DECISIONS OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY.

[Digests prepared in the office of the Judge Advocate General.}

CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES: Temporary promotions.

The first deck officer of an Army transport was granted · leave of absence without pay and it was proposed to fill the "vacancy" by temporary promotions from the lower grades. Section 12 of the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act of August 1, 1914, provides:

"That it shall not be lawful hereafter to pay to any person, employed in the service of the United States under any general or lump sum appropriation, any sum additional to the regular compensation received for or attached to any employment held prior to an appointment or designation as acting for or instead of an occupant of any other office of employment. This provision shall not be construed as prohibiting regular and permanent appointments by promotion from lower to higher grades of employments."

Held, that the first officer while in the status of absence on leave without pay was still in the transport service and that so long as he remained in that status a "temporary promotion" of the second officer could not be a promotion to a vacancy, but in effect a designation of the second officer as acting first officer, and that as the object sought was to give the lower officer the higher pay, the prohibition of the statute would apply. Held further, that temporary promotions are not prohibited by the statute where vacancies exist.

(Comp. Geo. E. Downey, Aug. 12, 1915.)

TRANSPORTATION: Discharge of enlisted man.

A soldier who had enlisted at Fort Logan H. Roots, Ark., was discharged at Galveston, Tex. The official distance between the place of enlistment and the place of discharge, for purposes of transportation, was found to be 519 miles. The soldier requested transportation to Mobile, Ala., or as far in that direction as his 519 miles entitled him to travel. The distance to Mobile, by the Official Table of Distances, was found to be 551 miles, or 32 miles farther than from Galveston to Fort Logan H. Roots. By a short-line, however, computed in part from the Railway Guide, the distance

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to Mobile was found to be 496 miles, and the soldier was furnished transportation over the shorter route to Mobile, at a cost of $15.45. The cost of transportation to Little Rock, Ark., the nearest station to the place of enlistment, would not have exceeded $10.43, and the auditor disallowed $5.02 in the settlement of accounts.

Held, that the distance for which the transportation was furnished (496 miles) did not exceed the distance (519 miles) from the place of the soldier's discharge to the place of his enlistment (37 Stat. 576), and that as transportation not exceeding such distance was required to be furnished, without regard to the cost (Bul. 1, W. D., 1913, page 33), the entire sum of $15.45 was properly disbursed therefor.

(Comp. Geo. E. Downey, Aug. 20, 1915.)

TRANSPORTATION: Immigrant rates on troop property and equipment.

In the settlement of the accounts of a railway company for transportation of 15,121 pounds of equipage and troop property from Wingate, N. Mex., to Alburque, N. Mex., and 114,789 pounds (4 cars) from Fort Bliss, Tex., to Wingate, N. Mex., the Auditor for the War Department applied the rate authorized for immigrant movables and household goods. The railroad company contended that the immigrant rate was not applicable and that settlement should be made on the basis of the rates applicable for the specific items embraced in the shipment, for the reason, among others, that "the immigrant movables rate is applicable to shipment of persons moving into a new country for the purpose of settling and development, and the purpose of a movement of troop property and military stores can not be placed in the same class as that of an intended settler."

Held, that the shipment consisted of articles which, had they belonged to private individuals, would have been entitled to the rate for immigrant movables and household goods; that because they belonged to, or were in the custody of, the Government was no reason for any higher transportation charges thereon; that it is established by rulings of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and of the courts, that the rate applicable for shipment is not dependent upon the owner of the goods or the purpose for which the articles are to be used, but of the class of articles embraced in the shipment. Action of the Auditor affirmed.

(Comp. Geo. E. Downey, Aug. 11, 1915.)

BULLETIN
No. 33. S

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, September 27, 1915.

I.1. In accordance with the provisions of Paragraph II, General Orders, No. 166, War Department, 1911, as amended, the following-named officers and enlisted specialists of the Coast Artillery Militia are announced as having satisfactorily passed examinations under the provisions of the above-mentioned order on the dates and in the courses indicated after their respective names: