adjudication of claims and the payment of annuities, refunds, and allowances. An appeal to the Secretary of the Interior lies from the final action or order of the Commissioner affecting the rights or interests of any person or of the United States under the act, the procedure on appeal being as prescribed by the Commissioner, with the approval of the Secretary. The Civil Service Commission is required to supply such information in the form of reports concerning individual service as may be deemed essential to a proper determination of the right of claimants under the act, although the Bureau of Pensions has authority in certain cases to make special investigations.

The act requires the Civil Service Commission to keep a record of appointments, transfers, changes in grades, separations from the service, reinstatements, loss of pay, and such other information concerning individual service as may be deemed essential to a proper determination of rights under this act, and to furnish the Commissioner of Pensions such information from these records as he may request as necessary for carrying out the provisions of the act, including data showing the mortality experience of the employees in the service, withdrawals from such service, etc. Heads of executive departments and independent establishments are required to furnish the Civil Service Commission with the information necessary for keeping these records.

Such questions as the determination of who should be included in, and who excluded from the provisions of the act; what classes of employees should be considered as "mechanics, city and rural letter carriers, and post-office clerks " eligible for retirement at 65 years of age; and "railway postal clerks " eligible for retirement at 62 years of age, are determined by the Civil Service Commission and not by the Bureau of Pensions.

Persons arriving at the age of retirement, or those desiring to be retired on account of disability, make formal application to the Pension Bureau for retirement annuities, forms of application being furnished by that bureau. Each application must be supported by a certificate from the head of the department, branch, or independent office in which the applicant has been employed, stating the age and periods of service of the applicant and the pay received during such periods, as shown by the official records.

There is no occasion for the employment of attorneys in the filing of such claims.

The bureau's work involved in the handling of retirement cases consists of the dating, recording, numbering and jacketing of claims; the examination of the claims, with accompanying papers to determine their validity; conducting the necessary correspondence or other inquiries for further evidence; determining the basic salaries for and fixing the amounts of the annuities; issuing certificates to claimants if claims are granted; placing the names of the claimants on the annuitants' roll; and issuing and mailing the monthly checks in payment of the annuities.

When annuities are claimed for total disability for useful and efficient service, the bureau requires the claimant to be physically examined before the annuity is granted and each year thereafter until the annuitant reaches the retirement age unless the disability is permanent in character.

The bureau also handles cases of claims by employees for refunds of deductions from pay on account of separations from the service or transfers to unclassified positions; claims by legal representatives on account of the death of employees before reaching the retirement age or establishing valid claims for annuities; and claims by legal representatives of annuitants who died leaving unpaid balances of annuities.

A measure of these activities of the Bureau of Pensions may be obtained by consulting Appendix 6.

The Commissioner of Pensions is required to make an annual detailed, comparative report showing all receipts and disbursements on account of refunds, allowances, and annuities, and the total number of persons receiving annuities and the amounts paid them. He is authorized and directed, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to select a board of three actuaries, one of whom is the Government Actuary, whose duty it shall be to report annually upon the operations of the act, with authority to recommend to the Commissioner such changes as may be deemed necessary to protect the public interest and maintain the system on a sound financial basis. The Commissioner is required to submit these recommendations annually to Congress. A valuation of the " civil service retirement and disability fund" is to be made by the board

at the end of the first year after the passage of the act, and every five years thereafter, or oftener if deemed necessary by the Commissioner.

The act of May 22, 1920, authorized the appropriation of $100,000 for salaries and expenses necessary for carrying out its provisions. This amount was divided equally between the Bureau of Pensions and the Civil Service Commission.

CHAPTER III

ORGANIZATION

The principal executive officers of the Bureau of Pensions are the Commissioner of Pensions, the Deputy Commissioner of Pensions, and a Chief Clerk.

All positions in the Bureau of Pensions are provided for by statute, except those of officers and employees in the Retirement Division and members of the boards of examining surgeons whose compensation is paid out of lump-sum appropriations.

The Commissioner of Pensions and the Deputy Commissioner of Pensions are both appointed by the President "by and with the advice and consent of the Senate." All other officers and employees, except the members of the boards of examining surgeons, are appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, at the recommendation of the Commissioner of Pensions, from the Civil Service registers. The examining surgeons are appointed by the Commissioner without regard to Civil Service regulations. They participate in the examination of pension applicants either periodically or when specially called upon, and receive for such services fees as provided by act of September 22, 1922 (42 Stat. L., 1030).

The bureau is organized into the offices proper of the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, and Chief Clerk, and eleven divisions. The Chief Clerk's Office and each of the divisions have two or more subdivisions or sections.

Office of the Commissioner. The Commissioner of Pensions is the chief executive officer of the Bureau of Pensions. He is required by law to perform, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, such duties in the execution of the various pension and bounty-land laws as may be prescribed by the President. He supervises the examination and adjudication of all claims arising under the laws passed by Congress granting pensions on account

of service in the Army and Navy rendered wholly prior to October 6, 1917 and on and after February 9, 1922; claims for reimbursement of expenses of the last sickness and burial of deceased pensioners; and claims for bounty-land warrants based on military service rendered prior to March 3, 1855. He also has charge of the general administration, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, of the act for the retirement of employees in the classified civil service.

The Commissioner of Pensions issues such orders as are necessary for the proper conduct of the work. He is not a judicial officer, and the courts have no appellate power over him, but appeal lies to the Secretary of the Interior.

The Commissioner of Pensions has immediate supervision over all business arising in the following administrative units: Board of Review, Medical Division, Law Division, Finance Division, Retirement Division, and Special Examination Division.

The personnel of the office proper of the Commissioner of Pensions consists of the Commissioner, a Principal Examiner, two clerks, and two messengers.

Office of the Deputy Commissioner. The Deputy Commissioner of Pensions is required by law to perform such duties "as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, or may be required by law, and in case of death, resignation, absence, or sickness of the Commissioner to perform his duties until a successor is appointed or such absence or sickness ceases."

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The Deputy Commissioner has immediate supervision over the following administrative units: Invalid Division, Widow Division, Record Division, Certificate Division, and Disbursing Division. The Congressional Correspondence Section is attached to the office of the Deputy Commissioner.

The personnel of the office proper of the Deputy Commissioner consists of the Deputy Commissioner, four Principal Examiners, four clerks, and two messengers.

The Congressional Section is under the immediate supervision of the Deputy Commissioner of Pensions. It is composed of a section chief, an assistant, and twenty-six other employees. The section considers claims in which members of Congress make inquiry and gives a full and prompt reply to their requests for status.