1910 (36 Stat. 605, 628), required the contracts for construction of vessels to contain a provision bringing them within the act of August 1, 1892, supra. The act which passed the House December 14 last and is now pending in the Senate is to the same effect, though of broader scope. As indicated above, I do not think that the slightly varying phraseology of these acts indicates any different intention on the part of Congress as to the main purpose of the legislation, i. e., to limit the hours of labor to eight hours in one day. It can not be denied that the act of August 1, 1892, with its restriction to eight hours in any one calendar day would prohibit the schedule of hours desired by your correspondents, and, as pointed out above, Congress did not suppose that this language had any different meaning from the provision "that eight hours shall constitute a day's work" of the act of June 25, 1868. The naval appropriation act of June 24, 1910, expressly adopts the act of August 1, 1892, and I can not believe that the phrase "eight-hour workday" in the act of March 4, 1911, is so clearly different in meaning as to indicate that Congress intended to make this act, upon this important point, an exception to all other legislation on the same subject, especially since, as pointed out in my opinion of December 21 last (29 Op. 279, 284), the Members of Congress responsible for the amendment to the naval appropriation act and the conference report on the bill stated that it was intended thereby to apply the restrictions of the act of August 1, 1892, to the construction of vessels authorized in the appropriation act.

The act of May 24, 1888, supra, containing the provision "that hereafter eight hours shall constitute a day's work for letter carriers," came under the consideration of the Court of Claims in the Letter Carriers' Cases (27 Ct. Cls. 244). One of the contentions of the Government in those cases was that, where a carrier worked less than eight hours in a day he was to be charged with the deficiency, and that his extra pay was to be figured on an eight-hour average through a period of a week, month, or year. In disposing of this claim the court said (27 Ct. Cls. 259): "To sustain the interpretation given to the act by the Department, it will be necessary to read in it by construction

the words on an average'-i. c., if any letter carrier is employed on an average a greater number of hours per day than eight, he shall be paid extra for the same. This the court is not at liberty to do." This language of the Court of Claims is adopted as its opinion by the Supreme Court on appeal (United States v. Gates, 148 U. S. 134). The same principle seems to be involved in the decisions in Luske v. Hotchkiss (37 Conn. 219), Brooks v. Cotton (48 N. H. 50), Helphenstine v. IIartig (5 Ind. App. 172), and in Mr. Moody's opinion in 26 Op. 64, 67. The act of June 2, 1900, supra, passed to regulate the situation disclosed by the Letter Carrier Cases, shows that when Congress intends to permit an average eight-hour day to be computed by the week, or some longer period, it is capable of using language clearly expressing that idea.

To construe the phrase "an eight-hour workday" so as to make it, not a standard in and of itself, but merely a factor in some larger period of time, would be to enter on an unknown course without guide or compass. Why should a week be taken as the ultimate sum? Why not a month or a year? A schedule could then be arranged of, say, 192 hours a month, consisting of, say, 12 hours a day with holidays interspersed. Or the men might be worked 12 hours a day, when emergency required, and laid off when work was slack. Congress has chosen in this legislation to take the eight-hour day as the standard, and has provided no other. For me, now, to adopt another would not be construction; it would be legislation.

That the schedule desired by your correspondents will be acceptable to their employees and, perchance, more favorable to their physical and moral well-being than a strict eight-hour schedule is a consideration proper to the legislative department, and to it only. As a matter of the construction of the act of March 4, 1911, to which, of course, I am confined, I am of the opinion that the phrase "an eight-hour workday" does not authorize the establishment of a schedule by which the employees work more than eight hours in any one day.

Respectfully,

GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM.

The SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

ARMS AND MUNITIONS OF WAR.

The words "arms or munitions of war," within the meaning of the joint resolution of March 14, 1912, authorizing the President by proclamation to prohibit the export of arms or munitions of war to any American country in which conditions of domestic violence are found to exist, embrace weapons used for the destruction of life, together with ammunition and equipment useful in connection with them, and explosives and other equipment of a military character, or articles used for the construction of such equipment. Such articles as come within the definition of "arms or munitions of war" are herein enumerated.

Foodstuffs, ordinary clothing, and ordinary articles of peaceful commerce are not included in the prohibition.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

March 25, 1912.

SIR: You have referred to me some correspondence with the Acting Secretary of State regarding the practical interpretation to be given to the prohibition contained in the joint resolution of Congress passed March 14, 1912, and the proclamation issued by you, in pursuance thereof, making it unlawful to export, except under such limitations and exceptions as the President shall prescribe, any arms or munitions of war from any place in the United States to any American country in which conditions of domestic violence are found by the President to exist, etc.

You ask my opinion as to the proper interpretation to be given to the words "arms or munitions of war." There is no dispute as to the meaning of the word "arms,” but a question arises as to the precise import of the phrase "munitions of war." The word "munition " is defined in Skeat's Etymological Dictionary as "materials used in war." It is derived from the verb munire, to fortify; and perhaps its nearest antecedent is munitionem-the accusative of munitio, a blockading, defending, or securinghence its analogy to ammunition, store for defense. Accordingly the Standard Dictionary defines it as "Ammunition and all necessary raw material, including stores of every kind; all requisites for warfare, exclusive of money and men." The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia defines it as "Materials used in war for defense or for attack; war material; military stores of all kinds; ammuni

tion, provisions." Webster's International Dictionary, as "Whatever materials are used in war for defense or for annoying an enemy; ammunition; also stores and provisions; military stores of all kinds; hence necessary equipment or provision in general."

Although many of these definitions embrace in the definition of the word munition not only materials for attack or defense, but stores or provisions, a distinction is drawn by the writers on international law between munitions of war proper and those articles which from their particular use may become munitions of war. The phrase is used in connection with definitions of the term "contraband of war." Articles which are contraband of war have been classed under two heads:

"Those that are primarily and ordinarily used for military purposes in time of war, e. g., arms and munitions of war; military material, &c.; articles of this kind being usually described as absolutely contraband (7 Moore's Digest, 666).

In the instructions given by Mr. Cass, Secretary of State, to Mr. Mason, minister to France, in June, 1859, speaking of the term "contraband of war," Mr. Cass

wrote:

"Some of the later and approved writers upon the law of nations, such as Hautefeuille and Ortolan * * * and the former particularly, confines the list" of contraband of war "to objects of first necessity for war, and which are exclusively useful in its prosecution, and which can be directly employed for that purpose without undergoing any change that is to say, to arms and munitions of war" (7 Moore's Digest, 661).

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Among articles absolutely contraband, according to the orders of the Navy Department, given June 20, 1898, are ordnance, machine guns, and other articles of military or naval warfare." Among those conditionally contraband are coal," when destined for a naval station, a port of call, or ship or ships of the enemy," and provisions "when destined for the enemy's ship or ships or for a place that is besieged" (7 Moore's Digest, 687).

"Articles which, like arms and ammunition are, by their nature, of self-evident warlike use, are contraband of war if destined to enemy territory" (Mr. Hay to Minister McCormick, Aug. 30, 1904, 7 Moore's Digest, 692).

Ortolan considers, " que les armes et instruments de guerre quelconques, et les munitions de toute sorte servant directement à l'usage de ces armes, sont les seuls objets qui soient généralement et nécessairement contrebande de guerre *" (Hall Int. Law, 6th ed. 649).

* *

"L'idée de la contrebande," says Heffter (Le Droit 160), "est une idée complexe, variable selon les temps et les circonstances, et qu'il est difficile de déterminer d'une manière absolue et constante *** D'après les usages internationaux universels, la contrebande est exclusivement limitée aux armes, utensiles et munitions de guerre, en d'autres termes aux objets façonnés et fabriqués exclusivement pour servir dans la guerre, non pas aux matières premières propres à la fabrication d'objets prohibés

(Hall, 649).

Lord Lansdowne in writing to Lord Hardinge in August, 1904, refers to the first class of articles contraband of war as

"Those that are primarily and ordinarily used for military purposes in time of war; e. g., arms and munitions of war, military material, &c.-articles of this kind being usually described as absolutely contraband (7 Moore's Digest, 666).

At the international conference held in London during the winter of 1908-9, a list of articles which without notice may be treated as absolutely contraband was prepared as follows:

"1. Arms of all kinds, including arms for sporting purposes, and their distinctive component parts.

"2. Projectiles, charges, and cartridges of all kinds, and their distinctive component parts.

"3. Powder and explosives specially prepared for use in war.

"4. Gun mountings, limber boxes, limbers, military wagons, field forges, and their distinctive component parts.