and, if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, for such injury or death resulting in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, road bed, works, boats, wharves, or other equipment.

SEC. 3. That in all actions hereafter brought against any such common carrier by railroad under or by virtue of any of the provisions of this Act to recover damages for personal injuries to an employee, or where such injuries have resulted in his death, the fact that the employee may have been guilty of contributory negligence shall not bar a recovery, but the damages shall be diminished by the jury in proportion to the amount of negligence attributable to such employee: Provided, That no such employee who may be injured or killed shall be held to have been guilty of contributory negligence in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee.

SEC. 4. That in any action brought against any common carrier under or by virtue of any of the provisions of this Act to recover damages for injuries to, or the death of, any of its employees, such employee shall not be held to have assumed the risks of his employment in any case where the violation by such common carrier of any statute enacted for the safety of employees contributed to the injury or death of such employee.

SEC. 5. That any contract, rule, regulation, or device whatsoever, the purpose or intent of which shall be to enable any common carrier to exempt itself from any liability created by this Act, shall to that extent be void: Provided, That in any action brought against any such common carrier under or by virtue of any of the provisions of this Act, such common carrier may set off therein any sum it has contributed or paid to any insurance, relief benefit, or indemnity that may have been paid to the injured employee or the person entitled thereto on account of the injury or death for which said action was brought.

SEC. 6. That no action shall be maintained under this Act unless commenced within two years from the day the cause of action accrued. 63

SEC. 7. That the term "common carrier" as used in this Act shall include the receiver or receivers or other persons or corporations charged with the duty of the management and operation of the business of a common carrier.

SEC. 8. That nothing in this Act shall be held to limit the duty or liability of common carriers or to impair the rights of their employees under any other Act or Acts of Congress, or to affect the prosecution of any pending proceeding or right of action under the Act of Congress entitled "An Act relating to liability of common carriers in the District of Columbia and Territories and to common carriers engaged in commerce between the States and between the States and foreign nations to their employees," approved June eleventh, nineteen hundred and six. Approved, April 22, 1908. [35 Stat., 65.]

An Act Making appropriations for the Diplomatic and Consular Service for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and nine.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, and they are hereby, severally appropriated, in full compensation for the Diplomatic and Consular Service for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and nine, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the objects hereinafter expressed, namely:

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RELIEF AND PROTECTION OF AMERICAN SEAMEN.

Relief and protection of American seamen in foreign countries, and shipwrecked American seamen in the Territory of Alaska, in the Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, the Panama Canal Zone, and the Philippine Islands, thirty thousand dollars.

FOREIGN HOSPITALS AT PANAMA.

Annual contributions toward the support of the foreign hospitals at Panama, five hundred dollars, to be paid by the Secretary of State upon the assurance that suffering seamen and citizens of the United States will be admitted to the privileges of said hospitals.

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Approved, May 21, 1908. [35 Stat., 181, 182.]

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An Act Making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and nine, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated, for the objects hereinafter expressed, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and nine, namely:

To continue the construction of the Isthmian Canal, to be expended under the direction of the President in accordance with an Act entitled "An Act to provide for the construction of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans," approved June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and two;

First. For salaries of officers and employees of the Isthmian Canal Commission, including assistant purchasing and shipping agents, and all other employees in the United States, one hundred and forty-nine thousand dollars;

Second. For incidental expenses, including rents, cable and telegraph service, supplies, stationery and printing, and actual necessary traveling expenses in the United States (including rent of the Panama Canal building in the District of Columbia, seven thousand five hundred dollars, and text-books and books of reference, one thousand dollars, and additional compensation to the Auditor for the War Department for extra services in auditing accounts of the Isthmian Canal, one thousand dollars), twenty-seven thousand dollars, and the unexpended balances of appropriations for these objects available June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight; Third. For pay of members of the Commission and officers and employees on the Isthmus other than skilled and unskilled labor, including civil engineers, superintendents, instrumentmen, transitmen, levelmen, rodmen, draftsmen, timekeepers, mechanical and electrical engineers, supervisors, clerks, accountants, stenographers, storekeepers, messengers, office boys, foremen and subforemen, watchmen, wagon masters, stewards, hospital dispensers, internes, nurses, and attendants, including those necessarily and temporarily detailed for duty away from the Isthmus, for the departments of construction and engineering, disbursing, examination of accounts, and labor, quarters and subsistence, and expenses incident to conducting hearings and examining estimates for appropriations on the Isthmus, three million four hundred thousand dollars;

Fourth. For skilled and unskilled labor on the Isthmus, including engineers, conductors, firemen, brakemen, electricians, teamsters, cranesmen, machinists, blacksmiths, and other artisans, and their helpers, janitors, sailors, cooks, waiters, and dairymen, for the departments of construction and engineering, disbursing, examination of accounts, and labor, quarters and subsistence, eight million four hundred thousand dollars;

Fifth. For purchase and delivery of material, supplies, and equipment, including cost of inspecting material and of paying traveling expenses incident thereto, whether on the Isthmus or elsewhere, and such other expenses not in the United States as the Commission deems necessary to best promote the construction of the Isthmian canal, for the departments of construction and engineering, disbursing, examination of accounts, and labor, quarters and subsistence, and to enable the Secretary of War to purchase for the Panama Railroad Company two steamships of American register each to be of not less than nine thousand gross registered tonnage and at a cost of not to exceed one million five hundred and fifty thousand dollars, said ships to be controlled and operated by said Panama Railroad Company in like

manner as other ships of said Company including the transportation of supplies, equipment and material for use in the construction of the Panama Canal and the transportation of officers and employees of the Panama Canal Commission: Provided, That when said ships are no longer required for use as aforesaid in the transportation of supplies, equipment and material for the construction of the Panama Canal the same shall be transferred to the Secretary of the Navy for use as colliers or other auxiliary vessels belonging to the Navy, twelve million eight hundred thousand dollars;

Sixth. To continue the equipment and construction of the Panama Railroad, to be disbursed directly under the Isthmian Canal Commission, one million one hundred thousand dollars; no part of said sum shall be expended until the obligation of the Panama Railroad Company for the full amount thereof and drawing four per centum interest payable to the United States shall have been delivered to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States and by him accepted;

Seventh. For miscellaneous expenditures, cable and telegraph service, stationery and printing, and traveling and incidental expenses on the Isthmus, for the departments of construction and engineering, disbursing, examination of accounts, and labor, quarters and subsistence, four hundred thousand dollars;

Eighth. For pay of officers and employees other than skilled and unskilled labor in the service of the government of the Canal Zone, two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars and the unexpended balances of appropriations for these objects available June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight;

Ninth. For skilled and unskilled labor in the service of the government of the Canal Zone, sixteen thousand dollars and the unexpended balances of appropriations for these objects June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight;

Tenth. For material, supplies, equipment, new buildings, and contingent expenses for account of the government of the Canal Zone, the unexpended balances of appropriations for these objects June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight;

Eleventh. For pay of officers and employees other than skilled and unskilled labor engaged in the sanitation department on the Isthmus, seven hundred thousand dollars and the unexpended balances of appropriations for these objects June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight;

Twelfth. For skilled and unskilled labor engaged in the sanitation department on the Isthmus of Panama, five hundred thousand dollars;

Thirteenth. For material, supplies, equipment, new buildings, and contingent expenses of the sanitation department on the Isthmus, three hundred and seventyfive thousand dollars, and the unexpended balances of appropriations for these objects June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight;

Fourteenth. For the construction of the new Panama Railroad to be disbursed directly under the Isthmian Canal Commission one million and eighty-five thousand dollars;

In all, twenty-nine million one hundred and seventy-seven thousand dollars, the same to be available until expended: Provided, That all expenditures from the appropriation herein and hereinafter made for the Isthmian Canal shall be paid from, or reimbursed to the Treasury of the United States out of, the proceeds of the sale of the bonds authorized in section eight of the Act approved June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and two.

To pay Pembroke B. Banton, of Waterloo, Iowa, to compensate him for injuries received while in the employment of the Government on the Isthmian Canal, ten thousand dollars.

Ten per centum of the foregoing amounts shall be available interchangeably for expenditure on objects named; but not more than ten per centum shall be added to any one item of the appropriation: Provided, however, That any surplus in the appropriations for any of the above classified heads may be used for expenditure under any of the classified appropriations for the department of construction and engineering. SEC. 2. The foregoing appropriations shall be available to reimburse the Panama Railroad Company for marine losses, or for losses due to destruction of or damage to its plant, equipment, or commissary supplies by fire: Provided, however, That upon this appropriation becoming effective the Panama Railroad Company shall cease to carry insurance against loss from causes covered by this appropriation.

SEC. 3. All funds hereafter collected by the government of the Canal Zone from rentals of public lands and buildings in the Canal Zone and the cities of Panama and Colon, and from the Zone postal service, and from court fees, and collected or raised by taxation in whatever form under the laws of the government of the Canal Zone, are hereby appropriated until and including June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and nine, as follows: The revenues derived from the postal service to the mainte

nance of that service; the remaining revenues, after setting aside a miscellaneous and contingent fund of ten thousand dollars, to the maintenance of the public school system in the Zone; to the construction and maintenance of public improvements within the Zone; to the maintenance of the administrative districts, including payment of salaries and wages incident thereto; to the maintenance of Canal Zone charity patients in the hospitals of the Isthmian Cañal Commission, and to the maintenance of administrative district prisoners. A detailed and classified statement of all receipts and expenditures without the duplication of items under this paragraph shall be submitted to Congress after the close of the fiscal year nineteen hundred and nine. SEC. 4. All sums appropriated hereunder or that may hereafter be appropriated for the construction of the Isthmian Canal shall be available for the payment of the direct obligations of the Canal Commission, or of the Commission's obligations under any contract or contracts that may hereafter be entered into for the construction of the Isthmian Canal.

SEC. 5. All funds that hereafter may be derived from customs duties collected upon property of the United States imported from the Canal Zone are hereby reappropriated for the construction of the Isthmian Canal and may be expended under any of the classified appropriations for the department of construction and engineering.

SEC. 6. All funds realized during the fiscal year nineteen hundred and nine by the Isthmian Canal Commission from the performance of services by the Commission, or from the sale of materials and supplies upon the Isthmus under the custody and control of the Commission, are hereby reappropriated for expenditure under any of the foregoing classified appropriations for the department of construction and engineering, and a full and separate report in detail of all transactions hereunder shall be made to Congress.

SEC. 7. The officers of the Isthmian Canal Commission are relieved from liability to account for eleven thousand two hundred and five dollars and fifty-three cents, for materials and supplies furnished to the sufferers by the Jamaican earthquake of January fourteenth, nineteen hundred and seven.

Approved, May 27, 1908. [35 Stat., 384, 387.]

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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. 6

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That when, on or after August first, nineteen hundred and eight, any person employed by the United States as an artisan or laborer in any of its manufacturing establishments, arsenals, or navy yards, or in the construction of river and harbor or fortification work or in hazardous employment on construction work in the reclamation of arid lands or the management and control of the same, or in hazardous employment under the Isthmian Canal Commission, is injured in the course of such employment, such employee shall be entitled to receive for one year thereafter, unless such employee, in the opinion of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, be sooner able to resume work, the same pay as if he continued to be employed, such payment to be made under such regulations as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor may prescribe: Provided, That no compensation shall be paid under this Act where the injury is due to the negligence or misconduct of the employee injured, nor unless said injury shall continue for more than fifteen days. All questions of negligence or misconduct shall be determined by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. SEC. 2. That if any artisan or laborer so employed shall die during the said year by reason of such injury received in the course of such employment, leaving a widow, or a child or children under sixteen years of age, or a dependent parent, such widow and and child or children and dependent parent shall be entitled to receive, in such portions and under such regulations as the Secretary of Commerce and Labor may prescribe,

64 Sec. 5 of the sundry civil bill of 1912, p. 64, extends provisions of this act to "all employees under the Isthmian Canal Commission," and provides for settlement of injury and death claims by the Chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission. The act of Feb. 24, 1909, p. 50, allowed the Isthmian Canal Commission to grant injury leave not exceeding 30 days per annum to all employees of the Commission whether engaged in hazardous employment, or otherwise. The Panama Canal Act, par. 5 of sec. 5, p. 82, authorizes the President to provide method for adjusting injury claims, after which the two acts cited will not apply. See notes under Panama Canal Act.

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the same amount, for the remainder of the said year, that said artisan or laborer would be entitled to receive as pay if such employee were alive and continued to be employed: Provided, That if the widow shall die at any time during the said year her portion of said amount shall be added to the amount to be paid to the remaining beneficiaries under the provisions of this section, if there be any.

SEC. 3. That whenever an accident occurs to any employee embraced within the terms of the first section of this Act, and which results in death or a probable 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. Approved, May 30, 1908. [35 Stat., 556.]

An Act Relating to injured employees on the Isthmian Canal.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That nothing contained in 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,"65 shall prevent the Isthmian Canal Commission, under rules to be fixed by the commission, from granting to its injured employees,

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p. 49. See also notes under par. 5, sec. 5, of Panama Canal Act, p. 82.