SEC. 4. [Pensioners included.] That the benefits of this Act shall include any person who served during the late Civil War, or in the War with Mexico, and who is now or may hereafter become entitled to pension under the Acts of June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety, February fifteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and the joint resolutions of July first, nineteen hundred and two, and June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and six, or the Acts of January twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and February seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven. [37 Stat. L. 113.] The Act of June 27, 1890, ch. 634, mentioned in the text, is given supra, p. 1084. The Res. of Feb. 15, 1895, No. 13, is given supra, p. 1096. The Res. of July 1, 1902, No. 42, as amended by the Res. of June 28, 1906, No. 39, is given supra, p. 1102. The Act of Jan. 29, 1887, ch. 70, is given supra, p. 1081. SEC. 5. [Record of pensions granted-tabulations increase with advancing age without further application.] That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Pensions, as each application for pension filed under this Act is adjudicated, to cause to be kept a record showing the name, length of service, and age of each claimant, the monthly rate of payment granted to or received by him, and the county and State of his residence; and shall at the end of the fiscal year nineteen hundred and fourteen tabulate the records so obtained by States and counties, and to furnish certified copies thereof upon demand and payment of such fee therefor as is provided by law for certified copies of records in the executive departments; and that further increase of rate under this Act on account of advancing age shall be made without further application by pensioner and shall take effect and commence from the date he is shown by the aforesaid record to have attained the age provided by this Act as a basis of rating: Provided, That where a claim has been heretofore adjudicated and the record therein does not sufficiently establish the date of birth of the soldier or sailor pensioner nothing herein shall prevent such further investigation as is deemed necessary, in order to establish a record upon which future increases of rate under this Act, on account of advancing age, may be possible, the object being to advance automatically the rate of pension, as provided for by this Act, without unnecessary expense to the pensioner. [37 Stat. L. 113, as amended by 37 Stat. L. 1019.] This section was amended to read as here given by the Act of March 4, 1913, ch. 109. Originally this section was as follows: 66 SEC. 5. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Pensions, as each application for pension under this Act is adjudicated, to cause to be kept a record showing the name and length of service of each claimant, the monthly rate of payment granted to or received by him, and the county and State of his residence; and shall at the end of the fiscal year nineteen hundred and fourteen tabulate the record so obtained by States and counties, and shall furnish certified copies thereof upon demand and the payment of such fee therefor as is provided by law for certified copies of records in the executive department." [SEC. 1.] [Agents abolished.] * Section forty-seven hundred and seventy-eight of the Revised Statutes of the United States authorizing the appointment of agents for the payment of pensions, and section fortyseven hundred and eighty of the Revised Statutes of the United States, authorizing the establishment of agencies by the President of the United States are hereby repealed to take effect from and after the thirty-first day of January, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and the existing pension agencies are abolished from and after said date. [37 Stat. L. 312.] The foregoing section 1 and the following sections 2, 3, 4, and 6 are from the Pensions Appropriation Act of Aug. 17, 1912, ch. 301. Other provisions of this section 1, together with section 5 of this Act, are given under INTERIOR DEPARTMENT, vol. 3, pp. 952, 953. SEC. 2. [Arrangement of pensioners in groups-payments quarterly -fractional payments.] That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized in the payment of pensions to arrange the pensioners in three groups as he may think proper, and may from time to time change any pensioner or class of pensioners from one group to another as he may deem convenient for the transaction of the public business. The pensioners in the first group shall be paid their quarterly pensions on January fourth, April fourth, July fourth, and October fourth of each year; the pensioners in the second group shall be paid their quarterly pensions on February fourth, May fourth, August fourth, and November fourth, of each year; the pensioners in the third group shall be paid their quarterly pensions on March fourth, June fourth, September fourth, and December fourth of each year. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to cause payments of pension to be made for the fractional parts of a quarter which may be made necessary by the transfer of a pensioner from one group to another. [37 Stat. L. 312.] See the notes to the preceding section 1 of this Act. The Act of March 3, 1891, ch. 548, § 2, 26 Stat. L. 1082, authorizing the grouping of pension agencies, was superseded by the text. Discontinuance of pension agencies.The President's power to reduce or consolidate the agencies for the payment of federal pensions, is limited by this Act to the reduction or consolidation of such agencies with the three groups directed to be established. (1911) 28 Op. Atty.Gen. 617. SEC. 3. [Checks without separate vouchers to be sent pensioners delivery of pension mail by postal authorities restricted.] That not later than January first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, pensions shall be paid by checks drawn, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in such form as to protect the United States against loss, without separate vouchers or receipts, and payable by the proper assistant treasurer or designated depositary, except in the case of any pensioner in which the law authorizes the pension to be paid to some person other than the pensioner, or in which the Secretary of the Interior may consider a voucher necessary for the protection of the Government. Such checks shall be transmitted by mail to the payee thereof at his last known address. That postmasters, delivery clerks, letter carriers, and all other postal employees are prohibited from delivering any such mail to any person whomsoever, if the addressee has died or removed, or in the case of a widow believed by the postal employee intrusted with the delivery of such mail to have remarried; and the postmaster in every such case shall forthwith return such mail with a statement of the reasons for so doing, and if because of death or remarriage, the date thereof, if known. Checks returned as herein provided on account of the death of remarriage of the pensioner shall be canceled. [37 Stat. L. 312.] See the note to section 1 of this Aot, supra, p. 1114. This section superseded R. S. secs. 4764, 4765, noted supra, pp. 1047, 1048. The Pensions Appropriation Act of March 4, 1909, ch. 302, 35 Stat. L. 1058, contained the following provision: "That the Secretary of the Interior shall hereafter furnish free to all pensioners franked or penalty envelopes, properly addressed, to be used by said pensioners only for the return of their pension vouchers." See POSTAL SERVICE. When check is completed. "The inference is strong that the check issued and made payable to the order of the pen sioner is not a completed instrument until the pensioner has indorsed it." U. S. v. Albert, (N. D. Fla. 1891) 45 Fed. 552. SEC. 4. [Punishment for forging, etc., checks.] That whoever shall forge the indorsement of the person to whose order any pension check shall be drawn, or whoever with the knowledge that such indorsement is forged shall utter such check, or whoever, by falsely personating such person, shall receive from any person, firm, corporation, or officer or employee of the United States the whole or any portion of the amount represented by such check, shall upon conviction be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or be imprisoned not more than five years or both [37 Stat. L. 313.] See the note to section 1 of this Act, supra, p. 1114. SEC. 6. [Payment due inmates of Volunteer Soldiers' Homes.] That nothing in this Act shall be construed as amending or repealing that portion of the sundry civil appropriation Act for the fiscal year eighteen hundred and eighty-three (Statutes at Large, volume twenty-two, page three hundred and twenty-two) concerning the payment of pensions due inmates of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. [37 Stat. L. 313.] See the note to section 1 of this Act, supra, p. 1114. The provision of the Act of Aug. 7, 1882, ch. 433, to which reference is made in this section, is given in HOSPITALS AND ASYLUMS, vol. 3, p. 588. An Act To increase the pensions of surviving soldiers of Indian wars in certain cases. [Act of Feb. 19, 1913, ch. 59, 37 Stat. L. 679.] [Indian war pensions-rate increased.] That from and after the passage of this Act the rate of pension to surviving soldiers of the various Indian wars who are now on the pension roll or who may hereafter be placed thereon under the Acts of July twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, June twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and two, and May thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight, shall be twenty dollars per month. [37 Stat. L. 679.] See the notes to R. S. sec. 4698, supra, p. 1015. The Act of July 27, 1892, ch. 277, mentioned in the text, is given supra, p. 1092. The Act of June 27, 1902, ch. 1156, is given supra, p. 1101. The Act of May 30, 1908, ch. 230, is given supra, p. 1110. [SEC. 1.] [Double pensions for death or injury resulting from aviation accident.] * In all cases where an officer or enlisted man of the Navy or Marine Corps dies, or where an enlisted man of the Navy or Marine Corps is disabled by reason of any injury received or disease contracted in line of duty, the result of an aviation accident, received while employed in actual flying in or in handling air craft, the amount of pension allowed shall be double that authorized to be paid should death or the disability have occurred by reason of an injury received or disease contracted in line of duty, not the result of an aviation accident. [38 Stat. L. 940.] This is from the Naval Appropriation Act of March 3, 1915, ch. 83. III. ARTIFICIAL LIMBS AND TRUSSES Sec. 4787. [Artificial limbs, etc., to be furnished every three years.] Every officer, soldier, seaman, and marine who was disabled during the war for the suppression of the rebellion, in the military or naval service, and in the line of duty, or in consequence of wounds received or disease contracted therein, and who was furnished by the War Department since the seventeenth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy, with an artificial limb or apparatus for resection, who was entitled to receive such limb or apparatus since said date, shall be entitled to receive a new limb or apparatus at the expiration of every three years thereafter, under such regulations as have been or may be prescribed by the Surgeon-General of the Army. [R. S.] Act of July 27, 1868, ch. 264, 15 Stat. L. 237; Act of June 17, 1870, ch. 132, 16 Stat. L. 153; Act of June 30, 1870, ch. 179, 16 Stat. L. 174. This section was amended by the Act of March 3, 1891, ch. 562, 26 Stat. L. 1103, entitled "An act to amend section forty-seven hundred and eighty-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States," to read as above. The Act provided "That section forty-seven hundred and eighty-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended by striking out the word 'five' where it occurs therein, and inserting in lieu thereof the word 'three' so that when amended said section will read as follows." Then followed the provisions above set out, the only change from the section as originally enacted being in the substitution of the word "three" for the word "five" as therein mentioned. The section had been previously amended by the Act of Feb. 27, 1877, ch. 69, 19 Stat. L. 252, “by adding at the end of the section the following:" "The provisions of this section shall apply to all officers, non-commissioned officers. enlisted and hired men of the land and naval forces of the United States, who, in the line of their duty as such, shall have lost limbs or sustained bodily injuries depriving them of the use of any of their limbs, to be determined by the Surgeon-General of the Army; and the term of five years herein specified shall be held to commence in each case with the filing of the application for the benefits of this section.” This amendment was carried into the second edition of the Revised Statutes as a part of the section. No mention was made in the Act of March 3, 1891, of this amendment. Retroactive effect of amended section.— This amendment is not to be given a retroactive effect so that those entitled to the benefit of the Act can now demand the additional number of artificial limbs, or the money commutation therefor, that they would have received had the original Act contained the word "three" instead of "five." Fuller v. U. S., (N. D. Ia. 1891) 48 Fed. 654. "The word 'thereafter' has no reference to June 17, 1870, but refers to the time since that date when any artificial limb or apparatus should have been furnished, which time is to be the point from which are to be reckoned the periods of three years. There is no ground in the law for the pretension that June 17, 1870, is the point from which the periods of Sec. 4788. [Commutation rates in money value for limb, etc.] Every person entitled to the benefits of the preceding section may, if he so elects, receive, instead of such limb or apparatus, the money value thereof, at the following rates, namely: For artificial legs, seventy-five dollars; for arms, fifty dollars; for feet, fifty dollars; for apparatus for resection, fifty dollars. [R. S.] Act of June 17, 1870, ch. 132, 16 Stat. L. 153. Sec. 4789. [Money commutation, how to be paid.] The SurgeonGeneral shall certify to the Commissioner of Pensions a list of all soldiers who elect to receive money commutation instead of limbs or apparatus, with the amount due to each, and the Commissioner of Pensions shall cause the same to be paid to such soldiers in the same manner as pensions are paid. [R. S.] Act of June 17, 1870, ch. 132, 16 Stat. L. 153. This section was in part superseded by the Act of Aug. 15, 1876, ch. 300, infra, p. 1118. Payment of money commutation by surgeon-general." The repeal of section 4789 (the commissioner of pensions shall cause the same to be paid to such soldiers in the same manner that pensions are paid') by the Act of Aug. 15, 1876 (the limbs shall be furnished or commutation paid under such regulations as the surgeon-general of the Army may prescribe'), is not as clear as it might be; but the interpretation put upon it not only by executive officers but by Congress itself, leads to the conclusion that the purpose of that Act was to unite under the surgeon-general the payment of commutation with the issue of the artificial limbs and to discontinue the anomaly of the surgeon-general expending so much of the appropriation as was necessary to pay for the limbs and appliances required, and the commissioner of pensions disbursing so much as was needed for those who elected to receive commutation." Appropriation for Artificial Limbs, (1881) 17 Op. Atty.-Gen. 233. Sec. 4790. [Money commutation to those who cannot use artificial limb.] Every person in the military or naval service who lost a limb during the war of the rebellion, or is entitled to the benefits of section fortyseven hundred and eighty-seven, but from the nature of his injury is not able to use an artificial limb, shall be entitled to the benefits of section |