1 Circuit court commissioners abolished after June 30, 1897. amended. Records, etc. missioners to be ap pointed. neglect to account for or pay over to the proper officer any fee received or collected by him shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. SEC. 19. That the terms of office of all commissioners of the circuit courts heretofore appointed shall expire on the thirtieth day of June, R. S., sec. 627, p. 109, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven; and such office shall on that day cease to exist, and said commissioners shall then deposit all the records and other official papers appertaining to their offices in the office of the clerk of the circuit court by which they were appointed. All proceedings pending, returnable, unexecuted, or unfinished at said date before any such commissioner shall be continued and disposed of according to District court com- law by such commissioner appointed as herein provided, as may be designated by the district court for that purpose. It shall be the duty of the district court of each judicial district to appoint such number of persons, to be known as United States commissioners, at such places in the district as may be designated by the district court, which United States commissioners shall have the same powers and perform the same duties as are now imposed upon commissioners of the circuit courts. The appointment of such United States commissioners shall be entered of record in the district courts, and notice thereof at once given by the clerk to the Attorney-General. That such United States commissioners shall hold their offices, respectively, for the term of four years, but they shall be at any time subject to removal by the district court; and no person shall at any time be a clerk or deputy clerk of a United States court and a United States commissioner without the approval of the Attorney-General: Provided, That all acts and parts of acts applicable to commissioners of the circuit courts, except as to appointment and fees, shall be applicable to United States commissioners appointed Internal revenue ar- under this Act. Warrants of arrest for violations of internal-revenue laws may be issued by United States commissioners upon the sworn complaint of a United States district attorney, assistant United States district attorney, collector or deputy collector of internal revenue, or revenue agent or private citizen, but no such warrant of arrest shall be issued upon the sworn complaint of a private citizen unless first approved in writing by a United States district attorney. That United States commissioners and all clerks of United States courts are hereby authorized to administer oaths. Term, etc. Proviso. To supersede circuit courts commissioners. rests. Oaths. Persons disqualified for commissioners. Receivers. Fees allowed com. missioners. SEC. 20. That no marshal or deputy marshal, attorney or assistant attorney of any district, jury commissioner, clerk of marshal, no bailiff, crier, juror, janitor of any Government building, nor any civil or military employee of the Government, except as in this Act provided, and no clerk or employee of any United States justice or judge shall have, hold, or exercise the duties of the United States commissioner. And it shall not be lawful to appoint any of the officers named in this section receiver, or receivers in any case or cases now pending or that may be hereafter brought in the courts of the United States. SEC. 21. That each United States commissioner shall be entitled to the following-named fees, and none other: Drawing a complaint, with oath and jurat to same, fifty cents; copy of complaint, with certificate to same, thirty cents; issuing warrant of arrest, seventy-five cents; issuing a commitment and making copy of same, one dollar; entering a return, fifteen cents; issuing subpoena or subpoenas in any one case, with five cents for each necessary witness in addition to the first, twentyfive cents; drawing a bond of defendant and sureties, taking acknowledgment of same and justification of sureties, seventy-five cents; for administering an oath (except to witness as to attendance and travel), ten cents; recognizance of all witnesses in a case, when the defendant or defendants are held for court, fifty cents; transcripts of proceedings, when required by order of court and transmission of original papers to court, sixty cents; copy of warrant of arrest, with certificate to same, Provisos Per diem allowance. Restriction. No per diem allow when defendant is held for court, and the original papers are not sent to court, forty cents; order in duplicate to pay all witnesses in a case: For first witness, thirty cents, and for each additional witness, five cents, and for oath to each witness as to attendance and travel, five cents; for hearing and deciding on criminal charges and reducing the testimony to writing when required by law or order of court, five dollars a day for the time necessarily employed: Provided, That not more than one per diem shall be allowed in a case, unless the account shall show that the hearing could not be completed in one day, when one additional per diem may be specially approved and allowed by the court. Provided further, That not more than one per diem shall be allowed for any one day: Provided further, That no per diem shall ance for taking bond, be allowed for taking a bond or recognizance and passing on the suf- etc. ficiency of the bond or recognizance and the sureties thereon when the bond or recognizance was taken after the defendant had been committed to prison upon a final commitment, or has given bond or been recognized for his appearance at court, or when the defendant has been arrested on a capias or beuch warrant, or was in custody under any process or order of a court of record. For the examination and certif icate in cases of application for discharge of poor convicts imprisoned for nonpayment of fine or fine and costs, and ali services connected therewith, three dollars; for attending to a reference in a litigated matter, in a civil cause at law, in equity, or in admiralty, in pursuance of an order of the court, three dollars a day; for taking and certifying depositions to file in civil cases, ten cents for each folio; for each copy of the same furnished to a party on request, ten cents for each folio; for issuing any warrant under the tenth article of the treaty of August ninth, eighteen hundred and forty-two, between the United States and the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, against any parties charged with any crime or offense set forth in said article, two dollars; for issuing any warrant under the provision of the convention for the surrender of criminals between the United States and the King of the French, concluded at Washington, November ninth, eighteen hundred and forty-three, two dollars; for hearing and deciding upon the case of any person charged with any crime or offense, and arrested under the provisions of said treaty or of said convention, five dollars a day for the time necessarily employed. Such commissioners shall keep a complete record of all proceedings before them in criminal cases, in a well bound book, which record book shall be delivered to and preserved by the clerk of the district court for such district on the death, resignation, removal, or expiration of term of the commissioner, for which record the commissioner shall receive no compensation. Record book to be kept. sation to clerks of SEC. 22. That it shall be the duty of the Attorney-General of the Report on compen United States to make an investigation as respects the compensation courts. to be paid, by salary or otherwise, to clerks of United States circuit and district courts; and he shall report on the first day of the next session of the present Congress a plan for fixing such compensation for the clerks of the several courts of the United States as he may deem just, and he shall also recommend with his report such provisions as may to him seem proper touching their appointment and the performance of their duties. Annual report of Attorney-General. required. SEC. 23. The Attorney-General shall, in his annual report to Congress each year, include a statement in detail showing for the preceding Detailed statement fiscal year the number of assistant district attorneys employed, the salaries of each; the number of clerical assistants employed for each district attorney, the salaries of each; the amount expended for necessary subsistence, and actual and necessary traveling expenses of each district attorney and his assistants; the number of office deputies and clerical assistants employed for each marshal, the salaries paid to each; the amount expended for necessarv subsistence and actual and necessary traveling expenses of each marshal and his office deputies, and Repeal provisions. Alaska. Post, p. 577. the number of field deputy marshals employed by each marshal and the amount of fees earned by and the compensation paid to each of them out of such fees. SEC. 24. That all Acts and portions of Acts inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed: Provided, That none of the provisions of sec. Not applicable to Indian Territory and tions six to twenty-three, both inclusive, of this Act shall apply to the Indian Territory or Territory of Alaska, and said sections shall take effect and be in force on and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, except as in said sections otherwise specially prooffices vided: Provided further, That none of the provisions of sections six, trict of Columbia not eight or fifteen of this Act shall apply to the office of the United States District Attorney and his assistants for the southern district of New York, or for the District of Columbia. Attorneys' New York and Dis included. Relief and protection of American seamen. Ante, p. 38. SEC. 25. That the appropriation for relief and protection of Ameri Extended to Alaska. can seamen, which was made in the Act entitled "An Act making appropriations for the diplomatic and consular service for the fiscal year June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven," approved February twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and which appears in the printed copy of said Act on page twelve, be amended so that it will read: RELIEF AND PROTECTION OF AMERICAN SEAMEN. Relief and protection of American seamen in foreign countries and ship wrecked American seamen in the Territory of Alaska, fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary. Approved, May 28, 1896. May 28, 1896. Minnesota Central CHAP. 253-An Act To authorize the construction of a bridge across the Red River of the North. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United North Dakota and States of America in Congress assembled, That the North Dakota and Railway Company Minnesota Central Railway Company, a corporation organized, created, may bridge Red River and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Minnesota, of the North. Location. be, and is hereby, authorized to construct, operate, and maintain a bridge and approaches thereto across the Red River of the North, at a point to be selected by said company and suitable to the interests of navigation, in township one hundred and forty-eight north of range forty-nine west of the fifth principal meridian. Said bridge shall be constructed to proRailway, etc., bridge. vide for the passage of railway trains, and, at the option of said corporation, may be so constructed as to provide for the passage of wagons and vehicles of all kinds, animals, and foot passengers, for such reasonable rates of toll as may be approved by the Secretary of War. Toll. Secretary of War to approve plans, etc. Changes. SEC. 2. That the bridge herein authorized shall be built and located under and in accordance with such regulations for the security of navi gation as the Secretary of War shall prescribe; and to secure that object the said company shall submit to the Secretary of War for his exami nation and approval drawings showing the plan and location of said bridge, said drawings to give, for the space of one-half mile above and one-half mile below the proposed location, the topography of the banks of the river, the shore lines at high and low water, the direction and strength of the current at all stages, soundings accurately showing the bed of the stream, and such other information as may be required for a full and satisfactory understanding of the subject; and until the plan and location of the bridge are approved by the Secretary of War the bridge shall not be commenced or built; and any change in the plans of said bridge, either before or after construction, shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of War; and any change in said bridge during or after construction which the Secretary of War may require in the interest of navigation shall be made by the said company at its own expense. Unobstructed navi gation. Drawbridge. SEC. 3. That the said bridge shall at all times be so kept and managed as to offer reasonable and proper means for the passage of vessels and other craft through or under said structure; and if said bridge be built as a drawbridge the draw shall be opened promptly upon reasonable signal for the passage of boats or other craft, and whatever kind of bridge is constructed the said company shall maintain at its own expense, from sunset to sunrise, such lights or other signals on said Lights, etc. bridge as the Light-House Board shall prescribe. SEC. 4. That any bridge built under this Act and subject to its limitations shall be a lawful structure and shall be recognized and known as a post route, upon which also no higher charge shall be made for the transmission over the same of the mails, the troops and munitions of war of the United States, or passengers or freight over said bridge, than the rate per mile paid for the transportation over the railroads or public highways leading to said bridge, and it shall enjoy the rights and privileges of other post roads of the United States. And equal privileges in the use of said bridge shall be granted to all telegraph and telephone companies, and the United States shall have the right of way across said bridge and its approaches for said postal-telegraph purposes. SEC. 5. That all railroad companies desiring the use of said bridge and its approaches shall have and be entitled to equal rights and privileges relative to the passage of trains over the same upon payment of a reasonable compensation for such use; and in case the owner or owners of said bridge and the several railroad companies, or any of them, desiring such use shall fail to agree upon the sum or sums to be paid, or upon rules and conditions to which each shall conform in using said bridge and approaches, all matters at issue between them shall be decided by the Secretary of War upon a hearing of the allegations and proofs of the parties Lawful structure and post route. Postal telegraph. Use by other compa nies. Compensation. SEC. 6. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is hereby Amendment. expressly reserved. SEC. 7. That this Act shall be null and void if actual construction of the bridge herein authorized be not commenced within one year and completed within three years from the date hereof. Approved, May 28, 1896. Commencement and completion. CHAP. 254.-An Act To amend an Act entitled "An Act to incorporate the Capital Railway Company," approved March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Act entitled "An Act to incorporate the Capital Railway Company," approved March second, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, be, and the same is hereby, amended by striking out in the first section all after the words "have a common seal," to the end of the section, and inserting the following: "Said corporation is hereby authorized to construct and lay down and complete a single or double track street railway in the District of Columbia, and run cars thereon for carrying passengers by and along the following route: Beginning at a point on the District line near the Potomac River southeast of Shepherd's Ferry, thence by such route as shall be approved by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to the south side of the Eastern Branch or Anacostia River at the Navy-Yard bridge; thence across said bridge to Eleventh street east; thence north on Eleventh street east to M street south; thence west on M street to a point to be located by the District Commissioners near Eighth street east, connecting with the lines of the Capital Traction Company, also continuing from said Eleventh and M streets north on Eleventh street to the south building line of East Capitol street, and returning over the same route to the point of beginning. Also, beginning at the eastern end of the NavyYard bridge, easterly along Monroe and Harrison streets and Good Hope road, and from Good Hope road to the District line, over such route as May 28, 1896. District of Columbia. Capital Railway Vol. 28, p. 721. Change of route. May cross Navy. Yard bridge. Provisos. Construction in Washington. completion. Motive power. the District Commissioners shall approve, and returning over the same route to the point of beginning: Provided, That within the city of Washington a double-track railway shall be constructed: Provided further, Commencement and That the line of said railway company shall be commenced within three months and completed within one year from the date of the passage of this Act, with the exception mentioned in section four of this Act." SEC. 2. That the motive power to be used on the lines in this Act specified shall be the underground electric system within the city of Washington and the overhead trolley system outside the city of Washington. Crossing the bridge. For crossing the Navy-Yard bridge the said company may, in the discretion of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, use either horse power or the underground electric system to propel its cars; and the said company shall have the privilege of carrying an electric current across the said Navy-Yard bridge in such manner as the said Commissioners of the District of Columbia shall prescribe. Transfers. Construction of portions of road. Proviso. SEC. 3. That the Capital Railway Company, the Metropolitan Railroad Company, and the Capital Traction Company are hereby required to issue free transfers at the point of intersection of their respective lines, so that for the payment of one fare a passenger on either road shall have the privilege of riding over the lines of both. SEC. 4. That the portions of the company's route from Congress or Pencote Heights to Shepherd's Landing and the Harrison street branch east to the District line shall be completed within two years from the passage of this Act: Provided, That failure to complete the said porRepeal as to portions tions of the routes as provided for in this section, and, also, failure to complete the extension on Eleventh street east, shall operate to repeal the authority to build said portions, and shall not repeal the charter of said company. not completed. Amendment, etc. May 28, 1896. Shipping. Vessels of the United R. S., sec. 4131, p. 795, amended. p. 53. SEC. 5. That Congress reserves the right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act. Approved, May 28, 1896. CHAP. 255.-An Act To amend section forty-one hundred and thirty-one of the Revised Statutes of the United States, to improve the merchant-marine engineer service and thereby also to increase the efficiency of the Naval Reserve, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section forty-one hundred and thirty-one of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 4131. Vessels registered pursuant to law and no others, except such as shall be duly qualified according to law for carrying on the Coasting or fishing trade, shall be deemed vessels of the United States, and entitled to the benefits and privileges appertaining to such vessels; but no such vessel shall enjoy such benefits and privileges longer than it shall continue to be wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States or a corporation created under the laws of any of the States thereof, and be commanded by a citizen of the United States. All officers to be cit And all the officers of vessels of the United States who shall have izens. charge of a watch, including pilots, shall in all cases be citizens of the United States. The word "officers" shall include the chief engineer and each assistant engineer in charge of a watch on vessels propelled wholly or in part by steam; and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, no person shall be qualified to hold a license as a commander or watch officer of a merchant vessel of the United States who is not a native-born citizen, or whose naturalization as a citizen shall not have been fully completed." Licenses to be for five years. Proviso. Renewal when abroad. SEC. 2. That all licenses issued to such officers shall be for a term of five years, but the holder of a license may have the same renewed for another five years at any time before its expiration: Provided, however, That any officer holding a license, and who is engaged in a service which necessitates his continuous absence from the United States, may make |