ing, an interlocutory or permanent injunction in such case. In the event that an appeal is taken under this section, the record shall be made up and the case docketed in the Supreme Court of the United States within sixty days from the time such appeal is allowed, under such rules as may be prescribed by the proper courts. Appeals under this section shall be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States at the earliest possible time and shall take precedence over all other matters not of a like character. This section shall not be construed to be in derogation of any right of direct appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States under existing provisions of law. (Aug. 24, 1937, sec. 3, 50 Stat. 752; 28 U. S. C., sec. 380a.)

1544-2. Intervention by the United States; constitutionality of Federal statute. That whenever the constitutionality of any Act of Congress affecting the public interest is drawn in question in any court of the United States in any suit or proceeding to which the United States, or any agency thereof, or any officer or employee thereof, as such officer or employee, is not a party, the court having jurisdiction of the suit or proceeding shall certify such fact to the Attorney General. In any such case the court shall permit the United States to intervene and become a party for presentation of evidence (if evidence is otherwise receivable in such suit or proceeding) and argument upon the question of the constitutionality of such Act. In any such suit or proceeding the United States shall, subject to the applicable provisions of law, have all the rights of a party and the liabilities of a party as to court costs to the extent necessary for a proper presentation of the facts and law relating to the constitutionality of such Act. (Aug. 24, 1937, sec. 1, 50 Stat. 751; 28 U. S. C., sec. 401.)

EVIDENCE

1546-1. Photographed records authorized.-That whenever any agency of the United States Government shall have photographed or microphotographed all or any part of the records kept by or in the agency in a manner and on film that complies with the minimum standards of quality approved for permanent photographic records by the National Bureau of Standards, and whenever such photographs or microphotographs shall be placed in conveniently accessible files and provision made for preserving, examining, and using the same, the head of such agency may, with the approval of the Archivist of the United States, cause the original records from which the photographs or microphotographs have been made or any part thereof to be disposed of according to methods prescribed by law, provided records of the same specific kind in the particular agency have been proviously authorized for disposition by Congress. (Sept. 24, 1940, sec. 1, 54 Stat. 958.)

1546-2. Same; admissibility in evidence.-Photographs or microphotographs of any record photographed or microphotographed as herein provided shall have the same force and effect as the originals thereof would have had, and shall be treated as originals for the purpose of their admissibility in evidence. Duly certified or authenticated copies of such photographs or microphotographs shall be admitted in evidence equally with the original photographs or microphotographs. (Sept. 24, 1940, Sec. 2, 54 Stat. 958.)

LABOR

FAIR LABOR STANDARDS

1548-1. Term "Agriculture" as defined in Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.-(f) "Agriculture" includes farming in all its branches and among other things includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing, and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities (including commodities defined as agricultural commodities in section 15 (g) of the Agricultural Marketing Act, as amended), the raising of livestock, bees, fur-bearing animals, or poultry, and any practices (including any forestry or lumbering operations) performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, including preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market. (June 25, 1938, sec. 3(f), 52 Stat. 1060; 29 U. S. C., sec. 203.)

MONEY AND FINANCE

AUDIT AND SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

1656-1. Administrative examination of accounts; lists of persons receiving periodic payments, vouchers.-That hereafter the provisions of the Act of August 23, 1912 (37 Stat. 375), shall not preclude the furnishing by the Division of Disbursement, Treasury Department, at the request of administrative officers, of addressographed or stenciled lists of persons receiving periodic payments from the United States, which lists, as administratively revised and certified, if otherwise in proper form, may constitute the voucher upon which the Division of Disbursement may make payment. (May 14, 1937, Title I, 50 Stat. 140; 31 U.S. C., sec. 82a.)

1656-2. Government payments for transportation to be made before preaudit by General Accounting Office.-Payment for transportation of the United States mail and of persons or property for or on behalf of the United States by any common carrier subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, or the Civil Aeronautice Act of 1938, shall be made upon presentation of bills therefor, prior to audit or settlement by the General Accounting Office, but the right is hereby reserved to the United States Government to deduct the amount of any overpayment to any such carrier from any amount subsequently found to be due such carrier. (Sept. 18, 1940, Sec. 322, 54 Stat. 955.)

1656-3. Ten-year statute of limitations on claims cognizable by General Accounting Office. That every claim or demand (except a claim or demand by any State, Territory, possession or the District of Columbia) against the United States cognizable by the General Accounting Office under section 305 of the Budget and Accounting Act of June 10, 1921 (42 Stat. 24), and the Act of April 10, 1928 (45 Stat. 413), shall be forever barred unless such claim, bearing the signature and address of the claimant or of an authorized agent or attorney, shall be received in said office within ten full years after the date such claim first accrued: Provided, That when a claim of any person serving in

the military or naval forces of the United States accrues in time of war, or when war intervenes within five years after its accrual, such claim may be presented within five years after peace is established. (Oct. 9, 1940, Sec. 1, 54 Stat. 1061.)

1656-4. Same; notice to claimant.-Whenever any claim barred by section 1 shall be received in the General Accounting Office, it shall be returned to the claimant, with a copy of this Act, and such action shall be a complete response without further communication. (Oct. 9, 1940, Sec. 2, 54 Stat. 1061.)

DEBTS DUE BY, OR TO, THE UNITED STATES

1667-1. Assignment of claims.-All transfers and assignments made of any claim upon the United States, or of any part or share thereof, or interest therein, whether absolute or conditional, and whatever may be the consideration therefor, and all powers of attorney, orders, or other authorities for receiving payment of any such claim, or of any part or share thereof, shall be absolutely null and void, unless they are freely made and executed in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, after the allowance of such a claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and the issuing of a warrant for the payment thereof. Such transfers, assignments, and powers of attorney, must recite the warrant for payment, and must be acknowledged by the person making them, before an officer having authority to take acknowledgments of deeds, and shall be certified by the officer; and it must appear by the certificate that the officer, at the time of the acknowledgment, read and fully explained the transfer, assignment, or warrant of attorney to the person acknowledging the same. (July 29, 1846, 9 Stat. 41, R. S., sec. 3477; 31 U. S. C., sec. 203.)

1667-2. Assignment of claims as affected by Assignment of Claims Act of 1940. The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not apply in any case in which the moneys due or to become due from the United States or from any agency or department thereof, under a contract providing for payments aggregating $1,000 or more, are assigned to a bank, trust company, or other financing institution, including any Federal lending agency: Provided,

1. That in the case of any contract entered into prior to the date of approval of the Assignment of Claims Act of 1940, no claim shall be assigned without the consent of the head of the department or agency concerned;

2. That in the case of any contract entered into after the date of approval of the Assignment of Claims Act of 1940, no claim shall be assigned if it arises under a contract which forbids such assignment;

3. That unless otherwise expressly permitted by such contract any such assignment shall cover all amounts payable under such contract and not already paid, shall not be made to more than one party, and shall not be subject to further assignment, except that any such assignment may be made to one party as agent or trustee for two or more parties participating in such financing;

4. That in the event of any such assignment, the assignee thereof shall file written notice of the assignment together with a true copy of the instrument of assignment with

(a) the General Accounting Office,

(b) the contracting officer or the head of his department or agency. (c) the surety or sureties upon the bond or bonds, if any, in connection with such contract, and

(d) the disbursing officer, if any, designated in such contract to make payment.

Notwithstanding any law to the contrary governing the validity of assignments, any assignment pursuant to the Assignment of Claims Act of 1940 shall constitute a valid assignment for all purposes.

Any contract entered into by the War Department or the Navy Department may provide that payments to an assignee of any claim arising under such contract shall not be subject to reduction or setoff, and if it is so provided in such contract, such payments shall not be subject to reduction or set-off for any indebtedness of the assignor to the United States arising independently of such contract. (Oct. 9, 1940, Sec. 1, 54 Stat. 1029.)

1667-3. Title of foregoing act.-This Act may be cited as the "Assignment of claims Act of 1940." (Oct. 9, 1940, Sec. 2, 54 Stat. 1030.)

1667-4. Settlement of claims for personal injury or death in foreign countries. That when any act of omission of any officer, employee, or agent of the Government of the United States, including all officers, enlisted men, and employees of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, results in the personal inury or death of any person, not an American national, in any foreign country in which the United States exercises privileges of extraterritoriality, the Secretary of State may consider, adjust, and determine any claim, arising after the passage of this Act, for the damage occasioned by such injury or death in an amount not in excess of $1,500, United States currency, in any one case, and such amount as may be found to be due to any claimant shall be certified to Congress as a legal claim for payment out of appropriations that may be made by Congress therefor, together with a brief statement of the character of each claim, the amount claimed, and the amount allowed: Provided, That this authorization shall not apply to cases of persons in the employ of the United States: Provided further, That no claim shall be considered under this Act by the Secretary of State unless presented to him within one year from the date of the accrual of said claim: And provided further, That acceptance by any claimant of the amount determined under the provisions of this Act shall be deemed to be in full settlement of such claim against the Government of the United States. (Feb. 13, 1936, 49 Stat. 1138; 31 U. S. C., sec. 224a.)

THE PUBLIC MONEYS

1704. Duplicates for lost, stolen, destroyed, or mutilated United States checks. (a) Except as hereinafter provided, whenever it is clearly proved to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury that any original check of the United States is lost, stolen, or wholly or partly destroyed, or is so mutilated or defaced as to impair its value to its owner or holder, persons authorized to issue such checks on behalf of the United States are authorized, before the close of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the original check was issued, to issue to the owner or holder thereof a substitute, marked "duplicate" and showing the number, date, and payee of the original

check, upon the receipt and approval by the Secretary of the Treasury of a bond, to indemnify the United States, in such form and amount and with such surety, sureties, or security as the Secretary of the Treasury shall require; but no such substitute shall be payable if the original check shall first have been paid: Provided, however, That the authority herein conferred to issue substitute checks may, in the case of checks issued on account of public-debt obligations and transactions regarding the administration of banking and currency laws, be issued without limitation of time.

(b) A bond of indemnity shall not be required under subsection (a) of this section in any of the following classes of cases except as hereinafter provided: (1) If the Secretary of the Treasury is satisfied that the loss, theft, destruction, mutilation, or defacement, as the case may be, occurred without fault of the owner or holder and while the check was in the custody or control of the United States (including the Postal Service when carrying mail for any officer, employee, agent, or agency of the United States when performing services in connection with an official function of the United States, but not including the Postal Service when otherwise acting solely in its capacity as a public carrier of the mail), or of a person thereunto duly authorized as lawful agent of the United States, or while it was in the course of shipment effected pursuant to and in accordance with the regulations issued under the provisions of the Government Losses in Shipment Act; (2) if substantially the entire check is presented and surrendered by the owner or holder and the Secretary of the Treasury is satisfied as to the identity of the check presented and that any missing portions are not sufficient to form the basis of a valid claim against the United States; (3) if the Secretary of the Treasury is satisfied that the original check is not negotiable and cannot be made the basis of a valid claim against the United States; (4) if the amount of the check is less than $50 and the Secretary of the Treasury is satisfied that the giving of a bond of indemnity would be an undue hardship to the owner or holder; (5) if the owner or holder is the United States or an officer or employee thereof in his official capacity, a State, the District of Columbia, a Territory or possession of the United States, including the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands, a municipal corporation or political subdivision of any of the foregoing, a corporation the whole of whose capital is owned by the United States, a foreign government, or a Federal Reserve bank: Provided, however, That in any of the foregoing classes of cases the Secretary of the Treasury may require a bond of indemnity if he deems it essential to the public interest.

(c) The Secretary of the Treasury shall have the power to make such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary for the administration of the provisions of this section.

(d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section, whenever any original check of the Post Office Department has been lost, stolen, or destroyed, the Postmaster General may authorize the issuance of a substitute, marked "duplicate" and showing the number, date, and payee of the original check, before the close of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the original check was issued, upon the execution by the owner thereof of such bond of indemnity as the Postmaster General may prescribe:

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