.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY,
June 20, 1896.

The Auditor for the Post-Office Department on May 18, 1896, made an original construction of an act as follows:

"The inclosed act of Congress for the relief of George H. Lott, a citizen of Mississippi, approved March 23, 1896, provides that he be paid the sum of $148, 'that being the amount

deducted by the Post-Office Department from the pay of said George H. Lott, as subcontractor on mail route numbered 26530, in the State aforesaid, because the mail service thereon was performed by the minor son of the postmaster at Stix, Mississippi.' The facts in the case are as follows:

"A deduction of $148.90 was imposed by the PostmasterGeneral against route 26530, Mississippi, June 3, 1895, $9.89 of which was for failure to perform service on a part of the route, and the balance, $139.01, because the minor son of a postmaster had been employed to carry the mail.

"This deduction was divided pro rata between the contractor and subcontractor, and in the settlement of their accounts Mr. Lott, the subcontractor, was charged $121.82 and the contractor $27.08.

"Mr. Lott's pro rata share of that part of the deduction imposed because a minor was employed in carrying the mail amounts to $113.73.

"It was clearly the intention of Congress to reimburse Mr. Lott for the amount actually deducted from his pay for employing a minor to carry the mail, and for no other purpose, and this office so decides. The sum of $148 was evidently inserted in the bill by mistake, or on erroneous information.

I have, therefore, the honor to inform you that the payment of this account has been suspended, and as an original construction of said act is involved, the case is respectfully submitted to you in compliance with the provisions of section 8, volume 28, Statutes at Large, page 208, for approval, disapproval, or modification of the decision reached by this office."

The act in question reads as follows:

"That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized and directed to pay to George H. Lott, a citizen of Mississippi, the sum of one hundred and forty-eight dollars, that being the amount deducted by the Post-Office Department from the pay of said George H. Lott as subcontractor on mail route numbered twenty-six thousand five hundred and thirty, in the State aforesaid, because the mail service thereon was performed by the minor son of the postmaster at Stix, Mississippi.”

When this construction reached the Comptroller he brought the matter to the attention of the Secretary of the Treasury, in order that the question might be submitted to Congress for such action as Congress might see fit to take at its recent session. The matter having been brought to the attention of Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, and no action having been taken by Congress, it becomes necessary to pass upon the construction placed by the Auditor upon the act.

In United States v. Jordan (113 U. S., 418) an act was construed providing

"That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to remit, refund, and pay back, out of

any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the following-named citizens of Tennessee, or the legal representatives of such as are deceased, the amount of taxes assessed upon and collected from the said named persons contrary to the provisions of the regulations issued by the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of June twenty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and published in special circular numbered sixteen, from the Internal Revenue Office, of that date, said refunding having been recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of June nineteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-three; that is to say, to"-followed by the names of 81 persons, and the specification of a sum of money opposite to each name, and among them this: "To Edward L. Jordan, two thousand two hundred and ninety dollars; * all of Rutherford County, Tennessee, said persons, and each of them, having filed their claims in the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue prior to the sixth of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-three."

*

*

*

It was held in that case that the statute did not leave open any question for the determination of the accounting officers of the Treasury other than the identity of the claimants with the persons named in the act, and that the language of the act was too clear to admit of doubt "that Congress undertook, as it had a right to do, to determine not only what particular citizens of Tennessee by name should have relief, but also the exact amount which should be paid to each one of them." (See also United States v. Price, 116 U. S., 43.)

As the language of the art of March 23, 1896, for the benefit of Mr. Lott is, "that the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized and directed to pay to George H. Lott, a citizen of Mississippi, the sum of one hundred and forty-eight dollars," under the principle decided in United States v. Jordan and United States v. Price (supra) it is clear that there is no authority in the Secretary of the Treasury or the accounting officers to withhold payment of the full amount which the act directs shall be paid to Mr. Lott, although that amount is more than the sum deducted by the Post-Office Department from the pay of Mr. Lott. The construction placed upon this act by the Auditor is modified accordingly, so as to authorize payment to Mr. Lott of the full amount specified in the act, to wit, $148.

R. B. BOWLER,
Comptroller.

CONSTRUCTION OF SECTION 3709 OF THE REVISED STATUTES.

Section 3709, Revised Statutes, does not require the advertising for proposals nor the entering into contracts for the purchase of patented or copyrighted articles where the benefit of competition can not be secured.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY,

June 20, 1896. The Auditor for the Post-Office Department made a decision construing section 3709, Revised Statutes, as follows:

"I have the honor to certify to you the decision of this office modifying the existing construction of section 3709 of the Revised Statutes of the United States and the continued practice in this office in relation to certain accounts pertaining to the free-delivery service of the Post-Office Department.

"This office, under its construction of section 3709 of the Revised Statutes, requires duplicates of contracts for all supplies purchased by the Post-Office Department to be filed in this office, except in cases where there is no contract and an immediate purchase of the article is desired, the practice has been to require a statement upon the voucher by the purchasing officer that the purchase was required by an exigency of the service.

"This construction seems never to have been fully applied to purchases made for the free-delivery service. Contracts for articles required for that service are invariably filed in this office, but purchases made outside of any contract have heretofore been audited without the exigency clause having been indorsed upon the voucher.

"This office now requires that contracts shall be filed, or the exigency clause shall be indorsed upon market purchases for the free-delivery service, and has accordingly so notified the Postmaster-General.

"The accounts which have been received in this office and not yet audited, that are affected by this decision, are suspended awaiting your approval, disapproval, or modification of this decision."

Upon the receipt of this decision a copy was sent to the Postmaster-General, with a request for his opinion upon the question involved, to which the following reply was made by the First Assistant Postmaster-General:

"I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 2d instant, inclosing a number of certificates of authorization for the expenditure of free-delivery appropriation for certain supplies for the free-delivery service throughout the

country, together with a communication from the Auditor for the Post-Office Department, dated May 29, in relation to auditing the same.

"The above certificates are for expenditures of money for the following purposes:

"(1) Postal straps (for use of letter carriers).

"(2) Bundy time clocks for the use of letter carriers. "(3) Groff attachments for street letter boxes.

"(4) Copies of city directories for use of letter carriers. "(5) Repairing satchels and shipping repaired satchels. "(6) Time cards for street letter boxes.

"(7) Erecting, painting, and repairing street letter boxes. "The postal straps used by the Department are furnished by George D. Lamb, of New Haven, Conn., patentee, owner, and manufacturer of Lamb's national strap fastener,' which is deemed by the Department to be better adapted than any other article on the market for use of letter carriers.

"The Bundy clock is an automatic time recorder, patented, owned, and manufactured by the Bundy Manufacturing Company of Binghamton, N. Y. It is the only time clock on the market that I know of which records the exact time of letter carriers in figures, which is desirable under the exactions of the eight hour law.

"The attachment for street letter boxes, known as the Groff fastener, is patented, owned, and manufactured by Groff Brothers, Washington, D. C. This fastener is an automatic device for attaching letter boxes to posts or other objects, and enables the Department to make a saving of time and money whenever the street letter boxes are painted, transferred, or repaired. No other automatic fastener has been brought to the attention of this Department.

"The postmasters at the various free-delivery offices are authorized annually to purchase a number of copies of the local city directory for use of letter carriers. These are indispensable and can be purchased only from the publisher of the directory, who is protected by a copyright, and it would be impossible to buy such directories from any other sources.

"The postmasters at different cities are authorized from time time, as the exigencies of the service require, to paint letter boxes, erect new boxes, transfer boxes, or repair boxes.

"Time cards are attached to street letter boxes to show the hours that mail is collected and the number of collections made from each box.

"The cards must necessarily differ in each city, as they must conform to the time of arrival and departure of mail, and must be changed from time to time to meet the exigencies of a change in schedule of mail trains and an increase or decrease of number of daily collections.

"On October 1, 1893, a repair shop was opened at the Baltimore city post-office, by authority of the Postmaster-General, and W. H. Coram placed in charge, with compensation fixed as