any money or other valuable thing on account of or to be applied to the promotion of any political object whatever.

civil-service

No person in said service shall use his official authority Amended or influence either to coerce the political action of any per- rules. son or body or to interfere with any election.

No person in the public service shall, for that reason, be Rule 2. under any obligation to contribute to any political fund, or to render any political service, and he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so.

ART. 1768. No officer, clerk, or employé in the customs service shall solicit contributions from other officers, clerks, or employés in the Government service for a gift or present to those in superior official position; nor shall any such officials or clerical superiors receive any gift or present offered or presented to them as a contribution from persons in Government employ receiving a less salary than themselves; nor shall any officer or clerk make any gift or donation as a gift to any official superior. Every person who violates this section shall be summarily discharged from the Government employ.

R. S., 1784.

ART. 1769. Any officer who makes or grants any false R.S., 4187, 4373. registry or record or certificate of registry, or record or any other false document of or for any vessel, or takes any fee not allowed by law, or receives any reward or gratuity for any such service, or falsely describes the admeasurement of any vessel, shall be liable to a fine of $1,000, and be rendered incapable of serving in any office under the United States.

ART. 1770. Any inspector, gauger, weigher, or measurer who receives any gratuity, fee, or reward for any official service other than is allowed by law, or gauges, weighs, or measures any article or articles other than as directed, or makes return of weight, gauge, or measure without having weighed, gauged, or measured the merchandise in question, or certifies the shipment of merchandise entitled to drawback on exportation without having inspected the same, as required by these regulations, or until such merchandise shall have been weighed, gauged, or measured if required, shall be liable for the first offense to a penalty of $50, and for each subsequent offense to a penalty of $200, and be discharged from the service.

R. S., 2637.

ART. 1771. Any importer, or agent of such importer, R. S.,5452. who makes or offers to make, to any customs officer, any gratuity, or present of money, or other thing of value, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or be imprisoned not more than two years.

Act June 10, 1890, sec. 26.

Act June 10, 1890, sec. 27.

Act Apr. 18, 1884.

23 Stat., 11.

Act July 24.

1897, sec. 17.

ART. 1772. Persons bribing or attempting to bribe or, by threats, demands, or promises, attempting to improperly influence any officer or employé of the United States in connection with importations of merchandise and baggage are punishable by fine not exceeding $2,000, or imprisonment not longer than one year, or both.

ART. 1773. Officers or employés of the United States requesting or accepting any money or thing of value, excepting for lawful duties or fees, in connection with importations of merchandise or baggage, are liable to fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment not more than two years, or both.

ART. 1774. Any person assuming or pretending to be an officer or employé of the United States, or of any Department, or of any office of the Government, is guilty of felony, and on conviction is liable to fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment not longer than three years, or both.

ART. 1775. Officers, agents, or employés of the United States aiding or abetting persons engaged in importing, advertising, dealing in, exhibiting, or sending, or receiving by mail obscene or indecent publications or representations, or means for preventing conception, or procuring abortion, or other articles of indecent or immoral use or tendency are liable for each offense to a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment at hard labor for not more than ten years, or both.

CHAPTER XXV.

APPOINTMENT, PROMOTION, AND VACATION OF OFFICE.

§ 1. PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS.

ART. 1776. Appointments to the principal offices in the R. S.,1769, 2613. customs service are made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States. Principal officers of the customs are removable by the President.

Upon the appointment of a person to the office of collector, naval officer, surveyor, or general or local appraiser, notice thereof will be forwarded to him by the Secretary of the Treasury (division of appointments), accompanied by a blank form of official oath and a blank form of bond, where an official bond is required, together with proper instructions for the filling up and execution of these forms.

Bonds and oaths of office of Presidential officers in the customs service, after they are duly executed and verified before a proper officer, must be forwarded to the Secretary of the Treasury (division of appointments), who, after their approval, will transmit the commissions with instructions and authority to enter upon duty. Bonds must be renewed every four years, and oftener, if necessary; and evidence of the continued solvency of sureties will be required every two years.

Subordinate officers, or employés of bonded officers, are not eligible as sureties on the bonds of their directing or employing officers.

ART. 1777. Every collector, naval officer, and surveyor R. S., 2630, 2831. is required by law, immediately after his entry into office, to constitute and appoint, under his hand and seal, upon a blank form of appointment furnished by the Department, and with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, a special deputy, to act in the name and full authority of his principal during his absence or disability. Special disbursing officers are also to be appointed to act in the case of sickness or other unavoidable absence of collectors, upon the approval of the Secretary.

2631,2632.

ART. 1778. Principal officers of customs are authorized, R. S. 2621, 2630, by law to employ within their respective jurisdictions, with

the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, such number of proper persons as the service may require, as deputy collectors, deputy naval officers, and deputy surveyors, warehouse superintendents, and storekeepers, examiners, inspectors, weighers, gaugers, measurers, clerks, and other necessary employés, under designations approved by the Secretary of the Treasury; the nominations of persons to be so employed being transmitted by the nominating officers to the Secretary of the Treasury. The deputies and other persons so appointed are declared by law to be officers of the customs, and their acts will be respected accordingly.

ART. 1779. The officers of the customs service are those known and designated as collectors, assistant collectors, deputy collectors, naval officers, deputy naval officers, surveyors, deputy surveyors, general appraisers, appraisers, assistant appraisers, examiners of merchandise, examiners of drugs, weighers, gaugers, measurers, inspectors, wareAct June 18, house superintendents, storekeepers, and clerks. Special agents of the Treasury Department, special employés, special inspectors, Chinese inspectors, immigration inspectors, keepers of life-saving stations, and commissioned officers of the Revenue Marine are also included in the enumeration of customs officers.

1878, sec. 4.

§ 2. SUBORDINATE APPOINTMENTS IN THE CLASSIFIED

CUSTOMS SERVICE.

ART. 1780. Appointments to subordinate offices in the customs service are made by the Secretary of the Treasury upon the nominations of the principal officers of the customs having jurisdiction.

When appointments in the classified customs service are to be made, the officer having the power of nomination shall make requisition on the secretary of the local civilservice board for the names of three persons graded highest on the list of those eligible to appointment, one of whom shall be selected and nominated for appointment to the Secretary of the Treasury, to serve for a probationary period of six months. The names of persons nominated shall be furnished to the secretary of the civil-service board. At the end of such probationary period, if the conduct and capacity of the probationer have been satisfactory, a nomination for his absolute appointment must be submitted for the approval of the appointing officer, the Secretary of the Treasury, and a new oath of office must be administered upon such absolute appointment.

Such officers, clerks, and employés as may be excepted by the civil-service rules from certification may be nominated by the principal officers of the customs having jurisdiction for appointment, as provided by the civil-service rules.

ART. 1781. Persons who have been guilty of grave offences against the revenue laws, or who have been dismissed for fault or delinquency from any branch of the public service, are not eligible for nomination to subordinate offices in the customs service, nor shall any person be nominated for appointment in such service who can not produce satisfactory proof of good conduct in his or her previous employment. Persons habitually using intoxicating beverages to excess shall neither be appointed to nor retained in any office, appointment, or employment in the customs service.

ART. 1782. Candidates for appointments in the customs service must not be less than twenty-one nor more than fifty-five years of age, of suitable physical condition, and mentally qualified, as required by the rules and regulations of the civil service of the United States. Outdoor inspectors must be of robust frame and constitution. If otherwise duly qualified, the limitation as to age does not apply to persons who may have been honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States.

22 Stat., 406, sec. 8.

22 Stat., 406, §7; C. S., Rule V.

Deputy collectors and other employés whose duties are performed exclusively within customs buildings, and who are selected on account of possessing qualifications of special value to the service, may, after satisfactory physical certification, be eligible for appointment between twenty-one and sixty years of age. If otherwise duly qualified, the limitation as to age does not apply to persons honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States by reason of disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the line of duty. ART. 1783. Preference in appointments must be given R.S., 1754. to persons honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States by reason of disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the line of duty and whose claim to preference has been allowed by the Civil Service Commission.

ART. 1784. Whenever there are two or more members $9. of a family in the public service in the grades covered by the civil-service act, no other member of such family shall be eligible to appointment to any of said grades.