warden of the reformatory, reporting from time to time as ordered by him, and conform to the rules and regulations for the government of paroled prisoners; and whenever such reports indicate that the person has led an honest and industrious life for a certain length of time and has fulfilled the conditions of his parole, the state officers having charge of this matter may authorize his absolute discharge.

On the other hand, if the paroled prisoner fails to report, or to lead an honest and industrious life, or breaks his parole in any way, he is subject to be rearrested, and is thereupon confined for the remainder of the maximum term which is provided by law for the offense of which he was found guilty.

There has been thus far no provision of United States law which allowed this course to be adopted in the case of United States prisoners who have, therefore, had no incentive to good behavior in the state reformatories to which they were committed. They have had no chance to establish themselves in the world as honest and industrious men. They are without hope of doing more than obtain a brief commutation of their total imprisonment by good behavior, and naturally they form a disturbing element in these reformatories, and a class apart, who can not be treated like the others.

This bill is intended to correct this difficulty and to adopt the parole system, subject only to the approval of the Attorney-General as to each release on parole or final discharge, and your committee therefore recommend that the bill be ammended as follows:

Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert as follows:

[Old law in roman, new matter in italics.]

That section fifty-five hundred and forty-eight of the Revised Statutes of the United States be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 5548. Whenever any person is convicted of any offense against the United States which is punishable by fine and imprisonment, or by either, the court by which the sentence is passed may order the sentence to be executed in any house of correction or house of reformation for juvenile delinquents within the State or district where such court is held, the use of which is authorized by the legislature of the State for such purpose, or in any State reformatory within any State, the use of which is so authorized, and which is an institution accepted by the Department of Justice as a suitable place for the imprisonment and reformation of such convicted persons.

"And if by the laws of such State persons within certain limits of age may be committed to such reformatory for an indeterminate time and become entitled to be released upon parole under the authority and control of the State officers, and with obligation to report und to conform to regulations as to paroled prisoners, and subject to rearrest for breach of such parole, then and in such case persons within such age convicted of offenses in the United States courts may, in the discretion of the court, be committed to such reformatory under an indeterminate sentence so that the imprisonment of such persons shall be upon like conditions as to release on parole, rearrest, confinement, and discharge as prisoners sentenced by the courts of said State to such institution: Provided, That the Attorney-General shall first approve any order for release of any such person on parole or for his discharge in case he fulfills the conditions of such parole and is leading an honest and industrious life.

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Provided further, That in case such person shall fail to fulfill the conditions of such parole, the superintendent or uarden of the reformatory to which he shall have been committed may revoke such parole and issue a warrant for the rearrest of such person, which warrant may be executed by any officer authorized by the law of said State to execute warrants, or by a United States marshal; and such person on arrest shall be promptly returned to the reformatory, where he may be retained for the remainder of the maximum term provided by law, after deducting his previous imprisonment.”

This committee recommend that this bill, so amended, do pass, amending the title by striking out the words "or Territories."

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE IN THE NAVY.

JANUARY 8, 1909.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. ROBERTS, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT:

[To accompany H. R. 6252.]

The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred a bill (H. R. 6252) to promote the administration of justice in the navy, having had the same under consideration, respectfully submit the following report, with the following amendments, and, as amended, recommend that the bill do pass:

In line 4, after the word "offenses," insert "now triable by summary court-martial."

Page 2, line 2, strike out the word "thirty "and insert in lieu thereof "fifteen."

Page 2, line 19, after the word "thereon," insert "except that if the party accused demands it within thirty days after the decision of the deck court shall be known to him, the entire record or so much as he desires shall be sent to the reviewing authority."

Page 3, line 7, add the following proviso:

Provided, That the use of irons, single or double, is hereby abolished, except for the purpose of safe custody or when part of a sentence imposed by a general courtmartial.

Page 3, line 19, after the word "which," insert "United States." Page 4, line 3, strike out the word "inquired" and insert in lieu thereof the word " required."

Page 4, line 6, after the word "States," insert the word "District." Page 4, line 10, after the word "States," insert the word " District." Page 4, strike out all of section 13.

Page 4, line 21, strike out "14" and insert in lieu thereof "13." Page 5, add the following section:

SEC. 14. Section 1624, article 34, Revised Statutes of the United States, is hereby amended as follows: "The proceedings of summary courts-martial shall be conducted with as much conciseness and precision as may be consistent with the ends of justice, and under such forms and rules as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy

with the approval of the President, and all such proceedings shall be transmitted in the usual mode to the Navy Department, where they shall be kept on file for a period of two years from date of trial, after which time they may be destroyed in the discretion of the Secretary of the Navy."

Section 1 of the bill provides for the one-officer or "deck" court. This court will try many cases now triable by summary court-martial, and which demand greater punishment than may be imposed by the commanding officer. These offenses include the following.

A one-officer court exists in the United States Army, with the jurisdiction to try all offenses not capital, but as the limitation of punishment is three months' confinement and three months' loss of pay, the following embrace the cases usually referred to it:

1. Using threatening or insulting language.

2. Absence from fatigue duty.

3. Smuggling liquor.

4. Drunkenness.

5. Noisy or disorderly conduct.

6. Abuse of authority by noncommissioned officer.

7. False report.

8. Sentinel allows prisoner to escape.

9. Absence without leave over six hours and less than ten days.
10. Disrespect to sentinel.

11. Breach of arrest.

The main object of the "deck" court is to permit one officer, instead of four, to try minor offenses. On large vessels, where cases arise daily which require the action of a court, four officers must now devote considerable valuable time to duty as members of a summary courtmartial. This section provides that this duty shall be performed by one officer, providing that the sentence of the court must be approved by the commanding officer before going into effect, and, as the Navy Department's "schedule of punishments" is in the hands of all officers, the punishment assigned upon proof of the charges allows the court but little latitude.

Section 3 provides that "any person in the navy" under the command of the commanding officer may be detailed to act as recorder. This gives the clerical duty of preparing the record to a yeoman or other enlisted man under the supervision of the "deck" court officer, and saves for more important duties the officer now required by law to do this work.

Section 4 provides that the commanding officer shall have full power as reviewing authority to remit or mitigate a sentence but not to com

mute one; and provides further that no sentence of a "deck" court shall be carried into effect until it shall have been so approved or mitigated.

Section 5 provides for the amplification of the system of "deck" courts as regards details, by such regulations as may be issued by the President and similar to those now enforced for summary and general

courts.

Section 6 makes provision for the ultimate disposition, reviewing, and revision that is now provided for summary courts-martial, except that the accused may have a copy of the entire record in the case if he demands it within thirty days after the decision becomes known to him, to be sent to the reviewing authority.

Section 7 grants to the accused the privilege of objecting to trial by a "deck" court, and of demanding a trial by summary or general court-martial.

Section 8 makes it possible for a court to impose a part of any one of the punishments authorized by article 30 of the articles for the government of the navy. Under the present law any one of these punishments must be awarded in its entirety.

Section 9 enables the Secretary of the Navy to set aside or reduce the punishment awarded by any naval court, and establishes the right of appeal in any case tried.

Section 10 amends the present law so as to give to the commandants of naval stations beyond the continental limits of the United States the power to order general courts-martial. As the law now stands (38 A. G. N.) general courts-martial may be convened only by the President, Secretary of the Navy, or the commander in chief of a fleet or squadron. Consequently it is deemed incompetent for the department to authorize officers commanding naval stations in the island possessions of the United States to convene general courts. This inability gives rise to great delay in the punishment of serious offenses at remote stations.

Section 11 provides for the compulsory attendance of civilian with nesses before courts-martial and courts of inquiry. It has been the experience of the Navy Department that in many cases tried for offenses committed on shore the guilty parties have escaped punishment because the court-martial was unable to compel the attendance of civilian witnesses. This is deemed necessary, as the articles for the government of the navy require that "offenses committed on shore shall be punished in the same manner as if committed at sea."

Section 12 is in substance the same as the law which provides for punishment for nonattendance or refusal to testify before army courts. Act of March 3, 1901, 31 Stat. L., 950.)

Section 13 provides that the prisoner upon his discharge be furnished with suitable civilian clothing and paid a gratuity not to exceed $25, the amount of such gratuity to be fixed by the Secretary of the Navy, and only in cases where the prisoners so discharged would otherwise be unprovided with suitable clothing or without funds to meet their needs. While the Comptroller of the Treasury, in a liberal decision rendered May 23, 1902, has held that "where a prisoner at the end of his term of confinement is without suitable clothing to enable him to appear in public decently clad, the Government must of necessity supply such clothing, for it is not to be supposed that the law contemplated that he should be turned out of prison with nothing

to wear." There is however no specific provision of law authorizing this nor any appropriation therefor.

Section 14 provides for the destruction of summary court-martial records after being filed in the department for two years. Much valuable space is now filled with over a thousand bound volumes of the records that are utterly useless. A transcript of a summary courtmartial record is entered on the enlistment record of the man tried, and as these records are kept on file always, any data that would probably be required could be obtained therefrom.

The committee therefore recommend that the bill as amended do pass.