able incapacity for work, it shall be the duty of the official superior of such employee to at once report such accident and the injury resulting therefrom to the head of his bureau or independent office, and his report shall be immediately communicated through regular official channels to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Such report shall state, first, the time, cause, and nature of the accident and injury and the probable duration of the injury resulting therefrom; second, whether the accident arose out of or in the course of the injured person's employment; third, whether the accident was due to negligence or misconduct on the part of the employee injured; fourth, any other matters required by such rules and regulations as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor may prescribe. The head of each department or independent office shall have power, however, to charge a special official with the duty of making such reports.

SEC. 4. That in the case of any accident which shall result in death, the persons entitled to compensation under this act, or their legal representatives, shall within ninety days after such death file with the Secretary of Commerce and Labor an affidavit setting forth their relationship to the deceased and the ground of their claim for compensation under the provisions of this act. This shall be accompanied by the certificate of the attending physician setting forth the fact and cause of death, or the nonproduction of the certificate shall be satisfactorily accounted for. In the case of incapacity for work lasting more than fifteen days, the injured party desiring to take the benefit of this act shall, within a reasonable period after the expiration of such time, file with his official superior, to be forwarded through regular official channels to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, an affidavit setting forth the grounds of his claim for compensation, to be accompanied by a certificate of the attending physician as to the cause and nature of the injury and probable duration of the incapacity, or the nonproduction of the certificate shall be satisfactorily accounted for. If the Secretary of Commerce and Labor shall find from the report and affidavit or other evidence produced by the claimant or his or her legal representatives, or from such additional investigation as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor may direct, that a claim for compensation is established under this act, the compensation to be paid shall be determined as provided under this act and approved for payment by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

SEC. 5. That the employee shall, whenever and as often as required by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, at least once in six months, submit to medical examination, to be provided and paid for under the direction of the Secretary, and if such employee refuses to submit to or obstructs such examination his or her right to compensation shall be lost for the period covered by the continuance of such refusal or obstruction.

SEC. 6. That payments under this act are only to be made to the beneficiaries or their legal representatives other than assignees and shall not be subject to the claims of creditors.

SEC. 7. That the United States shall not exempt itself from liability under this act by any contract, agreement, rule, or regulation, and any such contract, agreement, rule, or regulation shall be pro tanto void.

SEC. 8. That all acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith or providing a different scale of compensation or otherwise regulating its payment are hereby repealed.

AMENDATORY ACT.

That the provisions of the act approved May thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight, entitled "An act granting to certain employees of the United States the right to receive from it compensation for injuries sustained in the course of

their employment," shall, in addition to the classes of persons therein designated, be held to apply to any artisan, laborer, or other employee engaged in any hazardous work under the Bureau of Mines or the Forestry Service of the United States: Provided, That this act shall not be held to embrace any case arising prior to its passage.

It should be noted that the amendatory act is broader than the original act in that it applies to all employees engaged in hazardous work under the Bureau of Mines and not solely to persons employed as artisans or laborers.

Compensation under this act is paid from the regular appropriations of the Bureau of Mines, and not from special appropriations made for this purpose by Congress. Compensation will not be paid under this act for any period for which the employee has already received his regular salary; for example, an employee may not apply for and be granted sick leave on account of an injury and receive his salary for the period covered by such sick leave, and then apply for compensation under this act to cover the period of sick leave for which payment has already been made. In such case the employee will be required to refund the money paid under such leave before he can claim the benefits of the act.

Blank forms for reports and applications under this act may be obtained from the Washington office of the bureau upon request. All reports and applications must be submitted in triplicate and care should be exercised to see that all the information called for by the various forms is supplied. If any additional facts or information with reference to the injury exists which it is felt should be reported it is expected that the immediate official superior of the injured employee will report the same and transmit such report along with the claim and other papers in the case. All reports and claims for compensation are to be promptly submitted to the Washington office, through the immediate official superior of the injured employee, for transmission to the Secretary of Labor.

For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act the following regulations have been prescribed by the Secretary of Labor, to whom, by the act of March 8, 1913 (36 Stat., 736), the duty of administering the laws relating to the compensation of labor is delegated.

REPORTS TO BE MADE FOR ALL EMPLOYEES INJURED.

Whenever an injury is sustained by any Government employee due to an accident occuring in the course of his employment, and the injury is of such a nature as to prevent the employee from performing work for one day or longer, the case will be reported by the official superior of such employee on form C. A. 1 not later than the second day after the accident.

Whenever a person who has been reported disabled by an accident returns to work a report of his return to work will be made immediately on form C. A. 2 by his official superior.

Cases of death occurring either immediately or within one year after the accident will be reported on form C. A. 3 as soon as possible after knowledge of such death reaches the official superior.

PROCEDURE IN CASE OF DISABILITY.

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Whenever an employee has been disabled for more than 15 days and desires to claim the benefits of this act, he must promptly fill out form C. A. 4, Claim for compensation to injured employees," and submit the same through his official superior. This claim must be accompanied by a certificate of the attending physician as to the cause and nature of the injury and probable duration of the incapacity (or the nonproduction of the certificate must be satisfactorily accounted for), and must also be accompanied by the certificate of his official superior.

If the claim is approved by the Secretary of Labor, the compensation will be granted during disability for a period not exceeding six months.

In order to procure compensation for disability for more than six months, application must be made on form C. A. 8 for a medical examination at the end of that period by a physician provided by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Unless such examination is made, or if the examination discloses that the injured employee is no longer unable to resume work, the compensa. tion payments will be discontinued at the end of the six months' period. If the injured employee's condition as disclosed by the medical examination justifies it, the disability payments will be approved and continued in the same manner as before for a total period of not exceeding one year.

In order to secure this compensation the injured employee on each pay day must file with the disbursing officer a certificate that he is still unable to resume work (form C. A. 7). This certificate must be attested by a duly qualified physician and approved by the employee's official superior.

PROCEDURE IN CASE OF DEATH.

Whenever an employee entitled to compensation under this act dies as a result of accidental injury received in the course of his employment, his wife, his children under 16 years of age, or his parent or parents, if dependent upon his earnings for support, are entitled to be paid, if they desire to claim payment under this act, the same compensation that he would have been entitled to receive had the injury not resulted in death. Such dependents are to be furnished with copies of the form for claim for compensation (C. A. 16) by the official superior of the deceased employee.

All claims for compensation in case of death must be filed within 90 days of the date of death or the right to compensation will be lost.

Each of the persons enumerated above as being entitled to share in the compensation must file a claim (form C. A. 16), accompanied by a physician's certificate of death and a certificate of the official superior of the deceased, if he, she, or they wish to claim the benefits of the act.

It is highly important to note that the claim for compensation in case of death must be filed within 90 days; that is to say, it must be filed with the Secretary of Labor within 90 days. It will not satisfy this requirement to file this claim with the official superior of the deceased employee within 90 days, but it must be submitted to the said official superior a sufficient length of time before the expiration of such 90-day period to permit of its transmission through the usual channels to the Secretary of Labor.

If the claim is approved and the compensation is payable to more than one person, the Secretary of Labor will designate the portion to be paid each claimant.

The official superior of the injured employee will make a report on form C. A. 15 whenever the payment of compensation to any person is discontinued. By section 3 of the act of March 4, 1913 (36 Stat., 736), the duty of administering the laws relating to the compensation of injured employees is delegated to the Secretary of the Department of Labor. OTHER REGULATIONS GOVERNING CONDUCT OF

EMPLOYEES.

CLAIMS OF DEBT.

Department order of May 26, 1910, relative to claims of debt, is as follows:

Unofficial and personal business engagements with employees of this department should be entered into as with persons not in the public service.

The department will not act as a collection agent of debts of its employees. Gross or habitual turpitude in this particular will, however, be regarded as inconsistent with the qualities of character essential to honorable public service and retention therein.

Complaints based on transactions involving usury will not be considered by the department.

DESTROYING OR INJURING RECORDS, ETC.

Employees of the bureau are forbidden to destroy or to mutilate, except for official use, any books, papers, records, or documents that belong to the Government or pertain to public business. Whenever divisions, sections, or employees have such books, papers, or documents for which they have no further use, instructions regarding disposal should be asked of the director, and if after examination, it is found that the books, papers, records, or documents can not be utilized by any other division, section, or employee, and that they are no longer of use in the transaction of current business or valuable for historical or other purposes, they will be disposed of under an act of Congress that specifically provides for the disposition of useless papers.

Whoever shall willfully and unlawfully conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, or destroy, or attempt to conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, or destroy, or, with intent to conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, destroy, or steal, shall take and carry away any record, proceding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the Unites States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. (Sec. 128, 35 Stat. L., p. 1111, Penal Code.)

Whoever, having the custody of any record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing specified in the preceding section, shall willfully and un

lawfully conceal, remove, mutilate, obliterate, falsify, or destroy any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or thing shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall, moreover, forfeit his office and be forever afterward disqualified from holding any office under the Government of the United States. 129, 35 Stat. L., p. 1112. See, also, 25 Stat., 672.)

ATTENDANCE AT COURT AND TESTIFYING AS WITNESSES.

(Sec.

Employees and experts of the bureau shall in no case appear as witnesses, either before a coroner or in court, without being properly subpoenaed.

When properly served with a subpoena from either a State or a Federal court, and fees and mileage paid if required by law, all persons must obey such subpoena and be present at the time and place designated. Employment by the Government does not exempt persons from this duty, and only the party causing the witnesses to be subpoenaed can excuse them from attendance.

When an employee or expert is subpoenaed, sworn, and called to the stand to testify, he should not give any testimony without being compelled to do so by the court, but should then and there claim. the privilege of exemption from testifying as a witness. On permission given he should state to the court that he has been instructed under the authority of the Secretary of the Interior of the Federal Government not to divulge, except in his written report to the head of the bureau, any matters discovered or any information gained in connection with his work or service in the inspection or examination of any mine. He should state fully the facts as to his employment by the Government as an employee or expert; that he has investigated the mine or place in controversy for the sole purpose of ascertaining its condition and of embodying the facts and conditions in a report either submitted or to be submitted by him to the Bureau of Mines, and for no other purpose and in no other capacity; and that he has not otherwise revealed or made public either the information obtained or the matters incorporated or to be incorporated in his report.

The witness should state frankly to the court that he does not intend to put himself in contempt of court, but that he claims the right of exemption from testifying for the protection of the Government service. He should state fully the conditions, if there be any such, by which he was permitted to examine the mine or place in controversy, and all the circumstances by reason of which he obtained knowledge of facts and was enabled to form scientific conclusions or opinions. He should also explain to the court that the experts and employees of this bureau are without authority in law to enter and inspect mines or mining property, that this can only