Such of the per diem employees referred to in this question as are carried on the rolls at the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1917, will be entitled to the increases, subject to the restrictions with respect to rates.

FIVE AND TEN PER CENT INCREASE OF COMPENSATION.

Section 2 of the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917, authorizing, under certain conditions, payment of percentage increases of compensation to civilian employees of the United States is applicable, in an otherwise proper case, to an employee of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers holding a position designated or created by the managers of that home under authority of section 4829, Revised Statutes.

Comptroller Warwick to Col. C. W. Wadsworth, treasurer, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, June 15, 1917:

I have your letter of May 5, 1917, submitting for decision the following:

"2. The act of Aug. 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 412), contained the following provision:

That the Board of Managers shall classify all the officers and employees of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and establish a rate of pay and allowances for each class, and the rate so established shall not be increased by fees, perquisites, allowances, or advantages under any pretense whatever; and no employee shall be borne on more than one pay roll or voucher.'

"Under this provision the Board of Managers prescribes a schedule of pay and allowances for each fiscal year, the payments being made from lump-sum appropriations.

"3. Does the increase in pay provided in section 2 of the sundry civil bill for the fiscal year 1918 (H. R. 11) apply to all such employees of the National Home paid at a monthly or per diem rate not exceeding $1,800 per annum?

"4. Section 4829, Revised Statutes, provides that the 'officers of the National Home shall consist of a governor, deputy governor, a secretary, and a treasurer, and such other officers as the managers may deem necessary.' Under this last clause the Board of Managers has designated as officers of the home such persons as hold the various positions of surgeon, assistant surgeon, quartermaster, commissary of subsistence, adjutant, inspector, and chaplain, few of whom receive salaries in excess of $1,800 per annum.

"5. Does the increase in pay apply to officers so designated by the Board of Managers under authority of said section 4829, R. S.?

"6. Is the secretary of the Board of Managers, for whom a specific appropriation of $500 per year is made (under the head Board of Managers' in the appropriation bill), entitled to the increase of ten per cent?

"7. Are employees paid by the piece-as for making clothing in the general depot-entitled to such increase in the rate established by the Board of Managers in the annual schedule of pay and allowances?"

The requirements of this office to render a decision at the request of a disbursing officer necessitate the submission of the voucher which is before the disbursing officer for payment. This will be waived in the present instance.

The provision in the act of 1894, supra, relative to increase of pay, is a restraint upon administrative action and does not preclude the application of the provision of the sundry civil act (section 2, act of June 12, 1917, Public No. 21) for increase of compensation.

The increase is authorized where the payment is at a monthly or per diem rate. (See 23 Comp. Dec., 668.)

And the increase is applicable to the officers designated by the Board of Managers (4 and 5 above), it being understood the titles of the officers are given by the board, and they do not now hold positions in the Army or militia of the character indicated.

The increase is applicable to the specific appropriation of $500 for the secretary of the Board of Managers, and is applicable to pieceworkers. (See 23 Comp. Dec., 691.)

FIVE AND TEN PER CENT INCREASE OF COMPENSATION.

Payment of percentage increases of compensation is not authorized under section 2 of the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917, in the case of laborers and artisans employed by the Superintendent of the United States Capitol and Grounds by the job and whose rates of compensation are fixed, not with respect to appropriations made in that act but in accordance with labor organization schedules, or by agreement made at the time when the services are engaged.

Comptroller Warwick to the Secretary of the Interior, June 15, 1917:

I have your letter of the 5th instant, requesting decision of certain questions presented by the Superintendent of the United States Capitol Building and Grounds relative to the application of the provisions of section 2 of the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917 (Public No. 21).

Said section provides as follows:

"That to provide, during the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen, for increased compensation at the rate of ten per centum per annum to employees who receive salaries at a rate per annum less than $1,200, and for increased compensation at the rate of five per centum per annum to employees who receive salaries at a rate not more than $1,800 per annum and not less than $1,200 per annum, so much as may be necessary is appropriated: Provided, That this section shall only apply to the employees who are appropriated for in this act specifically and under lump sums or whose employment is authorized herein, but shall not include employees of the Panama Canal on the Canal Zone:

The questions submitted are as follows:

"First. It is necessary at times to employ for brief periods plumbers, painters, and mechanics, who under the ordinary practice of this office are paid the regular wages according to the wage scale of the different labor organizations of the trades or occupations with which they are connected. Should such employed persons be paid the additional compensation as provided in the act referred to? "Second. This office has in charge from time to time certain construction and repair work, such as the new dormitory for women of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf; the reconstruction of the courthouse, D. C., and repairs to the Court of Claims. In the conduct of these operations the wages of the carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers, and laborers are paid in accordance with the scale of wages known as 'union wages,' and I would like to be advised whether this class of employed persons are to receive the additional compensation referred to.

"Third. It is customary at times, in order to conduct to the best advantage work entrusted to this office, to let some of the work upon a basis of percentage contracts. In these cases the contractor employs the necessary mechanics and laborers, who are paid upon Government pay rolls, the contractor receiving as his compensation a percentage based upon the material used, and the labor employed. Are the persons thus employed by the contractor and whose work is under his supervision entitled to the additional compensation benefits?"

In each of the cases submitted the men are engaged for a particular job and the rates of compensation are fixed, not with respect to appropriations made in the act but according to labor organization schedules or by agreement made at the time the services are engaged. Therefore, the compensation paid for such services can not be regarded as salaries of employees of the United States within the meaning of the above-quoted section.

The questions submitted are answered in the negative.

FIVE AND TEN PER CENT INCREASE OF COMPENSATION.

Employees of national parks whose salaries are paid, not from appropriations made in the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917, but from the revenues of the parks, are not entitled to the percentage increases of compensation authorized in section 2 of that act.

Comptroller Warwick to the Secretary of the Interior, June 15, 1917:

I have your letter of the 5th instant, requesting decision of certain questions presented by the acting director of national parks in his letter to you of the 5th instant, relative to the application of the provisions of section 2 of the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917 (Public, No. 21).

Said section provides as follows:

"That to provide, during the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen, for increased compensation at the rate of ten per centum

per annum to employees who receive salaries at a rate per annum less than $1,200, and for increased compensation at the rate of five per centum per annum to employees who receive salaries at a rate not more than $1,800 per annum and not less than $1,200 per annum, so much as may be necessary is appropriated: Provided, That this section shall only apply to the employees who are appropriated for in this act specifically and under lump sums or whose employment is authorized herein, but shall not include employees of the Panama Canal on the Canal Zone:

* *

The questions presented are set forth in the acting director's letter as follows:

"By authority of Congress the following special funds have been constituted, termed in the Treasury indefinite appropriations: "Revenues: Yellowstone National Park, March 1, 1872 (17 Stat.,

33).

"Revenues: Yosemite National Park, Oct. 1, 1890 (26 Stat., 650). "Revenues: Sequoia and General Grant National Parks, Sept. 25, 1890 (26 Stat., 478); Oct. 1, 1890 (26 Stat., 650).

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Revenues: Mount Rainier National Park, March 2, 1899 (30 Stat., 993).

"Revenues: Wind Cave National Park, Jan. 9, 1903 (32 Stat., 765). "Revenues: Platt National Park, Apr. 21, 1904 (33 Stat., 220). "Revenues: Glacier National Park, March 4, 1911 (36 Stat., 1421). "In administration of the above-named parks it has been the practice to pay salaries of permanent appointees (i. e., appointees whose service is needed the entire year) from the lump-sum specific appropriations for the parks which have been provided, with rare exception, in the annual sundry civil appropriation acts. When temporary appointees have been needed during the summer season or when the park appropriation has been entirely allotted, salaries have often been paid from the park revenues as supplementing the specific park appropriations. The pending sundry civil bill contains appropriation items for administration of each park named.

"The act of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., 377, sec. 14), in relation to the Hot Springs Reservation, provides for use of water rents derived from the reservation in administration thereof, and since approval of the act no specific appropriation for salaries of administration of the reservation has been made, because the receipts have been ample to pay all salaries of appointees to service in the reservation. These are now 30 in number. The fund constituted by the above legislation is known as Protection and Improvement of Hot Springs Reservation, Indefinite. The pending sundry civil bill contains no item for administration or protection of the reservation, though an item is included reading:

"Hot Springs Reservation, Arkansas: For the employment of a landscape engineer and such other expenses as may be required for the preparation of a practical and comprehensive plan, together with an accurate estimate of the cost thereof, for improving the Hot Springs Reservation, and immediate vicinity, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, to be immediately available, $10,000.'

"I would ask that decision of the Comptroller of the Treasury be requested on the three subjects set out as follows:

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1. Whether section 2 above quoted will apply to appointees of this service whose salaries will be paid from the lump-sum appropriations for the several national parks as carried in the pending sundry civil bill. List of appropriation items is herewith.

"2. Whether the section will be applicable to those appointees in this service whose salaries during the fiscal year 1918 will be paid from the revenues of the national parks.

"3. Whether the section will be applicable to appointees of this service employed in administration of Hot Springs Reservation during the fiscal year 1918."

Subject to the limitations with respect to rates of compensation the increases apply to all regular employees whose compensation is to be paid from the appropriations made in the act or whose employment is authorized in the act; but said increases do not apply to employees paid from the park revenues unless the use of such revenues is expressly authorized in the act.

Speaking generally, question numbered 1 is answered in the affirmative, and question numbered 2 in the negative. Assuming that the appointees referred to in question numbered 3 are to be paid from water rents under the authority of the act of March 3, 1877, and not from the appropriation of $10,000 referred to in the above quoted letter, this question also must be answered in the negative.

FIVE AND TEN PER CENT INCREASE OF COMPENSATION.

Employees of the Government Printing Office working on an hourly basis are entitled to percentage increases of compensation under and subject to the limitations of section 2 of the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917.

Comptroller Warwick to the Public Printer, June 15, 1917:

I have your letter of the 11th instant requesting decision of certain questions relative to the application of the provisions of section 2 of the sundry civil appropriation act of June 12, 1917 (Public No. 21), to employees in the Government Printing Office.

Said section provides as follows:

That to provide, during the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen, for increased compensation at the rate of ten per centum per annum to employees who receive salaries at a rate per annum less than $1,200, and for increased compensation at the rate of five per centum per annum to employees who receive salaries at a rate not more than $1,800 per annum and not less than $1,200 per annum, so much as may be necessary is appropriated: Provided, That this section shall only apply to the employees who are appropriated for in this act specifically and under lump sums or whose employment is authorized herein, but shall not include employees of the Panama Canal on the Canal Zone

*.""