Under secs. 815, ante, and 817, post, prohibiting the purchase, sale, pledge, loan, or gift by a soldier of any of his clothing, arms, military outfit and accouterments, the Government in supplying the soldier or recruit with equipments suitable and necessary for the discharge of his military duties retains title to the same; it being regarded as public property, whether remaining in a public depot or in the possession of the individual soldier, and this notwithstanding the soldier is allowed to retain such articles of clothing as he has t..en in use on the expiration of his term of service. Id.

Secs. 815, ante and 817, post, prohibit the barter, sale, or exchange or purchase of the clothing, arms, military outfit, and accouterments of a soldier or sailor, and R. . sec. 5438 (embodied herein), declares that every person who knowingly purchases or receives in pledge for any obligation or indebtedness of any soldier, officer, o sailor or other person called into or employed in the military or naval service, any arms, equipments, ammunition, clothes, military stores, or other public property, such person not having the lawful right to pledge or sell same, shall be imprisoned, etc. Held, that the offense denounced is committed if the person purchases clothing or equipment knowingly from a soldier or sailor employed in military service; the Government not being required to show, in addition, that defendant had knowledge that the soldier or sailor selling the articles in question did not have the lawful right to do so. Id.

Under this section, making it an offense for any person to knowingly purchase or receive in pledge from a soldier or sailor any arms, equipment, ammunition, clothing, stores, or other public property, it is not material that the clothing purchased by accused from certain marines was not a part of their equipment, but was furnished to them under their clothing allowance. Id.

Clothing furnished to a soldier by the United States under a clothing allowance does not become his private property which he has a right to dispose of while in the service, but is public property" within this section, which makes it a criminal offense to knowingly purchase or receive in pledge from any soldier "any arms, equipments, ammunition, clothes, military stores, or other public property, whether furnished to the soldier * under a clothing allowance or otherwise, such soldier not having the lawful right to pledge or sell the same." Ontai v. U. S. (1911), 188 Fed. 310, 110 C. C. A. 288.

a person purchasing or receiving such property in pledge knew, or should have known from facts which put him on inquiry, that the person offering the same was a soldier. U. S. v. Koplik (C. C. 1907), 155 Fed. 919.

It is not a defense to a prosecution, under such statute, for receiving property in pledge from a soldier still in the service, that such property consisted of clothing which he had paid for out of his clothes allowance, or which had been charged against it. Id.

R. S. sec. 5438 (embodied herein), applies to persons who knowingly purchase or receive in pledge any of the kinds of property described therein from a soldier, officer, or sailor in the service of the United States. The elements of the crime are guilty knowledge and the actual purchasing of and receiving in pledge the kind of property named and receiving it from a person in the military service of the United States. All those things are necessary to be proven in order to make it a criminal case. The guilty knowledge that is the necessary element of the crime is not knowledge that the act is unlawful, but knowledge must be knowledge of the facts, knowledge that the property offered for sale is the military stores or property of the United States. U. S. v. Smith (C. C. 1907), 156 Fed. 859, 861.

In a prosecution under R. S. sec. 5438 (embodied herein), for knowingly purchasing in pledge from a soldier, arms, clothing or other public property, the jury may consider the possession of such property by defendant as prima facie evidence that it was sold or pledged to him, but not as prima facie evidence that it was taken by him with guilty knowledge. Id.

The seventeenth article of war (now the eighty-fourth article) provides that any soldier who sells, or through neglect loses or spoils, his horse, arms, clothing, or accouterments shall be punished as a court-martial shall adjudge. Sec. 815, ante, declares that clothes, arms, military outfits, and accouterments furnished by the United States to any soldier shall not be sold, bartered, exchanged, pledged, loaned, or given away, and that no person not a soldier or duly authorized officer of the United States who has possession of any such clothes, etc., shall have any

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right, title, or interest therein, but the same may be seized and taken wherever found. Held, that clothing issued to goldiers while in the military service remained the property of the United States, within R. S. sec. 5438 (embodied herein), providing that every person who knowingly purchases or receives in pledge from any soldier any clothes, equipment, or other public property, which the person selling or pledging the same has no right to sell, shall be imprisoned, etc. U. S. v. Hart (D. C. 1906), 146 Fed. 202.

The title to clothing issued to soldiers remains in the United States, and such clothing when issued is public property under R. S. sec. 5438 (embodied herein), making it a criminal offense for any person to knowingly purchase or receive in pledge from a soldier any public property. Id.

The receiving in pledge, by a civilian from a soldier, of clothing issued to the latter during the term of his enlistment, does not constitute a penal offense, within R. S. sec. 5438 (embodied herein). U. S. v. Michael (D. C. 1907), 153 Fed. 609.

Clothing issued to a soldier becomes his individual property and ceases to belong to the United States, and a person receiving it in pledge from a soldier is not criminally liable under R. S. sec. 5438 (embodied herein); the sole punishment for the act being the seizure of the articles of which he is pledgee under this section. Id.

An indictment for purchasing of a soldier "his arms " can only be sustained by showing that the soldier was in lawful possession of the arms, or had a special bailment of them. U. S. v. Brown (C. C. 1816), Fed. Cas. No. 14669.

The confession of a defendant that he received a pistol in pledge from a soldier was sufficiently corroborated to justify the submission of the case to the jury by evidence showing that the pistol was issued to a soldier, and that it was found in possession of the defendant, whose place of business was very near the reservation on which such soldier was stationed. Bolland v. U. S. (C. C. A. 1916), 238 Fed. 529. Punishment.-The imposition by this section of a maximum fine of $500 and imprisonment for not more than two years upon a civilian for knowingly purchasing or receiving in pledge any public property from a soldier, is not unconstitutional as providing for an excessive fine or a cruel

Ontai v. U. S.

and unusual punishment. (1911), 188 Fed. 310, 110 C. C. A. 288. To warrant a conviction under R. S. sec. 5438 (embodied herein), for knowingly purchasing or receiving in pledge from a soldier in the military service of the United States arms, clothing, or other public property, such soldier not having the lawful right to sell or pledge the same, it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant actually purchased or received in pledge from a soldier the property described in the indictment with knowledge that the seller or pledgor was at the time a soldier in the service of the United States, and that the property was military property such as the Government issues, but it is not necessary to prove that the soldier had no lawful right to sell or pledge such property because the same is expressly prohibited by secs. 815, ante, and 817, post, and the jury may in a proper case give effect to the provisions of such sections making possession of such property by a civilian presumptive evidence that the same was sold, bartered, or pledged in violation of such prohibition. U. S. v. Smith (C. C. 1907), 156 Fed. 859.

In a criminal prosecution for purchasing any of the United States supplies from a soldier, the burden is not on the United States to show that the soldier had no right to sell the property, as this section explicitly provides that he shall not sell such property. Id.

Since in a prosecution for knowingly purchasing clothing from certain marines in the Government service, in alleged violation of this section, prohibiting any person from knowingly making such purchases, etc., the Government was required to prove guilty knowledge, evidence of the commission of other similar offenses by accused than those charged in the indictment was admissible. Lobosco v. U. S. (1911), 183 Fed. 742, 106 C. C. A. 476.

Articles of war.-The amendment of Oct. 23, 1918, to the above section, while relating to the same subject matter as A. W. 94, post, ch. 52, and applying both to civilians and persons in the military or naval service, does not amend or repeal such article, nor deprive courts-martial of jurisdiction in respect to persons in the military and naval service. U. S. v. Barry (D. C. 1919), 260 Fed. 291.

Contingent expenses of the military establishment, 818.

Corps of Engineers:

Proceeds from operation of public utili

ties, 819.

Proceeds from sales of material, 820.

Disbursements

Insufficient balance, 821.

Settlement of accounts with other de

partments, 822.

For fortifications, 823.

For temporary construction, 824.
By constructing engineers, 825.
Regulation of supplies, 826.
Signal Corps:

Appropriations for support, 827.
Proceeds from sales of supplies, 828.

Settlement with other departments, 829.
Disbursements of funds, 830.
Property returns, 831.

Telegraph and telephone service

Purchase, equipment, operation, and re-
pair, 832,

Commercial telephone service at Coast
Artillery posts, 833.

Forwarding telegrams, 834.

Washington-Alaska military cable and

telegraph system, 835.

Willful injury to systems, 836.

Air Service:

Patents on aircraft, 837.

Special clothing and equipment, 838. Special apparatus for medical research,

839.

Sale of airplane materials, 840.

For aeroplane mail service, 841. Transfer of aeroplanes and automobiles to the Post Office Department, 842. Indemnity for damage resulting from the operation of aircraft, 843.

Medical Department:

Settlement of accounts with other departments, 844.

Procurement of supplies, 845.

Transfer of hospitals and equipment to
Public Health Service, 846.

Sales of medical supplies-
Proceeds available, 847.

To the Soldiers' Home, 848.

To civilian employees, 849.

To American National Red Cross, 850. Issue of supplies to American National Red Cross, 851.

Dental supplies, to be sold, 852.