* * * from foreign countries: Provided, That, except as otherwise hereinafter provided, all articles, the growth or product of or manufactured in the Philippine Islands from materials the growth or product of the Philippine Islands or of the United States, or of both, or which do not contain foreign materials to the value of more than twenty per centum of their total value, upon which no drawback of customs duties has been allowed therein, coming into the United States from the Philippine Islands shall hereafter be admitted free of duty, except rice, and except, in any fiscal year cigars in excess of one hundred and fifty million cigars, which quantities shall be ascertained by the Secretary of the Treasury under such rules and regulations as he shall prescribe. * * And provided further, That there shall be levied, collected, and paid in the United States upon articles, goods, wares, or merchandise coming into the United States from the Philippine Islands, a tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United States upon the like articles, goods, wares, or merchandise of domestic manufacture; such tax to be paid by internal-revenue stamp or stamps, to be provided by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and to be affixed in such manner and under such regulations as he, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prescribe * * Section 2804 of the Revised Statutes, as amended, provides: "SEC. 2804. No cigars shall be imported unless the same are packed in boxes of not more than five hundred cigars in each box; and no entry of any imported cigars shall be allowed of less quantity than three thousand in a single package; and all cigars on importation shall be placed in public store or bonded warehouse, and shall not be removed therefrom until the same shall have been inspected and a stamp affixed to each box indicating such inspection, and also a serial number to be recorded in the customhouse. And the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to provide the requisite stamps, and to make all necessary regulations for carrying the above provisions of law into effect." The act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. 691, 711), known as the Philippine organic act, provided: "SEC. 84. That the laws relating to entry, clearance, and manifests of steamships and other vessels arriving from or going to foreign ports shall apply to voyages each way between the Philippine Islands and the United States and the possessions thereof, and all laws relating to the collection and protection of customs duties not inconsistent with the act of Congress of March eighth, nineteen hundred and two, 'temporarily to provide revenue for the Philippine Islands,' shall apply in the case of vessels and goods arriving from said Islands in the United States and its aforesaid possessions." This provision is general and continuing in its nature, and has not, so far as I am advised, been repealed by subsequent legislation. Assuming it therefore to be in force, it sufficiently answers your inquiry as to the applicability of section 2804 to cigars coming from the Philippine Islands, and renders unnecessary any consideration of the meaning of the word "imported" in that section. For the same reason, nothing in the opinion of Acting Attorney General Fowler of September 19, 1910 (28 Op. 422), holding that section 14 of the tariff act of August 5, 1909, which prohibits the importation from foreign countries of convictmade goods, did not apply to goods manufactured in the Philippine Islands, is applicable to this case. Section 2804 of the Revised Statutes plainly relates to the "collection and protection of customs duties" upon cigars, within the meaning of section 84 of the Philippine organic act, and is not inconsistent with the act of March 8, 1902, "temporarily to provide revenue for the Philippine Islands," nor with anything in the tariff act of August 5, 1909. It apparently does not make any difference, so far as the applicability of section 2804 is concerned, that cigars coming into the United States from the Philippine Islands are not dutiable. But such cigars are dutiable unless they are shown to comply with the conditions specified in the act of August 5, 1909, as necessary to entitle them to free entry. All such cigars should, therefore, be entered in accordance with the provisions of the laws relating to the "collection and protection of customs duties," and particularly section 2804, Revised Statutes, and such, I think, was the intention of Congress. It is noted that your inquiry pertains both to cigars and cigarettes, while the provisions of law referred to relate in express terms to cigars only. In your letter of the 3d instant you inform me, in response to my inquiry, that the practical construction which your department has placed upon the term "cigars," as used in section 2804 of the Revised Statutes and section 5 of the tariff act of 1909, is that it includes cigarettes, and I adopt that construction herein, as I do not understand that it was your intention to submit that question for my opinion. Section 3402 of the Revised Statutes, also mentioned in your inquiry, provides: "SEC. 3402. All cigars imported from foreign countries shall pay, in addition to the import duties imposed thereon, the tax prescribed by law for cigars manufactured in the United States, and shall have the same stamps affixed. The stamps shall be affixed and canceled by the owner or importer of the cigars while they are in the custody of the proper customhouse officers, and the cigars shall not pass out of the custody of such officers until the stamps have been so affixed and canceled, but shall be put up in boxes containing quantities as prescribed in this chapter for cigars manufactured in the United States, before the stamps are affixed. And the owner or importer of such cigars shall be liable to all the penal provisions of this Title prescribed for manufactures of cigars manufactured in the United States * * *" Section 3402 is a part of the general laws relating to the collection of internal revenue. It relates in terms to cigars imported from foreign countries, and, unlike the laws relating to the collection and protection of the customs revenue, has apparently not been expressly applied to cigars coming from the Philippine Islands. But it is unnecessary to consider whether this section was intended to apply to cigars coming from the Philippine Islands, because section 5 of the act of August 5, 1909, expressly provides for the internal-revenue tax on cigars brought from the Philippine Islands and specifies that the stamps in payment thereof are "to be provided by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and to be affixed in such manner and under such regulations as he, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall prescribe." This specific provision on the subject must be taken as exclusive. Having held that section 2804, which forbids the entry of cigars of less quantity than 3,000 in a single package, applies to cigars coming from the Philippine Islands, it becomes unnecessary to answer your further question, whether shipments of cigars in quantities of less than 3,000 in a single package through the mails via Hongkong would be a direct or indirect shipment under section 5 of the tariff act of August 5, 1909. What has been said as to the applicability of section 2804 also disposes of your inquiry in regard to cigars and cigarettes brought into the United States from the Philippine Islands in excess of the limitation fixed by the act of August 5, 1909. Respectfully, GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM. The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. LOWRY NATIONAL BANK OF ATLANTA, GA.-ESTABLISHMENT OF BRANCH OFFICE. A national bank, independently of section 5190, Revised Statutes, is not DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your communication of January 3, 1911, in which you say that the Lowry National Bank of Atlanta, Ga., desires to establish another office or banking house in that city and has requested the Comptroller of the Currency to state whether any objection will be made to such action, and you ask 89760° VOL 29-13-6 my opinion with reference to the right of a national bank to establish an additional or branch office or banking house in the place designated in its certificate of organization. I have given the question consideration commensurate with its great importance and with the earnestness and ability with which it has been presented in briefs and arguments submitted on behalf of the bank, and will assign at some length the reasons for the conclusions which I have reached. Whatever may be the English rule with reference to the power of the stockholders of a corporation to make a contract which will bind the corporation, when the power to make such contract is not prohibited, although not granted either expressly or by implication in its charter (Riche v. The Ashbury Railway, etc., Co., Law Rep. 9 Ex. Cas. 224, 227), the American rule defining the powers that may be exercised by a corporation is well settled, and was thus stated by the Supreme Court of the United States in Green Bay & Minn. Railroad Co. v. Union Steamboat Co. 107 U. S. 98, 100: "The general doctrine upon this subject is now well settled. The charter of a corporation, read in connection with the general laws applicable to it, is the measure of its powers, and a contract manifestly beyond those powers will not sustain an action against the corporation. But whatever, under the charter and other general laws, reasonably construed, may fairly be regarded as incidental to the objects for which the corporation is created, is not te be taken as prohibited." The principle is also well stated in People v. Pullman's Palace Car Co. 175 Ill. 125, 136, as follows: "The enactment creating the appellee corporation is the full measure of its power. In order to enable it to carry into execution the powers thus conferred it may exercise other powers, known to the law as incidental or implied powers. Implied powers exist only to enable a corporation to carry out the express powers granted—that is, to accomplish the purpose of its existence and can in no case avail to enlarge the express powers, and thereby war |