[PUBLIC-No. 109-65TH CONGRESS.]

[H. R. 9867.]

An Act Making appropriations to supply urgent deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eighteen, and prior fiscal years, on account of war expenses, and for other purposes.

The President is authorized to acquire the title to the docks, piers, warehouses, wharves, and terminal equipment and facilities on the Hudson River now owned by the North German Lloyd Dock Company and the Hamburg-American Line Terminal and Navigation Company, two corporations of the State of New Jersey, if he shall deem it necessary for the national security and defense: Provided, That if such property cannot be procured by purchase, then the President is authorized and empowered to take over for the United States the immediate possession and title thereof. If any such property shall be taken over as aforesaid, the United States shall make just compensation therefor to be determined by the President. Upon the taking over of said property by the President, as aforesaid, the title to all such property so taken over shall immediately vest in the United States: Provided further, That section three hundred and fifty-five of the Revised Statutes of the United States shall not apply to any expenditures herein or hereafter authorized in connection with the property acquired.

Approved, Mar. 28, 1918.

[H. R. 8753.]

An Act To amend section three, title one, of the Act entitled "An Act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes," approved June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section three of title one of the Act entitled "An Act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes," approved June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:

"SEC. 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements, or say or do anything except by way of bona fide and not disloyal advice to an investor or investors, with intent to obstruct the sale by the United States of bonds or other securities of the United States or the making of loans by or to the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully cause, or attempt to cause, or incite or attempt to incite, insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall wilfully obstruct or attempt to obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, and whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States, or any language intended to bring the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute, or shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any language intended to incite, provoke, or encourage resistance to the United States, or to promote the cause of its enemies, or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully by utterance, writing, printing, publication, or language spoken, urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production in this country of any thing or things, product or products, necessary or essential to the prosecution of the war in which the United States may be engaged, with intent by such curtailment to cripple or hinder the United States in the prosecution of the war, and whoever shall willfully advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or

things in this section enumerated, and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both: Provided, That any employee or official of the United States Government who commits any disloyal act or utters any unpatriotic or disloyal language, or who, in an abusive and violent manner criticizes the Army or Navy or the flag of the United States shall be at once dismissed from the service. Any such employee shall be dismissed by the head of the department in which the employee may be engaged, and any such official shall be dismissed by the authority having power to appoint a successor to the dismissed official."

SEC. 2. That section one of Title XII and all other provisions of the Act entitled "An Act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better to enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes," approved June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, which apply to section three of Title I thereof shall apply with equal force and effect to said section three as amended.

Title XII of the said Act of June fifteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, be, and the same is hereby, amended by adding thereto the following section:

"SEC. 4. When the United States is at war, the Postmaster General may, upon evidence satisfactory to him that any person or concern is using the mails in violation of any of the provisions of this Act, instruct the postmaster at any post office at which mail is received addressed to such person or concern to return to the postmaster at the office at which they were originally mailed all letters or other matter so addressed, with the words 'Mail to this address undeliverable under Espionage Act' plainly written or stamped upon the outside thereof, and all such letters or other matter so returned to such postmasters shall be by them returned to the senders thereof under such regulations as the Postmaster General may prescribe."

[H. R. 11048.]

An Act To amend the war-risk insurance Act,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the war-risk insurance Act is hereby amended by adding to such Act a new section, to be known as section two b, to read as follows:

"SEC. 2b. That when it appears to the Secretary of the Treasury that vessels of foreign friendly flags, or their masters, officers, or crews, or shippers or importers in such vessels, are unable in any trade to secure adequate war-risk insurance on reasonable terms, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, with the approval of the Secretary, is hereby authorized to make provisions for the insurance by the United States of (1) such vessels of foreign friendly flags, their freight and passage moneys, and personal effects of the masters, officers, and crews thereof against the risks of war when such vessels are chartered or operated by the United States Shipping Board or its agent, or chartered by any person a citizen of the United States, and (2) the cargoes to be shipped in such vessels of foreign friendly flags, whether or not they are so chartered. Such insurance on the vessel, however, is authorized only when the United States Shipping Board or its agent operates the vessel or the charterers are, by the terms of the charter party or contract with the vessel owners, required to assume the war risk or provide insurance protecting the vessel owners against war risk during the term of the charter or hire of the vessel.

"The Bureau of War Risk Insurance, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, is also hereby authorized to insure the masters, officers, and crews of vessels operated or chartered as aforesaid against the loss of life or personal injury by the risk of war and for compensation during the detention following capture by enemies of the United States, whenever it appears to the Secretary that the owners, operators, or charterers of such vessels are unable, in any trade, to secure such insurance on reasonable terms."

SEC. 2. That scction five of the war-risk insurance Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 5. That the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to establish an advisory board, to consist of three members skilled in the practices of war-risk insurance, for the purpose of assisting the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in fixing rates of premium and in adjustment of claims for losses, and generally in carrying out the purposes of this Act; the compensation of the members of said board. to be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, but not to exceed $20 a day each while actually employed. He is likewise authorized to appoint two persons skilled in the practice of accident insurance for the purpose of assisting the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in the adjustment of claims for death, personal injury, or detention; the compensation of persons so appointed to be determined by the

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Secretary of the Treasury, but not to exceed $20 a day each while actually employed. In the event of disagreement as to the claim for losses, or amount thereof, between the said bureau and the parties to such contract of insurance, an action on the claim may be brought against the United States in the district court of the United States, sitting in admiralty, in the district in which the claimant or his agents may reside. The Secretary of the Treasury is, in his judgment, authorized to compromise the claim either before or after the institution of an action therein."

SEO. 3. That section nine of the war-risk insurance Act is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SEO. 9. That the President is authorized whenever in his judg ment the necessity of further war insurance by the United States shall have ceased to exist to suspend the operation of this Act, in so far as the Division of Marine and Seamen's Insurance is concerned, which suspension shall be made in any event within six months after the end of the war, but shall not affect any insurance outstanding at the time or any claims pending adjustment. For the purpose of the final adjustment of any such outstanding insurance or claims, the Division of Marine and Seamen's Insurance may, in the discretion of the President, be continued in existence for a period not exceeding three years after such suspension.

"The words 'end of the war' as used herein shall be deemed to mean the date of proclamation of exchange of ratification of the treaty of peace, unless the President shall, by proclamation, declare a prior date, in which case the date so proclaimed shall be deemed to be the end of the war' within the meaning of this Act."

Approved, July 11, 1918.