posing the provisional regiment they will be required to per form their regular battery duties.

The regimental noncommissioned staff shall consist of a sergeant major, senior grade.

7. Battalion commanders, except Major Hoyle, assigned to duty by this order will join their respective commands without delay. Major Hoyle will join his battalion upon completion of the duty assigned him by paragraph 2, Special Orders, No. 85, War Department, November 23, 1903.

The changes in organization and in the assignment of addi. tional officers and enlisted men and animals necessitated by this order will be made as soon as practicable.

The changes of stations of batteries provided for herein will be made as soon as the necessary barrack and stable accom. modations are completed at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, and Buffalo, New York.

Pending the completion of barracks and stables at the stations named the 16th (siege), the 28th (mountain), and the 29th Batteries, Field Artillery, stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the 12th and 22d Batteries stationed at Fort Douglas, Utah, and the 8th and 26th (mountain) Batteries stationed at Vancouver Barracks, Washington, will constitute provisional battalions.

The travel enjoined is necessary for the public service.
BY ORDER OF THE ACTING SECRETARY OF WAR:

ADNA R. CHAFFEE,

Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff. OFFICIAL: F. C. AINSWORTH,

The Military Secretary.

GENERAL ORDERS,

WAR DEPARTMENT,

No. 153.

Washington, September 16, 1904.

The following orders of the Honorable the Postmaster General, publishing rates of pay for communications by telegraph and cable, are published to the Army for the information and guidance of all concerned.

BY ORDER OF THE ACTING SECRETARY OF WAR:

RATES OF PAY FOR COMMUNICATIONS OVER THE COMMERCIAL PACIFIC CABLE.

ORDER No. 877.

Pursuant to the authority vested in the Postmaster General by the Preamble and Resolutions adopted at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Pacific Cable Company, held in the City of New York on the 25th day of November, 1902, a certified copy of said Preamble and Resolutions being on file in this office, paragraph 4 of which reads as follows:

4. That the Government of the United States, any department thereof, its officers, agents, and insular or territorial officers and governments upon the route of such cable shall have priority for the official cablegrams over all other business, at such dates as the Postmaster General shall annually fix.

I hereby fix the rates for the transmission of Government communications over the Commercial Pacific Cable Company's line during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1904, and terminating June 30, 1905, said rates being exclusive of place from and rate, as follows:

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
Washington, D. C., August 5, 1904.

Between Honolulu, H. I., and Midway

66

Sumaye, Guam.
Manila, Luzon

Sumaye, Guam.
Manila, Luzon.

**

46

Between Midway and Sumaye, Guam..
Manila, Luzon.
Between Sumaye, Guam and Manila, Luzon......

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

Washington, D. C., August 5, 1904.

ORDER No. 876.

Pursuant to the authority vested in the Postmaster General by the Act of Congress entitled "An Act to aid in the construction of telegraph lines, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,' approved July 24, 1866, and by the Revised Statutes of the United States, Title LXV, I hereby fix the rates at which such communications as the said Statutes prescribe (not including those passing over circuits established by the Chief of the Weather Bureau, Department of Agriculture) shall be sent during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1904, and terminating June 30, 1905, by the several companies within the effect of said statutes, as follows:

For day messages containing not more than twenty (20) words, exclusive of place from and date, twenty (20) cents, not exceeding one thousand (1,000) miles, and one cent for each additional word. One quarter of this rate to be added for each five hundred (500) miles, or fraction thereof, but no rate on a message of twenty (20) words to be more than forty (40) cents, nor on an additional word more than two (2) cents. The rate between all points in any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia shall be twenty (20) cents for twenty (20) words, and one cent for each additional word.

In cases where the price of a message, determined as herein provided, shall include a fraction of a cent, such fraction, if less than one-half, is to be disregarded; if onehalf or more, it is to be counted as one cent.

For night messages not exceeding twenty (20) words, exclusive of place from and date, fifteen (15) cents for any distance within two thousand (2,000) miles, and for greater distances twenty-five (25) cents; in each case one cent for each additional word.

Instead of computing the actual distances of transmission, the distance for payment shall in all cases be taken absolutely to be the number of miles between the tapital of the State or Territory, or from the city of Washington, if from within the District of Columbia, from within which (whatever the place) the message is sent, and the capital of the State or Territory, or the city of Washington, if within the District of Columbia, within which (whatever the place) the message is received, as shown in the accompanying table, wherein such distances are given as computed upon the shortest practicable route between such capitals, and which is to be taken as part of this order.

But it is provided that if, on the 1st day of July, 1904, or at any time during the ensuing year, any such company shall charge the public for a message of ten words of less, exclusive of the date, address, and signature, a less rate than is herein fixed for twenty (20) words, exclusive of place from and date, the rates here prescribed shall, as to such company, thenceforth during the year be reduced to the rates so charged to the public.

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