UNITED STATES ANNOTATED 1916 EMBRACING THE STATUTES OF THE UNITED STATES OF A GENERAL THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 64TH CONGRESS AND DECISIONS CONSTRUING AND APPLYING SAME TO APRIL 1, 1916 INCORPORATING UNDER THE HEADINGS OF THE REVISED STATUTES TORY AND HISTORICAL NOTES TEXT OF THE STATUTES COMPILED BY JOHN A. MALLORY ASSISTED BY EDITORIAL STAFF ANNOTATIONS BY MEMBers of the publishers' EDITORIAL STAFF IN 12 VOLUMES VOLUME 1 ST. PAUL WEST PUBLISHING CO. 1916 PREFACE TO THE ANNOTATED EDITION The Statute Text The text of the Statutes of the United States of a general and permanent nature is presented in this compilation with completeness and accuracy. The work of compilation was in the main prepared by the late John A. Mallory, who compiled the editions of 1901 and 1913, using as the basis of his compilation the official revisions of 1874 and 1878. The revision of 1878 was the last revision authorized or approved by Congress. The basis of the annotated edition is the compilation of 1913 with the addition of the legislation passed by Congress up to the close of the first session of the 64th Congress. After the death of Mr. Mallory, the work was continued by trained editors. familiar with Mr. Mallory's methods and who had become imbued with his traits of thoroughness and precision. The Congress of the United States is not subject to constitutional restrictions with respect to the form of its enactments. It is not required to confine its measures to a single subject, or to express the subject of legislation in a comprehensive title. It is not circumscribed by any rule in respect to the amendment of the statutes. This being true, every bill passed by Congress must be carefully examined by the compiling editors to ascertain whether it contains matter appropriate for the compilation. Matters of general legislation of a permanent nature are interspersed through appropriation acts by way of proviso and otherwise. These provisions must be carefully culled from the mass of the appropriation acts and classified to their appropriate divisions of the statutes. This work has been done with thoroughness and painstaking care and all laws of Congress of a general and permanent nature appear in the compilation, and can be found by reference to the index or the tables of statutes. The arrangement of the laws as originally presented in the official Revised Statutes of the United States of 1874 and 1878, and which has become familiar to the bench and bar and the departments of the Government has been preserved in the new compilation. This arrangement is an excellent and easily workable one, and there seems to be no occasion or necessity for the adoption of a different plan of division. Such a plan would disturb the numerical order of the sections of the official Revised Statutes and introduce confusion without serving any good purpose. While the publishers have found it necessary to renumber the sections on account of the vast amount of additional legislation enacted since the official revisions of 1874 and 1878, the section numbering in those revisions is preserved and is indicated by bracketed numbers immediately following the new section numbers. A searcher for a particular section of the Revised Statutes can turn to the provision sought for immediately by following the bracketed numbers without first resorting to the tables of statutes contained in (iii) the index volume, except as to the Judicial Code and the Criminal Code. As to these Codes, Congress, in constructing them, made a radical departure from the old Judiciary Act and the Crimes Act and changed the order and arrangement of the chapters and sections, so that it is not now possible to follow the numerical order of the Revised Statutes in these parts of the work. Where the Revised Statute section is not readily found, a reference to the appropriate table will show the section number at which the provision appears in this compilation. The existing laws relating to the territories and the Indians which were omitted from the compilation of 1901 have been included in the present compilation. Copious and complete notes have been made by the editors and inserted below the text of the statute, conveying much valuable information of vital importance in fully understanding the operation, meaning, and scope of the text. These notes contain much historical matter, and also operate as cross-references to related provisions of the statutes inserted elsewhere in the compilation. The Organic Law, including the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest territory, and the Constitution with its amendments are reprinted from the United States Revised Statutes of 1878 with the accompanying historical and explanatory notes and analytical index to the Constitution which appeared therein. For convenience of preparation of the annotated edition all of this Organic Law has been placed in the later volumes following the statute text. Notes of Decisions The text of the statutes and of the Constitution, the Ordinance of 1787, and the other Organic Law has been completely and accurately annotated. These annotations consist of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Circuit Court of Appeals, the trial courts of the United States, the Commerce Court, the Court of Customs Appeals, and the Court of Claims, as well as the opinions of the Attorney General of the United States, and the decisions of the state courts interpreting the Federal Statutes and Constitution. These decisions and opinions have been carefully edited and their various subjects indicated by black-letter lines. Where the annotations were of such magnitude as to be capable of division into 10 or more subjects or black-letter lines, an analysis of such lines has been prepared and placed at the head of the notes to facilitate ready reference. Decisions on matters which are necessarily statutory have been carried into the notes of decisions, though the statute is not expressly cited in the cases. Particular labor and pains have been put forth in annotating the Constitution. Every decision respecting the powers of Congress and the operations of the Federal Government have been carried into the annotations. Decisions in cases citing no particular article or clause of the Constitution but involving a determination necessarily based on the inherent situation arising from the form of government as created by the Constitution have been carried into the notes of decisions under the most appropriate clause of the Consti tution. The annotations have been carefully cross-referenced for the purpose of tying together decisions on statutes of a similar nature, . and cross-references have been made between the statute annotations and the annotations appearing in the Constitution. The Judicial Code and the Criminal Code have been exhaustively and elaborately annotated including the rules of the Supreme Court. and of the Circuit Courts of Appeal. The equity and admiralty practice of the United States courts have been fully developed in the annotations under section 1536 of the annotated compilation. The Equity Rules and the rules applicable to admiralty practice have been printed and fully annotated. In annotating the statutes decisions based on early enactments which have been repealed or superseded have been utilized in the annotation of later enactments on the same subject where the old decisions are useful in the interpretation of the new provision. Conspicuous examples of this are the Judicial Code, the Criminal Code, the tariff acts, the internal revenue measures, and the bankruptcy acts. The Index The excellent index accompanying the compilation of 1913 has been utilized for the present annotated edition after adding to such index. the appropriate references to new legislation. A new feature has also been introduced into this index, consisting of references to such features in the notes of decisions, as are not necessarily suggested by the text of the statutes annotated. Where the text itself suggests the subject-matter of the notes and that text has been annotated, an additional reference in the index would be unnecessary, but, where the annotations suggest matters beyond the scope of the text, it is apparent that the inclusion of these matters in the index is a very valuable feature. Still another feature introduced into the index is the inclusion of popular names of congressional acts, such as the Hepburn Act, the Carmack Amendment, etc. Tables of Statutes In the index volume will be found a complete table of Revised Statute sections followed by a reference to the corresponding section in this compilation. There is also a table giving the dates of the various acts of Congress, showing the chapter, section, volume, and page of the Statutes at Large at which they appear, together with the section of the Revised Statutes and the section of the present compilation under which the act in question has been classified. In addition to the tables above named, there is a table showing the acts. omitted from this compilation with a reference to the page of the compilation where the omission of the act is explained by an appropriate note. There is also in the index volume a list of acts designated by their popular names. This table includes repealed and superseded acts as well as statutes now in effect. |