The evening times., 1899-07-14

Hon. L. p. Mitchell, Acting Comptroller
cf the Currency. it is extremely doubtful
if the proposed exhibit of the United States
Life-S Saving Service will be made at the
Paris Exposition next year.
Commissioner General Peck recently
wrote Secretary Gage on the subject and
he referred the matter to the Comptroller
for an opinion, which was made public
this morning.
In this letter to Secretary Gage, the
Acting Comptroller says:
I'm your communication of the 7th in
slant you request my decision of the ques-
ton whether keeper and full crew of a
life-saying station can be paid from the
appropriation for the Life Saving Service
made by the act of March 8, 1899, while de-
tailed for service at the Paris Exposition of
1900" He then quotes from Secretary
Cages letter to him as follows:
1T is proposed TO make an exhibit of the
United States Life Saving Service at the
Par4 Exposition of 1900 and it is desirable
| that il be as complete as possible. To this
end II IS important that keeper and fun
crew OF surfmen be employed in order to
| exemplify the life-saving methods that have
been adopted by the service.
| The Commissioner General of the Unit
ed States to said exposition states that it
| is very desirable that the exhibit be made,
but that ii will be very difficult to make
! a complete one if the compensation of the
keeper and surfmen to be employed. as
above set forth. is to be paid out of the
appropriation for the Commission, especial
| ly as il is understood that the Commission
! is TO bear the expense of the transporta-
tion of the men, and other incidental eN-
/ ala-. 0 h. ,~xr
material and pay for the erection of life
saving station building and accessories,
and il has been suggested that the leces-
! sary men be detailed for this duty from
! the members of the Life Saving Service,
| and that their compensation be paid out
of the current appropriation for that serv-
! ice.
In accordance with this suggestion,
the department will detail for duty at
Paris one keeper of a life-saving station
and ten surfnen, TO be selected from ex-
perenced members of the Life Saving
Service on the Atlantic and Lake coasts,
and pay them from the regular appropria-
ton for the Life Saving Service tsee Sun
dry Civil Appropriation act, approved
March 3, 1899, provided il can legally be
done, and your decision is requested upon
the question whether keeper and crew
of ten men, detailed as above stated, could
properly be paid from the appropriation
referred to-
Continuing, Mr.. Mitche.rs letter says:
THE appropriation contains the fol-
lowing provisions:
For salaries Of 274 keepers of life
saving and life-boat stations. and houses
OF refuge, s239, ,700.
For pay of crews of surfmen en-
ployed at the life saving and life-boat sta
tions =. at the rate of $50 per
month each during the period of actual
employment, and So per day for each oc-
c2sion of service at other times"
Mr. Mitchell then quotes the following
provisions from the act approved June Is,
1878, and organizing the Life-Saying Serv-
/ ice:
saving stations shall be required TO reside
continually at or in the immediate vicinity
CT their respective stations.
/ Section ). That hereafter the life-sav-
ing stations upon the sea and gulf coasts
at which crews are employed shall be man
ned and the stations opened for active serv-
ice on the first day OF September of each
year, and so continue until the first day OF
May succeeding, and upon the lake coasts
from the opening to the close OF naviga-
tion, except such stations as, in the discrc-
ton of the Secretary of the Treasury, are
; not necessary to be manned during the
full period specified; and the crews shall
reside at the stations during said periods. y
The Acting Comptroller, after calling at
: tention TO these provisions and Secretary
Cages letter, continues with his opinion in
the following language:
BY the act of August 8, 1894, the time
during which stations upon the Atlantic
and Gulf Coasts are required to be opened
: was charged to the period from August i
in each year TO June l in the succeeding
year, and the provision that the crews
. shall reside at the stations during said
periods was repeated. / hardly think the
language for pay of crews of surfmen
employed at the life-saving and life-boat
stations, used in the appropriation, su-
pra, was intended to prohibit the detail Of
surfmen for temporary service elsewhere
than at their stations. / think it is mere
. ly phrase descriptive of the surfnen re-
ferred to. But the provision requiring
| keepers to reside continually at or in the
immediate vicinity of their respective sta
tIcns, and the provision requiring surfnen
| to reside at the stations during the active
season, appear to be restrictive in their
nature, and | am of opinion that they
would be violated by the employment of
keepers and surfmen at place other than
| their station.
"A life saving exhibit at the Worlds CO.
lumbian Exposition at Chictgo was pro-
vided for by the act of August 5. 1892. by
the establishment of life-s saving station
on the grounds of the exposition. In the
act of July 1, 1898, provision was made
for the pay of a crew of surfmen employed
at the Trans Mississippi and International
Exposition, Omaha, Neb Such special leg
slation would not have been necessary if
crews of surfmen could have been detailed
to those expositions and paid from the reg
ular appropriations for the Life-Saving
Service, and it implies construction by
Congress that those appropriations were
not applicable to their payment.
Il am, therefore, of opinion that by i'm
plication the acts of June 13, 1873, and
August 3, 1894, prohibit the employment
cf surfmen, during the active season, OF
Of a keeper. during any portion of the year
elsewhere than at their respective sta
tions.''
If the Commissioner General decides to
make the exhibit the expenses must be paid