not his father, is the head of the household and if his father and sister look to him for support and are actually dependent upon him for support, and he himself is otherwise lawfully entitled to use free transportation, they also may lawfully be given free passes.

It may be well to add that your inquiry and this reply were presented to the Commission in conference to-day and what I have here said was approved.

NOVEMBER 5, 1907.

DEAR SIR: The Commission is in receipt of your letter of the 22d ultimo, inclosing copy of contract into which you have entered with the (railway company).

Section 1 of the act to regulate commerce, provides that the prohibition against the issuance of free passes, free transportation, or free tickets, shall not include bona fide and actual employees of common carriers engaged in interstate commerce. Therefore if you came within that class there could be no question of the right of the (road) to furnish you with a pass; but it would have no right to furnish you with such free pass or free transportation unless you were actually an employee or came within one of the classes excepted from the prohibition of the first section. The correspondence which has passed between the Commission and yourself has been submitted to the Commission as a whole, and it is its conclusion that the terms of the contract, copy of which you submitted, do not present a situation or condition under which the (carrier) may lawfully grant you free transportation on account of your having a contract with it. The Commission holds that you are not, under that contract, an employee of the (railway).

DECEMBER 7, 1907.

DEAR SIR: Referring to your letter of September 16, and expressing myself as briefly as possible because of the pressure of other matters, I beg to say that the Commission is of the opinion that a minister of religion who ceases actively to follow his profession and becomes the president of an educational institution is no more entitled to receive and use free transportation than would be a minister who, while retaining his title and right to administer the sacraments of his church, abandons that career and engages in some other professional or commercial pursuit.

The view of the Commission is that a similar answer must be made to your inquiry covering free transportation to Sisters of Charity, superintending or teaching in educational institutions, at which tuition is charged.

The fact that a person may freely give his or her services to a public institution does not necessarily bring that person within the excepted classes enumerated in the act. The character of the institution is the determining factor. If the institution itself is of the nature indicated in the act, those persons who are engaged in its service, whether compensated for their labors or not, are entitled to use free transportation. On the other hand, even though they are not compensated for their labors, persons in the service of institutions that are not charitable or eleemosynary in the sense in which those words are used in the act are not entitled to use free transportation.

DECEMBER 14, 1907.

DEAR SIR: Yours of the 10th instant, in reference to issuance of time passes in favor of banana messengers received. In the view of the Commission the provisions of the law authorizing the issuance of passes to necessary care takers of live stock, poultry, and fruit limits the issuance of such passes to actual and necessary care takers who actually accompany such shipments while they are in transit. The exception is also limited to the transportation necessary for such care taker to actually accompany the shipment and to return to the place from which he started, or to start from the destination of the shipment, go to where he meets or takes charge of it, and return to such destination. In our opinion the law does not permit the issuance of time or annual passes to such care takers, because the use of such passes can not be controlled and limited within the provisions of the act. We do not believe it is at all lawful to issue time or annual passes to so-called banana messengers or care takers of bananas; and in addition to the above reasons, from the information we have it does not ap

pear that such banana messengers act as actual care takers of shipments of bananas. Generally speaking, they are, according to the information we have, agents sent out to determine the price and purchase bananas, or arrange for the routing, diversion, or reconsignment of bananas, dependent largely upon the conditions of the fruit. We never have had, nor have we now, information to the effect that it is necessary for men to ride in the car with the bananas or in the train in which the bananas are transported; but if it is necessary for a care taker to go with the shipment of bananas on the car in which the shipment is hauled, and actually care for the fruit by opening the ventilators or performing other service, your company has an undoubted right to issue transportation for that trip, and while such messenger is so employed, but your right does not extend beyond that limit. It is the judgment of the Commission that the practice which you have followed is wholly improper.

JANUARY 16, 1908.

DEAR SIR: Your communication of the 10th and your letter of previous date, in which you inquire whether carriers may lawfully grant free transportation to the car "Good News" and to yourself and other officers of the National Florence Crittenton Mission who go with it around the country in connection with that work, came before my colleagues in conference yesterday.

I found that they had no lack of sympathy for your work and it seemed to be their general view, as the facts are stated by you, that you are engaged in a charitable mission as the word "charitable" is used in that part of section 1 of the act that relates to free transportation. But the Commission in this case is unwilling, as it has been in many other cases, to decide and officially announce that you are entitled to free transportation on the ground that your work is of a charitable nature. This I explained in my previous letter to you. Whether you are engaged in charitable work is a question that the railroad companies can properly decide for themselves upon their own investigation, being responsible, of course, under the law if the facts do not bear out their conclusions. So far as the Commission is concerned it sees nothing in your work, as you explain it, that would justify it in saying that you are not entitled to free transportation under section 1 of the law.

I have been directed by the Commission to make this response to your inquiry, and you are at liberty to make use of it in your conference with the railroad companies.

JANUARY 16, 1908.

DEAR SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2d, with the inclosures, touching the matter of the right of the Bureau of Insular Affairs to contract for the Philippine government for the transportation at special through rates by rail and Pacific Ocean steamers between the United States and Manila of (a) employees of the insular department whose fares are paid by the Government and (b) employees, members of their families, students, and others, whose fares are not actually paid by the Government although settled for by the Government with the transportation company; and to say that I brought the matter to the attention of my colleagues in conference yesterday, where it was fully considered.

In reply I beg to advise you that the view of your counsel is in accord with the views entertained by the Commission. We see no provision of law under which special through rates may be accorded to either of the two classes of persons that you describe. Under no theory of construction could either class be said to come within the provisions of that part of section 1 that relates to free transportation. And as you are well aware section 22 of the act, so far as it touches the right of the United States, State, or municipal governments to enjoy free or reduced rates, is confined under its express terms to the carriage, storage, or handling of property.

While the Commission is not lacking in sympathy with the object sought to be accomplished by the Philippine government and the Bureau of Insular Affairs we see no way under the law by which the carriers may lawfully accord special privileges in the transportation of such persons. So far as the express terms of the law are concerned, the Philippine government can enjoy no greater rights than a State government would be if it made a similar request.

I see no further suggestion that can be made in this connection.

DEMOGRAPHY OF INVITATION TO HOLD SESSION AT WASHINGTON IN 1910.

MESSAGE

FROM THE

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

TRANSMITTING

A REPORT BY THE ACTING SECRETARY OF STATE WITH A NOTE FROM THE IMPERIAL GERMAN AMBASSADOR COMMUNICATING THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON HYGIENE AND DEMOGRAPHY OF THE INVITATION TO HOLD ITS NEXT SESSION AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON IN 1910.

FEBRUARY 10, 1908.-Read; referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report by the Acting Secretary of State covering a note from the Imperial German ambassador by which is communicated the acceptance by the International Congress on Hygiene and Demography of the invitation extended to it in pursuance of the joint resolution of Congress approved February 26, 1907, to hold its next session at the city of Washington in 1910.

THE WHITE HOUSE, February 10, 1908.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

The PRESIDENT:

The undersigned, the Acting Secretary of State, has the honor to lay before the President, with a view to its transmission to the Congress, a translation of a note from the German ambassador communicating to the Government of the United States the thanks of the International Congress on Hygiene and Demography for, and its

acceptance of, the invitation to hold its next session at the city of Washington in 1910, which was extended to it in pursuance of the joint resolution of Congress approved February 26, 1907, which reads as follows:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized and requested to extend an invitation to the Twelfth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, held at Berlin in nineteen hundred and seven, to hold its thirteenth congress in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, anno Domini nineteen hundred and nine or nineteen hundred and ten.

The Fourteenth International Congress for Hygiene and Demography adopted a regular resolution in its concluding session on September 28 last to accept with thanks the invitation extended by President Roosevelt through the official American delegates and to hold the Fifteen International Congress for Hygiene and Demography in 1910 at Washington.

In compliance with a request of the permanent committee of the Congress for Hygiene and Demography, I have the honor by instruction to request your excellency to communicate to the United States Government the thanks of the congress for the invitation and to state to it that the congress has accepted the invitation.

I should be greatly obliged for information as to the action taken, and avail myself of this opportunity to renew the assurances of my most distinguished consideration.

His Excellency Mr. ELIHU ROOT,

Secretary of State.
O

STERNBURG.

STATISTICS ON BANKING AND CURRENCY.

Mr. ALDRICH presented the following

STATISTICS ON BANKING AND CURRENCY IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES, COMPILED FOR THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE IN CONNECTION WITH SENATE BILL 3023, TO AMEND THE NATIONAL BANKING LAWS.

FEBRUARY 11, 1908.-Ordered to be printed.

MONEY IN THE UNITED STATES.

Distribution of money in the United States, showing the amount in the Treasury as assets, in reporting banks and elsewhere, from June 30, 1892, to 1907, is stated in the following table: