SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

X. I hereby vest in the Secretary of the Treasury the executive administration of any investigation, regulation, or prohibition of any transaction in foreign exchange, export or earmarking of gold or silver coin, or bullion or currency, transfers of credit in any form (other than credits relating solely to transactions to be executed wholly within the United States), and transfers of evidences of indebtedness or of the ownership of property between the United States and any foreign country, or between residents of one or more foreign countries, by any person within the United States; and I hereby vest in the Secretary of the Treasury the authority and power to require any person engaged in any such transaction to furnish under oath complete information relative thereto, including the production of any books of account, contracts, letters or other papers in connection therewith in the custody or control of such person, either before or after such transaction is completed.

XI. I further hereby vest in the Secretary of the Treasury the executive administration of the provisions of subsection (c) of section 3 of the trading with the enemy act relative to sending, or taking out of, or bringing into, or attempting to send, take out of, or bring into, the United States, any letter, writing or tangible form of communication, except in the regular course of the mail; and of the sending, taking, or transmitting, or attempting to send, take, or transmit, out of the United States, any letter, or other writing, book, map, plan or other paper, picture, or any telegram, cablegram, or wireless message, or other form of communication intended for or to be delivered, directly or indirectly, to an enemy or ally of enemy. And said Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and empowered to issue licenses to send, take or transmit out of the United States anything otherwise forbidden by said subsection (c) and give such consent or grant such exemption in respect thereto, as is not inconsistent with law, or to withhold or refuse the same.

XII. I further authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to grant a license under such terms and conditions as are not inconsistent with law or to withhold or refuse the same to any "enemy" or "ally of enemy" insurance or reinsurance company doing business within the United States through an agency or branch office or otherwise, which shall make application within 30 days of October 6, 1917.

XIII. I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of the Treasury, for the purpose of such executive administration, to take such measures, adopt such administrative procedure, and use such agency or agencies as he may from time to time deem necessary and proper for that purpose. The proclamation of the President, dated September 7, 1917, made under authority vested in him by Title VII of said act of Congress, approved June 15, 1917, shall remain in full force and effect. The Executive order, dated September 7, 1917, made under the authority of said title shall remain in full force and effect until new regulations shall have been established by the President, or by the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President, and thereupon shall be superseded.

In connection with the power delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury to grant or withhold licenses to enemy or ally of enemy insurance companies, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, through which the Secretary will administer this provision of the Executive order, has sent State superintendents of insurance forms prescribing the information required in making applications, with the request that they be transmitted to all companies concerned.

The information asked for is such as will enable the Secretary to arrive at an accurate conclusion as to the importance to the insuring public of the continuance of the business by these companies. A hearing was held at the Treasury Department on November 15, at which the representatives of "enemy and ally of enemy" insurance companies, as well as representatives of American companies reinsuring with such enemy or ally of enemy companies, were heard. Those opposed to the granting of licenses were also given ample opportunity to present arguments and submit briefs.

By means of this hearing and the information asked for, the Secretary will be able to arrive at a determination as to the advisability and necessity for issuing such licenses, and, if issued, what restrictions are required by the national interest.

WAR INSURANCE.

The Bureau of War Risk Insurance was created immediately after the outbreak of the European war to assist the commerce of this country by granting war-risk (but not marine) insurance on the hulls of or cargoes in American vessels.

The original act provided for a two-years' life of the bureau. On August 11, 1916, the act was amended, extending same for one year, and on March 3, 1917, the act was again amended, extending the operations of the bureau for a period of another year-making a total of four years, or to September 2, 1918.

The act was further amended June 12, 1917, to provide for the issuance of insurance against war risks on masters, officers, and crews on American merchant vessels, and on June 19 the Secretary of the Treasury announced that the law would be effective for sailings through the war zone from the United States beginning June 26 and sailings from abroad beginning July 10.

A still more far-reaching and important amendment to the act became a law October 6, 1917 (Exhibit J), and established in the bureau a division of marine and seamen's insurance and a division of military and naval insurance in charge of a commissioner of marine and seamen's insurance and a commissioner of military and naval insurance, respectively.

(a) Division of Military and Naval Insurance.

The Director of the Bureau and the Commissioner of Military and Naval Insurance are charged with the administration of and are given full power and authority, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to make rules and regulations to carry out the most comprehensive and constructive plan adopted by any Government to relieve its soldiers and sailors from unnecessary worry concerning the welfare of their families and dependents or the extraordinary hazards of the service they are called upon to render their country.

In this just, generous, and epoch-making legislation Congress provides really for three great governmental undertakings, with the administration of which the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, through the Division of Military and Naval Insurance, is charged.

(1) Provision is made for allotments and family allowances. This means that the soldier and sailor are expected and required to make the provision hereinafter stated to the extent of his ability for the support of his wife and children. He must make a truthful statement, under severe penalty for any misstatement, concerning the existence and status of such dependents. He must allot not less than $15 per month, and may be required to allot not more than half his pay each month for their support.

The Government has provided a schedule of allowances which it will make to these dependents to supplement the allotment made by the man. In addition to the compulsory allotment, the enlisted man may make voluntary allotments for the benefit of certain relatives other than a wife or child. Conditioned upon such voluntary allotment being made, the bureau is authorized to make allowances to these other relatives in accordance with a prescribed schedule, provided the total payment to such relatives, including what the enlisted man has voluntarily allotted and what the Government gives, does not exceed the amount which the enlisted man has habitually contributed to the support of such other relatives, and that they are dependent upon him for such contribution. The maximum to be allowed by the Government for any man's family is $50 over and above his allotment. This is a liberal and fair provision, recognizing the legal and moral responsibility of the man to do what he can to meet the normal burden which rests on him of supporting his family, and at the same time recognizing his inability, while he is absent from home and on military duty, to maintain the usual standard of comfort and support. The Government therefore contributes its share to help out, and its share may amount to a contribution of more than three times the sum which the enlisted man is required to contribute to the support of his family, and leaves him half his pay to meet his own needs for spending money and to buy insurance as additional protection for himself and family.

The tremendously difficult task of ascertaining the exact conditions concerning the families of the hundreds of thousands of enlisted men and the arrangements necessary to take from their pay the compulsory allotments as well as to make provision for the deduction of voluntary allotments and the certification of claims and awards by the commissioner under this provision of the law, together with the payment of the sum total of these allotments and allowances monthly to the families of all men in the service may well test the skill and executive capacity of those intrusted with the administration of

this act. It is, however, a humane work to which the officers of this department are devoting themselves with zeal and enthusiasm.

(2) Compensation for death or disability is provided for at the sole expense of the Government and on a liberal scale provided the injury is incurred or disease contracted in the line of duty. This applies to any commissioned officer or enlisted man or any member of the Army Nurse Corps (female), or of the Navy Nurse Corps (female), when employed in the active service under the War Department or Navy Department. Only in case of willful misconduct is no compensation made for injury or disease.

In addition to the compensation an injured person is furnished by the Government with reasonable medical, surgical, and hospital service and supplies. Provision is also made whereby injured persons shall follow courses of rehabilitation, reeducation, and vocational training in the United States, to be provided by the Government, and for this purpose a form of enlistment may be required which shall bring the injured person into the military or naval service in what is virtually a new department of such service, entitling such person to full pay as during the last month of his active service and to family allowances and allotments in lieu of all other compensation for the time being.

(3) After the enlisted man has been required to do his full duty to protect his family, and after the Government has provided such supplementary protection as the circumstances require for his family through family allowances, and has also provided through compensation for the risks and hazards of his military or naval service, an opportunity is offered to officers and enlisted men alike to insure themselves at low cost, purposely brought within the means of all, and thus give themselves and their families all the added protection that human foresight and a generous people can provide. Government insurance furnished at cost, which does not include any charge for administrative expenses nor many of the usual overhead charges nor the extra war risk which ordinary business insurance companies would have to include, is provided liberally. The cost of such insurance at the usual commercial rates would be prohibitive for enlisted men, and even for most officers. The Government has created the risk and has in a certain sense deprived the men in its military and naval forces of their insurability, and therefore it pays the extra cost. The officer and the enlisted man, however, must exhibit those economic virtues of foresight and thrift and elect for themselves to take this insurance and pay the small cost required.

This insurance privilege is limited to a maximum of $10,000 and must be availed of within 120 days from the date of enlistment or prior to February 12, 1918, for those in the service on October 15, 1917, when the rules and regulations putting this feature of the act into effect were published. The maximum of $10,000 can be had for

a monthly payment of $6.60 for a person 25 years of age. The benefits are not paid in lump sums upon death or injury, but are paid in monthly installments to the insured during his life in case of total and permanent disability, or in case of death to his beneficiary for 240 months, or 20 years, less the number of monthly payments, if any, made to the insured on account of disability. Insurance is granted without medical examination and may, within five years after the close of the war, be converted into one or more of the usual forms of insurance, as the insured may elect.

Neither the compensation nor the insurance received under the act are assignable. Compensation is exempt from attachment and execution and the insurance is not subject to the claims of creditors either of the insured or the beneficiary.

The War Risk Bureau has already distributed 110,000 copies of the soldiers' and sailors' insurance act and has ordered a special edition of 500,000 copies. Bulletin No. 1 (Exhibit K), setting forth the terms and conditions of soldiers' and sailors' insurance, was issued on October 15. This date of publication, in accordance with section 401 of the act of October 6, determines the time from which, within 120 days, application may be made for insurance by the officers and enlisted men in the active service at that time. Five million copies of this bulletin have been ordered and 1,207,000 copies have already been distributed. Bulletin No. 2 (Exhibit L) of the War Risk Bureau gives a digest of the act; 108,000 copies of this bulletin have been distributed and 1,000,000 copies ordered. Six million copies of the insurance application blank and 8,000,000 copies of the allotment and allowance blank have been ordered and are being distributed to cantonments, training camps, naval stations, and other places in this country where soldiers and sailors are stationed, and to the expeditionary forces in France as rapidly as the Government Printing Office can furnish them. Up to November 1 over 2,000,000 copies of the insurance application blank had been sent out and a million and a half copies of the allowance and allotment blank.

At the time this report goes to press it is too early to present the returns that are beginning to come in from the cantonments and training camps. Through the cooperation of the War Department, the provisions of the act are being carefully explained to every enlisted man. As soon as the information blanks have been distributed, filled out, and assembled they will be forwarded to the Bureau of War Risk Insurance and early publication of the returns will be made.

It is interesting to know, however, that on November 1, 19,000 applications for insurance had been filed, representing a total of $161,500,000. This means that the average amount of insurance taken by the first 19,000 applicants was $8,500.