Thus it may be said that the grant of a mileage allowance is in all instances due to some special provision of statute which distinctly states that in the case of certain services or certain classes of officers mileage at a certain rate shall be allowed. Since the passage of the act of Congress of June 16, 1874 (18 Stat., 72), providing "that only actual traveling expenses shall be allowed to any person holding employment or appointment under the United States, and all allowances for mileage and transportation in excess of the amount actually paid. are hereby declared illegal; and no credit shall be allowed to any of the disbursing officers of the United States for payments or allowances in violation of this provision," whatever power any head of department may have had to provide by departmental regulations for mileage allowances has ceased to exist."

All existing mileage allowances must find their basis therefore in some later statute inconsistent with the statute of 1874. As a matter of fact there are many of these statutes. Thus an act of June 30, 1876, repealed the act of 1874 in so far as it concerned officers of the Navy. This act, as amended by acts of 1882, 1896, and 1900, provides for the allowance to officers of the Navy and of the Marine Corps of 8 cents per mile while traveling under orders in the United States. Certain officers of the Navy whose pay and allowances are assimilated to those of the Army, however, are allowed only 7 cents a mile, while the Secretary of the Navy is authorized, "in cases where orders are given for travel to be performed repeatedly between two or more places in the same vicinity," to direct that actual and necessary expenses only be allowed.

In the Army mileage at the rate of 7 cents a mile is allowed under the same conditions to officers traveling without troops, veterinarians, contract surgeons, and to officers of the National Guard attending garrison and service schools (Laws June 12, 1906, 34 Stat., 246; Jan. 21, 1903, 32 Stat., 778), while 4 cents a mile for travel to place of enlistment is allowed to enlisted men on discharge. This is paid on the theory of constructive travel in the case of discharged soldiers who immediately reenlist and do not as a matter of fact proceed to the place of original enlistment.

Officers of the Army also have the right to have their baggage and household effects, within certain limits varying with their rank, packed and crated and together with their authorized horses transported at the expense of the Government when they change their stations. (Act of May 11, 1908, 35 Stat., 119.)

Both the mileage allowance and the privilege with regard to baggage are granted to certain services like the Revenue-Cutter Service, whose commissioned officers have, by the law of April 12, 1902 (32 Stat., 100), "the same pay and allowances except forage as are now or hereafter may be provided by law for officers of corresponding rank in the Army." The same privilege is accorded also to officers of the Marine Corps. (15 Comp. Dec., 122.) A recent act of Congress gives to employees of the Department of Agriculture, when transferred from one official station to another for permanent duty, when authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture, the right to traveling expenses "including charges for the transfer of their effects and personal proper y." (Act of March 4, 1911, 36 Stat., 1265.)

A law of March 3, 1905 (33 Stat., 1027), provides for the payment to the Supervising Inspector General, the supervising inspectors and the

local and assistant inspectors of the Steamboat-Inspection Service of their actual and reasonable traveling expenses or mileage at the rate of 5 cents a mile, incurred in the performance of their duties.

The law of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 412), provides mileage at the rate of 7 cents a mile in lieu of all other expenses for every officer of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers not a member of the board of managers traveling under orders on business for the Home.

Besides these laws, other acts of Congress provide mileage allowances for field deputy marshals, clerks of courts, jurors, witnesses, and for diplomatic and consular officers at rates varying from 15 to 5 cents a mile.

A given rate of mileage is determined upon as proper in all these cases because of the belief that it will in the long run be of advantage to the Government as compared with actual expenses. But under any rate that is fixed it may well happen that an individual officer or a class of officers may do much traveling from which profit is derived. A long journey combined with a short stay at the destination will thus net considerable profit to the traveler on 7 or 8 or even on 5 cent mileage. On the other hand, another officer or class of officers may do much traveling from which a loss is sustained. For a short journey and a long stay or a journey in inaccessible parts of the country will, on almost any mileage basis, sometimes cause loss to the traveler.

It frequently happens, therefore, that the law providing a mileage allowance in all cases of travel by specified classes of officers is amended so as to permit an officer engaging in unprofitable traveling to receive actual expenses instead of the mileage allowance. Thus, in March, 1906, the Comptroller of the Treasury decided that an officer of the Army serving under the Lighthouse Establishment was not entitled to reimbursement of actual expenses for travel performed in obedience to orders in going to and from places inaccessible to common carriers, but could receive only the regular mileage allowance. (12 Comp. Dec., 510). An act of Congress passed February 26, 1907 (34 Stat., 997), provided that "Officers of the Army and Navy detailed for duty in connection with the Lighthouse Service shall be paid their actual traveling expenses when traveling under orders on official duty to and from points which can not be conveniently reached by vessel or railroad."

Sometimes the law is framed in the alternative, as in the cases of the Steamboat-Inspection and the Revenue-Cutter Services, giving actual expenses or mileage not to exceed a certain rate.

The tendency is, therefore, that travel on a mileage allowance is only that travel where the traveler obtains a profit from traveling, while traveling from which no such profit is derived is done on actual

expenses.

The grant of mileage allowances is therefore objectionable, since it tends to encourage traveling by appealing to the self-interest of the traveler. Inasmuch as it is made use of, if possible, where profits from traveling are obtainable, it may easily come to be regarded as an official perquisite rather than as a reimbursement for traveling expenses actually incurred, although the theory upon which mileage allowances are based is that the allowance is given in order that reimbursement may be made for actual expenses incurred and not that

the officer's compensation may be increased. (1 Comp. Dec., 531; 8 ibid, 634; United States v. Smith, 158 U. S., 346.)

The commission is of the opinion that all provisions of law inconsistent with the law of 1874, which prohibits mileage allowances, should be repealed and that that law should be reenacted in order that the rule therein laid down for the payment of actual and reasonable traveling expenses may be applied to all officers and employees of the Government. No change should be made in the mileage allowed witnesses and jurors.

If this recommendation is adopted it will be necessary to make special provision for the compensation of field (fee) deputy marshals. of the United States whose compensation is in large measure derived from the mileage allowances now provided by law, and for bounties. for reenlistment of soldiers and sailors who are now encouraged to reenlist by the grant to them of mileage for constructive travel from the place of discharge to the place of original reenlistment.

ACTUAL TRAVELING EXPENSES.

With the exception of such laws as have been mentioned, the rule is, then, that actual traveling expenses alone shall be paid. The law of Congress laying down this rule does not provide, however, what expenses are to be included within the term "actual traveling expenses" nor what authority shall authorize the incurring of such expenses, nor what kind of ticket or contract shall be used.

All these matters are left to be fixed by departmental regulations which are issued by the head of each department or by the head of each of the bureaus in a department. The Comptroller of the Treasury has thus decided that, though in ultimate analysis he is to determine whether a travel expense account is proper (1 Comp. Dec., 549), he will be governed in the determination of whether or not particular classes of items of personal expenses shall be allowed as traveling expenses by the regulations of the heads of departments. (9 Comp. Dec., 156.)

There has apparently been little effort upon, the part of the departments, and in some cases even of the bureaus of a single department, to compare notes and, as a result of profiting by the experiences of particular services or departments, to frame uniform regulations as to those particulars with regard to which the statutes permit of administrative determination. There are therefore at the present time as many regulations as there are departments and in some cases almost as many regulations for the services in a department as there are services in that department. These regulations usually treat of the following objects:

GRANT OF AUTHORITY.

There is an almost uniform rule among the departments requiring that authority to travel on departmental business must be granted by the Secretary of such department, his assistant, or by the chief of the particular bureau or office. The Comptroller of the Treasury has held that where the statute provides that the duties of a bureau shall be performed under the authority of the head of the department an order to travel given by the head of a bureau without the approval

of the head of the department is sufficient authority. (9 Comp. Dec., 351.) This authority further may be given after the travel has been performed. (12 Comp. Dec., 476.)

ROUTES AND METHODS OF TRAVEL.

Considerable uniformity exists also in requiring that the shortest practicable route be taken, that efforts be made to avoid duplication of travel, and that limited, excursion, and round-trip tickets be used where practicable.

MILEAGE AND SCRIP BOOKS.

The Comptroller of the Treasury originally regarded the purchase of mileage books as illegal, but later decided that the departments are authorized under the law to purchase such books. (13 Comp. Dec., 503.) While most of the departments now allow mileage books and advocate more or less strongly their use wherever practicable, the Departments of Justice and Commerce and Labor and the Isthmian Canal Commission forbid their purchase. Commutation tickets and rebates are also forbidden by the last two organizations.

The Department of Agriculture is the most extensive user of mileage books, and estimates a saving by their use of $3,509.50 during the fiscal year 1910. In reporting on the mileage used in this department it was stated that the saving as compared with tickets averaged about a half cent per mile. Since the inquiry began one other department has experimentally purchased mileage books for one of its bureaus, and it is stated that a considerable saving will be realized. In considering the saving, however, it is to be understood that the gross is not to be taken. To the mileage-book cost is to be added any additional clerk hire which is assignable to the recording and handling of mileage books; this is to be reduced, on the other hand, by any saving in time which may be realized in the audit and certification of travel vouchers where the trip tickets must necessarily be checked against traffic schedules.

The regulation of the Department of Agriculture in the matter reads as follows:

Mileage books may be procured, when in the interest of the Government, by exchang ing transportation requests therefor, but the use of these books is not recommended except in connection with short trips within specifically described territory and where the traveler knows definitely that books purchased will be entirely used within the same fiscal year.

The Navy Department also uses mileage books whenever practicable, particularly in the case of local trips, but finds their general use impracticable, partly because of the difficulty of apportioning the expense of travel under them to the various appropriations.

Several objections are urged to the use of mileage books under existing conditions as a method of paying for transportation.

In the first place, there are cheaper methods applicable either to all employees of the Government who may be traveling or to certain classes. Both the Navy and the War Departments secure contract rates for parties of enlisted men, and even for individual employees, and in some cases these rates are lower than mileage-book rates. At the present time, however, these contracts affect only the employees of departments which are parties to them, and are not open to

employees of other departments. In some cases these contracts provide for a discount of 15 per cent from the standard rate. The commission is of the opinion that inquiry should be made into the feasibility of making these special contract rates available for the employees of all the executive departments and other Government establishments. Further, land-grant and bond-aided railroads allow free transportation in some cases and 50 per cent reduction in others. In the Department of Agriculture, therefore, mileage books are not permitted to be used for transportation on land-grant or bond-aided railroads. This department sets forth in connection with its travel regulations a map on which these railroads are displayed. Both the War and the Navy Departments use Government transports for carrying enlisted men when possible. The War Department claims that mileage books are practicable only in transportation of civilian employees, and this only to a limited extent. The cost of the travel of this class is only 2 per cent of the total transportation cost.

The Post Office Department is also in a peculiar position, since under the mail contracts its inspectors are transported free, except that it pays fares in cases where the nature of their work requires the inspectors' identity to be concealed.

In the second place, the conditions appended by the railroad companies to the sale and use of mileage books are so different that under existing circumstances the advantageous use of mileage books by Government officers is quite limited. A common requirement by the railroad companies is that the use of a mileage book be confined to the individual purchaser. The Interstate Commerce Commission is of the opinion that the present law will not permit a head of a department or bureau to purchase a number of mileage books and assign them as needed to persons traveling in the interest of the Government. In other cases the advantage of using mileage books is derived from a refund to the user made by the railroad company only under conditions with which it is not always convenient or even possible to comply.

Indeed, the greatest possible advantage to be derived from the use of mileage books is to be found only in the case of mileage books that can be used during at least a year by the person in temporary possession of them, and permitting refund for the unused portion. Such mileage books are comparatively rare.

Finally, the use of even the most desirable mileage books involves a careful system of account keeping upon the part of the service using them, and the expense thereof goes far toward wiping out the profit which may be derived from their use.

It is possible, however, to devise a scheme of mileage books for the exclusive use of Government employees so that the Government would save a considerable amount over and above the cost of the accounting work which their use would necessitate.

Mr. Zappone, of the Department of Agriculture, thus proposes, in a report made April 3, 1911, to the committee on economy and efficiency of that department:

1. That a national mileage book at a flat rate be adopted by all of the railroads for the exclusive use of the Government, said books to be interchangeable and transferable. This can only be accomplished by mutual agreement among the various traffic lines, and the rate fixed upon can not be higher than the lowest rate which has been established by the various State statutes. In other words, it is thought that railroad