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."

Approved, May 16, 1918.

259. THE OVERMAN ACT

Approved May 20, 1918. This act for war purposes, allowed the President of the United States to reorganize the whole executive machinery as he saw fit.

Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 40, Public Laws, pp. 556-557.

BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the national security and defense, for the successful prosecution of the war, for the support and maintenance of the Army and Navy, for the better utilization of resources and industries, and for the more effective exercise and more efficient administration by the President of his powers as Commander in Chief of the land and naval forces the President is hereby authorized to make such redistribution of functions among executive agencies as he may deem necessary, including any functions, duties, and powers hitherto by law conferred upon any executive department, commission, bureau, agency, office, or officer, in such manner as in his judgment shall seem best fitted to carry out the purposes of this Act, and to this end is authorized to make such regulations and to issue such orders as he may deem necessary, which regulations and orders shall be in writing and shall be filed with the head of the department affected and constitute a public record: Provided, That this Act shall remain in force during the continuance of the present war and for six months after

the termination of the war by the proclamation of the treaty of peace, or at such earlier time as the President may designate: Provided further, That the termination of this Act shall not affect any act done or any right or obligation accruing or accrued pursuant to this Act and during the time that this Act is in force: Provided further, That the authority by this Act granted shall be exercised only in matters relating to the conduct of the present war.

SEC. 2. That in carrying out the purposes of this Act the President is authorized to utilize, coordinate, or consolidate any executive or administrative commissions, bureaus, agencies, offices, or officers now existing by law, to transfer any duties or powers from one existing department, commission, bureau, agency, office, or officer to another, to transfer the personnel thereof or any part of it either by detail or assignment, together with the whole or any part of the records and public property belonging thereto.

SEC. 3. That the President is further authorized to establish an executive agency which may exercise such jurisdiction and control over the production of aeroplanes, aeroplane engines, and aircraft equipment as in his judgment may be advantageous; and, further, to transfer to such agency, for its use, all or any moneys heretofore appropriated for the production of aeroplanes, aeroplane engines, and aircraft equipment. SEC. 4. That for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act, any moneys heretofore and hereafter appropriated for the use of any executive department, commission, bureau, agency, office, or officer shall be expended only for the purposes for which it was appropriated under the direction of such other agency as may be directed by the President hereunder to perform and execute said function.

SEC. 5. That should the President, in redistributing the functions among the executive agencies as provided in this Act, conclude that any bureau should be abolished and it or their duties and functions conferred upon some other department or bureau or eliminated entirely, he shall report his conclusions to Congress with such recommendations as he may deem proper.

SEC. 6. That all laws or parts of laws conflicting with the provisions of this Act are to the extent of such conflict suspended while this Act is in force.

Upon the termination of this Act all executive or administrative agencies, departments, commissions, bureaus, offices, or officers shall exercise the same functions, duties, and powers as heretofore or as hereafter by law may be provided, any authorization of the President under this Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

Approved, May 20, 1918.

260. THE MAN POWER ACT

Approved August 31, 1918.

Statutes at Large of the United States, Vol. 40, Public Laws, pp. 955-957.

BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the second sentence of section two of the Act entitled "An Act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States,".. is hereby, amended to read as follows:

Such draft as herein provided shall be based upon liability to military service of all male citizens and male persons residing in the United States, not alien enemies, who have declared their intention to become citizens, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, both inclusive, and shall take place and be maintained under such regulations as the President may prescribe not inconsistent with the terms of this Act: Provided, That the President may draft such persons liable to military service in such sequence of ages and at such time or times as he may prescribe: Provided further, That a citizen or subject of a country neutral in the present war who has declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States shall be relieved from liability to military service upon his making a declaration, in accordance with such regulations as the President may prescribe, withdrawing his intention to become a citizen of the United States, which shall ... cancel his declaration of intention to become an American citizen, and he shall forever be debarred from becoming a citizen of the United States.

SEC. 3. That section five of said Act be, and is hereby, amended to read as follows:

That all male persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, both inclusive, shall be subject to registration in accordance with regulations to be prescribed by the President,.. and any person who shall willfully fail or refuse to present himself for registration or to submit thereto as herein provided shall be guilty of a misdemeanor... Provided further, That the President may at such intervals as he may desire from time to time require all male persons who have attained the age of eighteen years since the last preceding date of registration and on or before the next date set for registration by proclamation by the President, except such persons as are exempt from registration hereunder, to register in the same manner and subject to the same

requirements and liabilities as those previously registered under the terms hereof:..

SEC. 4. That all men rendered available for induction into the military service of the United States through registration or draft heretofore or hereafter made pursuant to law, shall be liable to service in the Army or the Navy or the Marine Corps, and shall be allotted to the Army, the Navy, and the Marine Corps under regulations to be prescribed by the President: Provided, That all persons drafted and allotted to the Navy or the Marine Corps in pursuance hereof shall, from the date of allotment, be subject to the laws and regulations governing the Navy and the Marine Corps, respectively.

SEC. 5. That the wife of a soldier or sailor serving in the present war shall not be disqualified for any position or appointment under the Government because she is a married woman.

SEC. 6. That soldiers, during the present emergency, regardless of age and existing law and regulations, shall be eligible to receive commissions in the Army of the United States. They shall likewise be eligible to admission to officers' schools under such rules and regulations as may be adopted for entrance to such schools, but shall not be barred there from or discriminated against on account of age.

SEC. 7. That the Secretary of War is authorized to assign to educational institutions, for special and technical training, soldiers who enter the military service under the provisions of this Act in such numbers and under such regulations as he may prescribe; ..

SEC. 8. That any person, under the age of twenty-one, who has served or shall hereafter serve in the Army of the United States during the present emergency, shall be entitled to the same rights under the homestead and other land and mineral entry laws, general or special, as those over twenty-one years of age now possess under said laws:..

Approved, August 31, 1918.

261. WILSON'S ARMISTICE NOTES

The following notes are the critical ones in a series of diplomatic exchanges through the neutral state of Switzerland by which Germany's surrender was negotiated.

American Journal of International Law, Supplement, Vol. 13, 1919, pp. 92-96. New York.

The Secretary of State to the Chargé d'Affaires of Switzerland.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

WASHINGTON.

October 23, 1918.

SIR:

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the twenty-second transmitting a communication under date of the twentieth from the German Government and to advise you that the President has instructed me to reply thereto as follows:

Having received the solemn and explicit assurance of the German Government that it unreservedly accepts the terms of peace laid down in his address to the Congress of the United States on the eighth of January, 1918, and the principles of settlement enunciated in his subsequent addresses, particularly the address of the twenty-seventh of September, and that it desires to discuss the details of their application, and that this wish and purpose emanate, not from those who have hitherto dictated German policy and conducted the present war on Germany's behalf, but from ministers who speak for the majority of the Reichstag and for an overwhelming majority of the German people; and having received also the explicit promise of the present German Government that the humane rules of civilized warfare will be observed both on land and sea by the German armed forces, the President of the United States feels that he cannot decline to take up with the governments with which the Government of the United States is associated the question of an armistice.

He deems it his duty to say again, however, that the only armistice he would feel justified in submitting for consideration would be one which should leave the United States and the powers associated with her in a position to enforce any arrangements that may be entered into and to make a renewal of hostilities on the part of Germany impossible. The President has, therefore, transmitted his correspondence with the present German authorities to the governments with which the Government of the United States is associated as a belligerent, with the suggestion that, if those governments are disposed to effect peace upon the terms and principles indicated, their military. advisers and the military advisers of the United States be asked to submit to the governments associated against Germany the necessary terms of such an armistice as will fully protect the interests of the peoples involved and insure to the associated governments the unrestricted power to safeguard and enforce the details of the peace to which the German Government has agreed, provided they deem such an armistice possible from the military point of view. Should such terms of armistice be suggested, their acceptance by Germany will afford the best concrete evidence of her unequivocal acceptance of the terms and principles of peace from which the whole action proceeds.