the loan, and has paid many thousands of dollars to more needy funds.

Investments in securities for the funds have kept pace with the market in rates, and have been quite satisfactory. In issuing loans for the Commonwealth, it will, in my opinion, be good policy to make the payment of such loans in such years as have at present no loans due, or those of small amounts, in order that the debt may be paid in more even amounts and without any exorbitant demands for money in any one year; which would relieve the district tax payers for the contingent debt and the general taxation for the direct debt.

THE WAR WITH SPAIN.

Payment of Allotments to Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, etc.

[ACTS OF 1898, CHAPTER 561.]

ACT TO PROVIDE FOR STATE PAY FOR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS IN THE VOLUNTEER SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, AND FOR RENDERING AID TO THEIR FAMILIES.

Be it enacted, etc., as follows:

SECTION 1. There shall be allowed and paid out of the treasury of the Commonwealth to each non-commissioned officer, soldier, sailor or marine who has been or is hereafter mustered into the military or naval service of the United States during the present war as a part of the quota of or to the credit of this Commonwealth, and to members of the Massachusetts naval militia mustered into the service of the United States, also to residents of Massachusetts mustered into the regular army or navy or into the volunteer brigade of engineers of the United States during the present war, the sum of seven dollars per month, so long as he shall remain an enlisted man in said service. Said monthly compensation shall be payable at the office of the treasurer and receiver general of the Commonwealth, and shall date from the muster-in to the United States service of said non-commissioned officer, soldier, sailor or marine. In case of the death of any enlisted man the widow or minor children, parents or dependents of said enlisted man, shall receive the said monthly compensation for a period of six months after the death of said enlisted man provided, that said monthly compensation shall not be continued to any enlisted man in the regular service of the United States after the termination of the war.

SECTION 2. Any such enlisted man may allot all or any part

of such person as he shall designate, and the said treasurer shall monthly certify to the auditor of accounts the name and residence of the person to whom such amount is allotted and the amount of such allotment, and the same shall be allowed in the same manner as other claims against the Commonwealth; and amounts that are not so allotted shall remain in the treasury of the Commonwealth, subject to the order of the non-commissioned officer, soldier, sailor or marine to whom the said sum is due.

SECTION 3. Any city or town may raise money by taxation or otherwise, and, if necessary, expend the same, by the officers authorized by law to furnish state and military aid, for the aid of the wife, widow, children under sixteen years of age, parents, brothers and sisters actually dependent upon any inhabitant of such city or town having a residence and actually residing therein, who has enlisted, or hereafter shall, during the present war prior to the declaration of peace, be duly enlisted and mustered as a non-commissioned officer or soldier into the military service of the United States as a part of the quota of this Commonwealth, or who has enlisted and been mustered into the regular army of the United States, or as a sailor or marine into the naval service of the United States, in the same manner and under the same limitations as state aid was paid to dependent relatives of soldiers, sailors and marines during the civil war: provided, however, that no person while receiving state aid under chapter three hundred and one of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four shall receive aid under this act.

SECTION 4. Persons who incur disabilities in such service and who are honorably discharged therefrom shall be entitled to receive military and state aid under the same rules, conditions and limitations as to amounts as are now applied to applicants for aid under chapters two hundred and seventy-nine and three hundred and one of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, in the same manner as if such persons had served to the credit of this Commonwealth in the army or navy of the United States in the civil war.

SECTION 5. Applicants for such aid shall, as a basis for the first payment thereof, state in writing, under oath, the name, age and residence of the person for whom such aid is sought, the relation of the applicant to the soldier and sailor, the company and regiment, or vessel, if any, in which such soldier or sailor enlisted and in which he last served; the date and place of such enlistment, when known, the duration of such service, and the reason for the application, and shall furnish such official certificates or record, evidence of enlistment, service and discharge as may be required. SECTION 6. The commissioners of state aid shall furnish from

time to time to each city and town a sufficient number of blank forms for the use of applicants; shall constitute a board of appeal to decide upon all disputed questions between applicants and the municipal authorities; shall investigate all payments of such aid; shall have power to determine all incidental questions arising in connection therewith; and shall have the custody of the original papers relating to each application.

SECTION 7. Municipal officers making payments under this act shall make return of the same to the commissioners of state aid on blank forms furnished by said commissioners, and the amounts approved by said commissioners shall be reimbursed to cities and towns from the treasury of the Commonwealth, at the time and in the manner prescribed by chapters two hundred and seventy-nine and three hundred and one of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four.

SECTION 8. For the purpose of meeting any expenses heretofore incurred under the provisions of chapter three hundred and forty-seven of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninetyeight, and further expenditure under the direction of the commander-in-chief in defraying the military and naval expenses which the existing emergency arising out of the condition of the relations of the United States with Spain, and the exigencies of war may render requisite and proper; and to meet the expenses of state pay for soldiers and sailors as provided for in this act the treasurer and receiver general is hereby authorized from time to time, with the approval of the governor and council, to issue scrip or certificates of indebtedness to an amount not exceeding in the aggregate one million five hundred thousand dollars, for a term not exceeding thirty years. Said scrip or certificates of indebtedness shall be issued as registered bonds or with interest coupons attached, and shall bear interest not exceeding four per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually on the first days of April and October in each year. Such scrip or certificates of indebtedness shall be designated on the face thereof, Massachusetts War Loan; shall be countersigned by the governor and shall be deemed a pledge of the faith and credit of the Commonwealth, and the principal and interest shall be paid at the times specified therein, in gold coin of the United States or its equivalent; and said scrip or certificates of indebtedness shall be sold or disposed of at public auction or in such other mode, and at such times and prices, and in such amounts, and at such rates of interest, not exceeding the rate above-specified, as shall be deemed best. The treasurer and receiver general shall, on issuing any of said scrip or certificates of indebtedness, establish a sinking fund, into which shall be paid

any premiums received on the sale of said bonds, and he shall apportion thereto from year to year, in addition, amounts sufficient with the accumulations to extinguish at maturity the debt incurred by the issue of said bonds. The amount necessary to meet the annual sinking fund requirements and to pay the interest on said bonds shall be raised by taxation from year to year.

SECTION 9. From the proceeds of the sale of the bonds referred to in section eight of this act there shall be paid into the treasury of the Commonwealth such amounts as may have been already expended under the authority of chapter three hundred and fortyseven of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight. SECTION 10. Chapter three hundred and forty-seven of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight is hereby repealed. SECTION 11. The provisions of this act shall not apply to any inhabitant of this Commonwealth who has enlisted, or who may hereafter enlist, in the corps of other states or territories.

SECTION 12. This act shall take effect upon its passage. [Approved June 22, 1898.

From the foregoing act it will be seen that the Treasurer and Receiver-General of the Commonwealth was required to pay the extra compensation of seven dollars ($7) per month granted by said act, to such non-commissioned officer, sailors, soldiers, marines, etc., as might be entitled to it. This duty so imposed has proved to be enormous, perplexing and difficult.

War was declared with Spain on the 21st of April, 1898, but the act granting the extra compensation was not approved till June 22, 1898.

On the passage of the act immediate steps were taken to begin the work of paying and prosecute the same with the utmost rapidity compatible with safety, as there was more than a month's pay due to many of the troops before the act was signed.

Numerous blank forms were prepared for the use of the enlisted men, and were forwarded as soon as possible, the said forms containing directions for their use in as plain a manner as could be framed. It was a comparatively easy task to reach our own six regiments of Massachusetts Volunteers, with whom we were intimately connected, and they were reached first of all. This resulted in my obtaining the signatures of the men, allotting their pay to themselves or to

their families, in a reasonably short time, and arrangements were at once made to pay them by regiments. A request for aid to the Secretary of the Navy, Hon. John D. Long, resulted in the issuance of an order to his whole department to afford me all information asked for, and a full list of all ships, with addresses, as far as known at that time. Blank forms were immediately sent to the officer in command of each ship in the United States Navy, and the return of quite a portion of them correctly filled out placed a large number of men on the pay rolls.

A general order was issued by the War Department to all the military commands in the United States service to give me what information I might ask for, but, not being in possession of the titles or addresses of the various organizations, I received little benefit from that direction.

Soon single applications for allotment blanks began to come in from all parts of the Army and Navy, until their number was nearly equal to that contained on regular rolls.

Large numbers of men who enlisted before the war, from 1873 to April 20, 1898, were, under the law, refused the extra pay.

Becoming convinced that I had no certainty that men were still in the United States service, or were dead or had deserted, and of which I could have no official knowledge, and to prevent over payments, I caused blank certificates to be forwarded to all men applying for pay, to be used monthly, certifying to their being still in the service of the United States, and that they were citizens of Massachusetts at the time of their enlistment, and refused payments until such certificates were received.

The fact that payments were to be made to "somebody" for six months after the death of an enlisted man entitled to the pay has caused a great deal of perplexity in this office, and much complaint from the claimants for the money due. In comparatively few cases have official certificates of death and date of the same been furnished us; each claimant has been obliged to furnish certificate of death, certificate of marriage of parents and birth of the enlisted man.

Payments of $7 per month have been made in some cases for two or three months after the death of a man has occurred, as no notice of such death had been received by me.