For maintenance of the water department distribution system, Operation expenses. including pumping stations and machinery, water mains, valves, fire and public hydrants, water meters, and all buildings and accessories, and the purchase and maintenance of motor trucks, purchase of fuel, oils, waste, and other materials, and the employment of all labor necessary for the proper execution of this work; and for contingent expenses, including books, blanks, stationery, printing, postage, damages, purchase of technical reference books, and periodicals, not to exceed $75, and other necessary items, $10,000; in all, for maintenance, $450,000.

For extension of the water department distribution system, laying of such service mains as may be necessary under the assessment system, $250,000.

ses.

Distribution expen

Assessments for lay

Vol. 33, p. 244.

The rates of assessment for laying or constructing water mains ing mains and sewers, and service sewers in the District of Columbia under the provisions for fiscal year. of the Act entitled "An Act authorizing the laying of water mains and service sewers in the District of Columbia, the levying of assessments therefor, and for other purposes," approved April 22, 1904, are hereby increased from $1.25 to $2 and $1 to $3, respectively, per linear front foot for any water mains and service sewers constructed or laid during the fiscal year 1927.

The Commissioners of the District of Columbia are directed to increase the scale of water rents in effect in the District of Columbia by 1212 per centum per annum for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927: Provided, That such increase shall remain in effect until otherwise provided by law.

Increase in rates.

Water rents.

Scale increased of.

Proviso.
Continuance.

Water meters in pri

For installing water meters on services to private residences and vate residences, etc. business places as may not be required to install meters under existing regulations, as may be directed by the commissioners; said meters at all times to remain the property of the District of Columbia, $30,000.

For installing fire and public hydrants, machinery, and appurtenances required for necessary extensions, $25,000.

For five thousand seven hundred feet of sixteen-inch main in Sixteenth Street northwest, from Meridian to Fuller Streets northwest, west in Fuller Street and Columbia Road to Eighteenth Street northwest, $54,150.

For one thousand nine hundred feet of sixteen-inch main in H Street northwest, from Eighth to Thirteenth Streets, $19,371.

For replacement of old mains in various locations, on account of inadequate size and bad condition of pipe on account of age, and laying mains in advance of pavement, $50,000.

The appropriations contained in this Act for laying and relaying water mains shall be available immediately.

For purchase or condemnation of site for new third high service reservoir, $50,000, and the commissioners are hereby authorized to close, where necessary, all highways that may interfere with the development of the proposed project.

Hydrants.

New mains.

Construction work

inspec

tors, etc., temporarily

SEC. 2. That the services of draftsmen, assistant engineers, level- under Commissioners. ers, transitmen, rodmen, chainmen, computers, copyists, overseers, Draftsmen, inspi and inspectors temporarily required in connection with sewer, street, employed. street-cleaning or road work, or construction and repair of buildings and bridges, or any general or special engineering or construction work authorized by appropriations may be employed exclusively to carry into effect said appropriations when specifically and in writing de ordered by the commissioners, and all such necessary expenditures for the proper execution of said work shall be paid from and equitably charged against the sums appropriated for said work; and the commissioners in their budget estimates shall report the number of

Provisos.
Limit.

Employment period limited.

Temporary laborers, mechanics, etc.

Horses, vehicles, etc.
Special authority

using.

such employees performing such services, and their work, and the sums paid to each, and out of what appropriation: Provided, That the expenditures hereunder shall not exceed $20,000 during the fiscal year 1927: Provided further, That no person shall be employed in pursuance of the authority contained in this paragraph for a longer period than nine months in the aggregate during the fiscal year.

The commissioners are further authorized to employ temporarily such laborers, skilled laborers, drivers, hostlers, and mechanics as may be required exclusively in connection with sewer, street, and road work, and street cleaning, or the construction and repair of buildings and bridges, furniture and equipments, and any general or special engineering or construction or repair work, and to incur all necessary engineering and other expenses, exclusive of personal services, incidental to carrying on such work and necessary for the proper execution thereof, said laborers, skilled laborers, drivers, hostlers, and mechanics to be employed to perform such work as may not be required by law to be done under contract, and to pay for such services and expenses from the appropriations under which such services are rendered and expenses incurred.

SEC. 3. That all horses, harness, horse-drawn vehicles necessary from Commissioners for for use in connection with construction and supervision of sewer, street, street lighting, road work, and street-cleaning work, including maintenance of said horses and harness, and maintenance and repair of said vehicles, and purchase of all necessary articles and supplies in connection therewith, or on construction and repair of buildings and bridges, or any general or special engineering or construction work authorized by appropriations, may be purchased, hired, and maintained and motor trucks may be hired exclusively to carry into effect said appropriations, when specifically and in writing ordered by the commissioners; and all such expenditures necessary for the proper execution of said work, exclusive of personal services, shall be paid from and equitably charged against the sums appropriated for said work; and the commissioners in the budget estimates shall report the number of horses, vehicles, and harness purchased, and horses and vehicles hired, and the sums paid for same, and out of what appropriation; and all horses owned or maintained by the District shall, so far as may be practicable, be provided for in stables Temporary work for Owned or operated by said District: Provided, That such horses, horse-drawn vehicles, and carts as may be temporarily needed for hauling and excavating material in connection with works authorized by appropriations may be temporarily employed for such purposes under the conditions named in section 2 of this Act in relation to the employment of laborers, skilled laborers, and mechanics.

Report.

Proviso.

excavations.

Temporary laborers, etc., water department.

funds.

from.
Vol. 33, p. 368.

SEC. 4. The commissioners are further authorized to employ temporarily such laborers, skilled laborers, and mechanics as may be required in connection with water-department work, and to incur all necessary engineering and other expenses, exclusive of personal services, incidental to carrying on such work and necessary for the proper execution thereof, said laborers, skilled laborers, and mechanics to be employed to perform such work as may not be required by existing law to be done under contract, and to pay for such services and expenses from the appropriation under which such services are rendered and expenses incurred.

Miscellaneous trust SEO. 5. That the commissioners are authorized to employ in the Expenses payable execution of work the cost of which is payable from the appropriation account created in the District of Columbia Appropriation Act, approved April 27, 1904, and known as the "Miscellaneous trustfund deposits, District of Columbia," all necessary inspectors, overseers, foremen, sewer tappers, skilled laborers, mechanics, laborers, special policemen stationed at street-railway crossings, one inspector

of gas fitting, two janitors for laboratories of the Washington and Georgetown Gas Light Companies, market master, assistant market master, watchman, two bookkeepers in the auditor's office, clerk in the office of the collector of taxes, horses, carts, and wagons, and to hire therefor motor trucks when specifically and in writing authorized by the commissioners, and to incur all necessary expenses incidental to carrying on such work and necessary for the proper execution thereof, including the purchase of one passenger-carrying motor vehicle at a cost not to exceed $650, and including maintenance of motor vehicles for inspection and transportation purposes, such services and expenses to be paid from said appropriation account. That any person employed under any of the provisions of this Act who has been employed for ten consecutive months or more, shall not be denied the leave of absence with pay for which the law provides.pops

Leave of absence if months consecutively.

employee employed ten

Materials, supplies, Purchases of, directed from stock of Governlonger needed by them.

vehicles, etc.

activities

ing elsewhere.

no

SEC. 6. That the commissioners and other responsible officials, in expending appropriations contained in this Act, so far as possible shall purchase material, supplies, including food supplies and equipment, when needed and funds are available, from the various services of the Government of the United States possessing material, supplies, passenger-carrying and other motor vehicles, and equipment no longer required because of the cessation of war activities. It shall Duty before purchasbe the duty of the commissioners and other officials, before purchasing any of the articles described herein, to ascertain from the Government of the United States whether it has articles of the character described that are serviceable. And articles purchased Price stipulation. from the Government, if the same have not been used, shall be paid for at a reasonable price, not to exceed actual cost, and if the same have been used, at a reasonable price based upon length of usage. The various services of the Government of the United States are authorized to sell such articles to the municipal government under the conditions specified and the proceeds of such sales shall be covered into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts: Provided, That this section shall not be construed to amend, alter, or repeal the Execu- ecutive order not aftive order of December 3, 1918, concerning the transfer of office materials, supplies, and equipment in the District of Columbia falling into disuse because of the cessation of war activities.

Sales authorized.

Proviso.
Transfers under Ex

fected.

Acceptance of mark as signature of per diem

SEC. 7. Hereafter in the payment of compensation of per diem employees of the government of the District of Columbia a signature employee. by mark duly witnessed by an employee of such District designated for that purpose by the commissioners, shall be deemed a full legal acquittance as to such signature. Approved, May 10, 1926.

CHAP. 277.-An Act Making appropriations for the Department of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927, and for other purposes.

May 10, 1926. [H. R. 6707.] [Public, No. 206.]

appropriations.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the follow-Interior Department ing sums are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the Department of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1927, namely:

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

SALARIES

Secretary's Office.

and office personnel.

Secretary of the Interior, $15,000; First Assistant Secretary, Secretary, Assistants Assistant Secretary, and other personal services in the District of

Provisos.

Columbia in accordance with "The Classification Act of 1923," Salaries limited to $318,000; in all, $333,000: Provided, That in expending appropriaaverage rates under tions or portions of appropriations, contained in this Act, for the

Classification Act.

Vol. 42, p. 1488.

in a grade.

ally meritorious cases.

payment for personal services in the District of Columbia in accordance with the Classification Act of 1923, the average of the salaries of the total number of persons under any grade in any bureau, office, or other appropriation unit shall not at any time exceed the average of the compensation rates specified for the If only one position grade by such Act, and in grades in which only one position is allocated the salary of such position shall not exceed the average of the compensation rates for the grade except that in unusually Advances for unusu- meritorious cases of one position in a grade advances may be made to rates higher than the average of the compensation rates of the grade but not more often than once in any fiscal year and then cable to clerical-me- only to the next higher rate: Provided, That this restriction shall No reduction in fixed not apply (1) to grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the clerical-mechanical service, or (2) to require the reduction in salary of any person whose compensation was fixed, as of July 1, 1924, in accordance with Transfers to another the rules of section 6 of such Act, (3) to require the reduction in salary of any person who is transferred from one position to another position in the same or different grade in the same or a difhigher rates permitted. ferent bureau, office, or other appropriation unit, or (4) to prevent the payment of a salary under any grade at a rate higher than the maximum rate of the grade when such higher rate is permitted by the Classification Act of 1923, and is specifically authorized by other law.

Restriction not applichanical services.

salaries.

Vol. 42, p. 1496.

position without reduction.

Payments under

Solicitor's Office.

Office personnel.

Department contingent expenses.

OFFICE OF SOLICITOR

For personal services in the District of Columbia in accordance with the Classification Act of 1923, $120,000.

CONTINGENT EXPENSES, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

For contingent expenses of the office of the Secretary and the bureaus and offices of the department; furniture, carpets, ice, lumber, hardware, dry goods, advertising, telegraphing, telephone service including personal services of temporary or emergency telephone operators, street car fares for use of messengers not exceeding $150, expressage, diagrams, awnings, filing and labor-saving devices; constructing model and other cases and furniture; postage stamps to prepay postage on matter addressed to Postal Union countries and for special-delivery and air mail stamps for use in the United States; traveling expenses, fuel and light, type-writing and labor-saving machines; examination of estimates for appropriations in the field Property damages. for any bureau, office, or service of the department; not exceeding $500 shall be available for the payment of damages caused to private property by department motor vehicles; purchase and exchange of motor trucks, motor cycles, and bicycles, maintenance, repair, and operation of motor-propelled passenger-carrying vehicles and motor trucks, motor cycles, and bicycles, to be used only Disbarment proceed for official purposes; rent of department garage; expense of taking testimony and preparing the same, in connection with disbarment proceedings instituted against persons charged with improper practices before the department, its bureaus and offices; not exceeding $500 for newspapers, for which payment may be made in advance; stationery, including tags, labels, index cards, cloth-lined wrappers, and specimen bags, printed in the course of manufacture, and such printed envelopes as are not supplied under contracts made by the

ings.

Stationery, etc.

Postmaster General, for the department and its several bureaus and offices, and other absolutely necessary expenses not hereinbefore provided for, $107,000; and, in addition thereto, sums amounting ifled appropriations. to $79,500 shall be deducted from other appropriations made for the fiscal year 1927, as follows: Surveying public lands, $3,500; protecting public lands and timber, $2,000; contingent expenses local land offices, $3,500; Geological Survey, $5,500; Indian Service, $38,000; Freedmen's Hospital, $1,000; Saint Elizabeths Hospital, $3,000; National Park Service, $5,000; Bureau of Reclamation, $18,000, any unexpended portion of which shall revert and be credited to the reclamation fund; and said sums so deducted shall be credited to and constitute, together with the first-named sum of $107,000, the total appropriation for contingent expenses for the department and its several bureaus and offices for the fiscal year 1927.

etc.

For the purchase or exchange of professional and scientific books, eBooks, periodicals, law books, and books to complete broken sets, periodicals, directories, and other books of reference relating to the business of the department by the several offices and bureaus of the Interior Department herein named, there is hereby made available from any appropriations made for such bureau or office not to exceed the following respective sums: Office of the Secretary, $600; Indian Service, $200; Bureau of Education, $1,250; Bureau of Reclamation, $1,500; Geological Survey, $2,000; National Park Service, $500; General Land Office, $500.

Office allotments.

Minor purchases al

R. S., secs. 3709, 3744, pp. 733, 738.

The purchase of supplies and equipment or the procurement of lowed in open market. services for the Department of the Interior, the bureaus and offices thereof, and Howard University, at the seat of government, as well as those located in the field outside the District of Columbia, may be made in open market without compliance with sections 3709 and 3744 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in the manner common among business men, when aggregate amount of the purchase or the service does not exceed $100 in any instance. For per diem at not exceeding $4 in lieu of subsistence to four Inspectors' expenses. inspectors while traveling on duty, and for actual necessary expenses of transportation and incidental expenses of negotiation, inspection, and investigation, including telegraphing, temporary employment of stenographers, and other assistance outside of the District of Columbia, $8,000: Provided, That the four inspectors shall not receive per diem in lieu of subsistence for a longer period than thirty days at any one time at the seat of government.

PRINTING AND BINDING

Proviso.
Per diem limitation.

Printing and binding.

For Department, bu

For printing and binding for the Department of the Interior, reaus, etc. including all of its bureaus, offices, institutions, and services in Washington, District of Columbia, and elsewhere, except the Alaska Railroad, the National Park Service, and the Geological Survey, $118,000.

For the Alaska Railroad, not to exceed $6,500 of the amount appropriated herein for maintenance and operation of railroads in Alaska shall be available for printing and binding.

For the National Park Service: For printing and binding, ice. $25,000.

For the United States Geological Survey: For engraving the illustrations necessary for the annual report of the director and for the monographs, professional papers, bulletins, water-supply papers, and for printing and binding the same publications, of which sum not more than $45,000 may be used for engraving, $81,000; for miscellaneous printing and binding, $11,000; in all, $92,000.

Alaska Railroad.

National Park Serv.

Geological Survey.