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dred and ninety, and no wife or widow of any soldier, sailor or marine of the Spanish war, or the Philippine insurrection, unless she was married to him prior to the first day of January in the year nineteen hundred and ten. If an interment has taken place without the knowledge of the burial agent, application may be made to him within thirty days after the date of the death, and if upon investigation he shall find that the deceased was within the provisions of this section and the rules of the commissioner of state aid, he may certify the same as provided in the following section.

SECTION 18. The expense of such burial shall not exceed fifty dollars, two dollars of which shall be paid as compensation to the burial agent who caused the interment to be made; but if the total expense of the burial, by whomsoever incurred, shall exceed the sum of one hundred and ten dollars, no payment therefor shall be made by the commonwealth. The burial shall not be made in any cemetery or burial ground which is used exclusively for the burial of the pauper dead, or in any part so used of any cemetery or burial ground. Relatives of the deceased who are unable to bear the expense of burial may be allowed to conduct the funeral. The full amount so expended, the name of the deceased soldier, sailor or marine, the regiment, company or vessel in which he served, the date of death, place of interment, and in case of a wife or widow the name of the husband and date of marriage, and such other details as the commissioner of state aid may require, shall be certified under oath to him, in such manner as he may approve, by the burial agent and the treasurer of the city or town expending the amount, within ninety days after the burial; and said commissioner shall endorse upon the certificate his allowance of such amounts as in his judgment have been paid and reported according to the provisions of this act, and shall transmit such certificate to the auditor. The amounts legally paid and so allowed, with no expense for disbursement, shall be reimbursed by the commonwealth to the several cities and towns on or before the tenth day of November in the year after the expenditures have been made.

SECTION 19. This act shall take effect on the first day of July in the year nineteen hundred and fourteen, but so far as its provisions are the same as those of existing laws they shall be construed as a continuation thereof. [Approved May 29, 1914.

Under date of April 27, 1917, the following instructions were issued to burial agents by the Commissioner of State Aid and Pensions:

The act relating to the burial of indigent soldiers and sailors and their dependents has been amended by the present Legislature so that its provisions may apply if the total expense of burial does not exceed the sum of $110. Prior to the passage of this amendment, if the maximum amount of the burial expense exceeded the sum of $100, no part of the State burial allowance of $50 could be authorized.

I therefore deem it proper to acquaint the burial agents of the cities and towns of this change in the burial act, which went into effect April 10, 1917, and at the same time establish the following rules for the guidance of burial agents in compliance with the provisions of chapter 587, Acts of 1914:

Application for the State burial allowance shall be made to the burial agent in every case within thirty days after the date of death.

When so made, the burial agent is required to investigate the case as to property, money, insurance, etc., and to prepare the application carefully on one of the blank forms furnished by the commissioner. It should then be signed and sworn to by the applicant, who must be the person responsible for the payment of the burial expense, and when signed also by the burial agent, it should be forwarded to this office with a record of the soldier's or sailor's complete military or naval service, a certificate of death, and the bills for the total amount of the burial expense.

In the case of a wife or widow who has not drawn State aid, a certificate of her marriage to the soldier or sailor should accompany the application.

When the application is received by the commissioner, it will be acted upon, and if the case comes within the provisions of the burial act, payment will be authorized, and the application, with the endorsement on the back,· which is the authority for the city or town treasurer to make the payment, will be returned to the burial agent, who should then prepare the Return of Burial form, and when he has signed and made oath to it, he should present it, with the endorsed application, to the city or town treasurer, who is required to sign and make oath that he has made the payment.

The original application and the Return of Burial must be forwarded to this office by the burial agent, and a certificate of approval of the amount paid will be mailed by the commissioner at the end of the month following that in which payment is made.

If the burial application or the evidence forwarded therewith is not complete, the commissioner will write for the necessary information which must be promptly furnished, and it should be borne in mind that the burial act requires the completed papers to be forwarded to the commissioner in every case within ninety days after the date of death.

Burial agents will observe that the bills for the total amount of the burial expense are required, not simply the total amount of the undertaker's bill, and any additional evidence needed must come from the applicant.

In the case of an army nurse, all papers bearing upon the appointment and service should be forwarded to the commissioner with the burial application.

The agents should, when possible, confer with the undertakers before the interment has taken place, and should notify them to present their bills immediately after the burial, and if payment is authorized, to call on the city or town treasurer for the amount of such payment as soon as the account has been audited.

All applications must be first submitted to the commissioner for consideration and authorization before any payment has been made by the city or town treasurer. In most cases the commissioner has in his office facts of much value in regard to the financial condition, etc., of the deceased.

The burial agents can act only in cases in which either the death or the burial took place in the city or town in and for which they were appointed, and may draw the amount authorized and pay it to the undertaker, or may give their order therefor.

Burial agents are enjoined to exercise the utmost care in investigating and preparing burial applications, to the correctness of which they are required to make oath in the Return of Burial.

PREFERENCE ON ACCOUNT OF MILITARY AND WAR SERVICE. MASSACHUSETTS STATE CIVIL SERVICE RULES.

SECTION 54. CREDIT FOR MILITARY AND NAVAL SERVICE.

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Military experience

Class 12. Instructors and teachers in the State Prison, Massachusetts Reformatory, etc.

Class 13. District police.

Class 14.1

Class 15.

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Boston police.
Out-of-town police.

Class 16. Metropolitan park police.

Class 17.- Prison watchmen, etc., so far as concerns work in the State Prison, Massachusetts Reformatory, Prison Camp and Hospital, in all of which positions age, height and weight limits are set.

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Class 21.-Out-of-town fire.

Class 22. — Foremen and inspectors of work.

Class 33.- Deputy fish and game wardens.

Wherever examinations are held which are variations of the above or of unusual character, the Commission shall specifically pass on the question of granting additional credit for military experience.

Regular army or navy service for a three-year period shall receive 10 points; militia service for a similar period 5 points; service in the Spanish or Philippine wars, 10 points. Fractions of a term of service in the militia shall be recognized as follows: for one full year of service, where the man is separated from that service through no fault or delinquency of his own, 1 point; for two full years under the same conditions, 3 points. In a similar way re-enlistments after an initial period of three years shall be recognized as above stated. Thus a man who served four years would receive 6 points; five years, 8 points; six years, 10 points.

In the case of the applicant who has received promotion in the military service, he shall receive additional credit of 3 points for attaining the grade of sergeant; an additional 5 points for attaining the grade of second lieutenant. In case of military promotion to a higher rank than these, the case will be specifically decided upon by the Commission.

NATIONAL LAWS.

VETERAN PREFERENCE.

I. PREFERENCE IN ORIGINAL APPOINTMENT.

SECTION 1. Preference in Appointment. — Section 1754, R. S. (sec. 1, joint res., Mar. 3, 1865), provides that:

"Persons honorably discharged from the military or naval service by reason of disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the line of duty shall be preferred for appointments to civil offices, provided they are found to possess the business capacity necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of such offices."

Section 7 of the civil-service act (22 Stat. 406) provides that "nothing herein contained shall be construed to take from those honorably discharged from the military or naval service any preference conferred by the seventeen hundred and fifty-fourth section of the Revised Statutes."

Preference under the statute is confined to entrance into the civil service and does not apply in examinations for promotion or for the Philippine service. In examinations for promotion or transfer a preference claimant already in the classified civil service receives no preference by reason of his military or naval service.

SEC. 2. Honorable discharge. -The discharge must have been honorable; a person discharged without honor can not be given preference. Retirement from active service in the Army or Navy on account of disability incurred in the line of duty, in accordance with section 1251 or section 1453, Revised Statutes, is not equivalent to discharge for disability within the meaning of the statute.

SEC. 4. Discharge must have been for disability. - Honorable discharge by itself confers no right of preference. The discharge must have been for the reason stated in the statute, namely, "disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the line of duty." The fact that the claimant was suffering from disability at the time of the termination of his military or naval service is not by itself sufficient. The disability may not have been incurred in the line of duty or the claimant may have been mustered out of the service. Rejection for re-enlistment on account of disability incurred in the service is not conclusive that the claimant was discharged for disability. The fact that the claimant was suffering from disability at the time of his discharge which might ultimately have led to his discharge for disability does not entitle him to preference; neither does the fact that the claimant has been granted a pension for disability incurred in the line of duty. Enlistment may have been terminated, by muster out or expiration of term of enlistment while the soldier or sailor was suffering from disability. The statute does not provide for preference in such cases.

SEC. 7. Rating required in examination. provides that:

Section 2 of Civil Service Rule VI

"All competitors rated at 70 or more shall be eligible for appointment, and their names shall be placed on the proper register according to their ratings; but the names of persons preferred under section 1754, Revised Statutes, rated at 65 or more, shall be placed above all others."

If the names of more than one preference claimant appear on the same register, the name of the claimant having the highest average percentage will head the list. When it is found necessary, on account of an insufficient number of eligibles, to establish a register of ineligibles from which to make appointments, ineligibles allowed preference will be placed at the head of such register.

SEC. 8. No age limits. Civil Service Rule V, section 5, provides that:

"The Commission may, with the approval of the proper appointing officer, change by regulation the existing age limits for entrance to the examinations under these rules; but persons preferred under section 1754, Revised Statutes, may be examined without regard to age."

SEC. 12. Unclassified laborers. Honorably discharged veterans of the Civil War without claim to preference under the statute, who receive physical ratings of 85 or more in an examination for unskilled laborer, are, under the regulations governing the employment of laborers, placed on the register immediately following those

who are allowed preference under section 1754 of the Revised Statutes. This preference is given in order to carry out the intendment of section 1755, R. S., recommending to "persons engaged in industrial pursuits" that honorably discharged soldiers and sailors other than those discharged for disability be preferred for appointment to remunerative situations and employments. For the same reason it is provided in the regulations for the navy-yard service that such veterans shall be preferred for appointment in case of equality of ratings with others.

II. PREFERENCE IN REDUCTION OF FORCE. SEC. 14. Separations occasioned by reduction of force. 1876, 19 Stat. 169, contains the following:

An act of August 15,

"Provided, That in making any reduction of force in any of the executive departments, the head of such department shall retain those persons who may be equally qualified who have been honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States, and the widows and orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors."1

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SEC. 15. Equal qualifications. Whether or not a person claiming preference under this statute is “equally qualified” is a matter for determination by the appointing officer.2

SEC. 16. Reduction in salary or rank. The Attorney General, in an opinion of July 28, 1909, 27 Op. 490, held that ex-soldiers or ex-sailors are not entitled, under the provisions of section 1754, Revised Statutes, section 3 of the act of August 15, 1876, and section 7 of the civil-service act, to preference over other persons when reductions in salary and rank are to be made, even though their qualifications are equal, but a preference in reductions in rank or salary of honorably discharged soldiers and sailors due to reductions of force is now provided for by the proviso of section 4 of the act of August 23, 1912, 37 Stat. 413:

The Civil Service Commission shall, subject to the approval of the President, establish a system of efficiency ratings for the classified service in the several executive departments in the District of Columbia based upon records kept in each department and

1 This secondary preference is not open to the objections set forth in the opinion of the Attorney General quoted in the note to section 6, as positions of mere laborer or workman are excepted from classification by the civil service act.

2 "I think the officers of the Government placed in charge of work at the several navy yards, although not engaged in 'industrial pursuits' in the sense usually attributed to the words, are, nevertheless, so engaged for the purposes of this statute. It would seem altogether inconsistent that the Government should thus formally and solemnly request private citizens conducting a shipyard to give a preference in employment to discharged soldiers and sailors, and yet in its own navy yards absolutely prohibit any such preference. . . .

"... It would seem that the regulations promulgated to give effect to the statutes should provide, first, that persons honorably discharged from the military or naval service by reason of disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the line of duty, if fitted physically, mentally, and morally to discharge, with reasonable skill and efficiency, the duties of the positions to be filled, are entitled to be selected in preference to others, although the latter may possess greater skill and efficiency. . . . With respect to other persons, including those honorably discharged on account of expiration of enlistment, or for any other reasons than disability incurred in the line of duty, superior fitness for the employment should be the decisive consideration; but if there should be no appreciable or ascertainable difference in point of fitness between two applicants, an honorably discharged soldier, sailor, or marine would be entitled to a preference in conformity with the intendment of section 1755." (Op. At. Gen., Feb. 18, 1909, 27 Op. 184, 189.)

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