all bills of exchange, promissory notes, and other evidences of indebtedness due to such estates, and to take such steps as may be necessary for their collection," and to require said officer to deposit into the Treasury in trust for the legal claimants the net proceeds of sales by the Secretary of the Treasury of jewelry and other articles of said estates, together with such other moneys as the General Accounting Office may collect, and to report thereon to the Secretary of State; on the other hand, the effect of such existing legislation is still to require the consulates to transmit the balances of said estates to the Treasury Department and to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to order sold such received effects as are not applied for within two years thereafter and consist of "jewelry or other articles," and to pay the expenses of sale out of the proceeds. The result is an anomalous and impracticable statutory procedure. In order to correct this procedure amendatory legislation is necessary.

Certain other amendments to the existing law of a helpful character appear in the bill, as hereinafter pointed out.

The existing inadequate law on the subject is found in section 1709, Revised Statutes, as amended by the acts of March 3, 1911 (36 Stat. 1083), and June 10, 1921, section 304 (42 Stat. 24). As will be seen, this proposed legislation makes no change therein in that part preceding the fourth section.

The effect of the changes which the bill makes in the fourth, fifth, and sixth sections of the law, and by the addition in the bill of a new seventh section, are as follows:

Fourth: Abolishes the section auction sale abroad of the effects of deceased American citizens dying within consulates as now required and confines the single sale it requires the consul or vice consul to make to such effects-additional to perishable ones as necessary for the payment of the debts of the deceased incurred in such country.

Fifth: Substitutes the General Accounting Office for the Treasury Department as the Federal activity to which the consul or vice consul shall transmit the unsold balance of the estate of the deceased, and entitles such transmitting official to his costs and expenses incurred in connection with the estate.

Sixth: Enables the Comptroller General of the United States to empower some member of the General Accounting Office to represent his for the purpose of the conservation of such part of the estates as received by him, or as the General Accounting Office may have in its possession; substitutes the Comptroller General for the Secretary of the Treasury as the official who shall sell the effects which the General Accounting Office receives and pay the sale expenses; substitutes six years for two years as the time to intervene between the time the effects are received by said office and their sale; enlarges the specific provisions for the conservation to meet difficulties in collections of a nature encountered in the past; and confines the sale proceeds to be deposited in the Treasury in a trust fund for the legal claimant to net proceeds.

Seventh Provides for the transmittal by the General Accounting Office of the trust funds in the Treasury, with any remaining unsold effects, to proper State or Territorial officers of domicile of deceased, or, if said domicile be unknown, for the covering of such funds into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts, and for the final disposition

of any such remaining unsold effects; and affords added protection for such of the unclaimed estates as exceed $500 in value in the form of advertisement before disposition thereof.

The changes in the wording of existing law (sec. 1769, Rev. Stat., as amended) are as follows:

[Matter stricken is inclosed in black brackets; new matter is in italics.]

It shall be the duty of consuls and vice consuls, where the laws of the country permit

First. To take possession of the personal estate left by any citizen of the United States, other than seamen belonging to any vessel, who shall die within their consulate, leaving there no legal representative, partner in trade, or trustee by him appointed to take care of his effects.

Second. To inventory the same with the assistance of two merchants of the United States, or, for want of them, of any others at their choice.

Third. To collect the debts due the deceased in the country where he died, and pay the debts due from his estate which he shall have there contracted. Fourth. To sell at auction, after reasonable public notice, such part of the estate as shall be of a perishable nature, and such further part, if any, as shall be necessary for the payment of his debts [, and, at the expiration of one year Irom his decease, the residue.] incurred in such country.

Fifth. To transmit the balance of the estate to the [Treasury of the United States,] General Accounting Office to be holden in trust for the legal claimant; except that if at any time before such transmission the legal representative of the deceased shall appear and demand his effects which are in [their] the hands [they] of such consul or vice consul, said consul or vice consul shall deliver them up, being paid their fees, costs and expenses, and shall cease their proceedings. Sixth. The Comptroller General of the United States, or such member of the General Accounting Office as he may duly empower to act as his representative for the purpose, shall act as conservator of such part of these estates as may be received [at the Treasury] by the General Accounting Office, or are in its possession, and, for their protection, [the Secretary of the Treasury] he may order such effects to be sold as may consist of jewelry or other articles which have heretofore or may hereafter be so received [at the Treasury], and pay the expenses of such sale out of the proceeds, provided application for these effects shall not have been made by the legal claimant within [two] six years after their receipt. The [General Accounting Office] Comptroller General is authorized, in the name of the deceased, to receive any balances due to such estates, to draw therefor on banks, safe deposits, trust or loan companies, or other like institutions, to indorse all checks, bills of exchange, promissory notes, and other evidences of indebtedness due to such estates, and [to] take such other steps as [may be] necessary for their collection[.], and to do and perform all and any other acts necessary for the conservation of such estates. The net proceeds of such sales, together with such other moneys as may be collected by [it] him, shall be deposited into the Treasury to a fund in trust for the legal claimant, and [be] reported to the Secretary of State.

Seventh. If no claim to the effects the proceeds of which have been so deposited shall have been received from a legal claimant of the deceased within six years from the date of the receipt of the effects by the General Accounting Office, the funds so deposited, with any remaining unsold effects, less transmittal charges, shall be transmitted by that office to the proper officers of the State or Territory of the domicile of the deceased citizen, if known, or, if not, such funds shall be covered into the general fund of the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts on account of proceeds of deceased citizens, and any such remaining unsold effects shall be disposed of by the General Accounting Office in such manner as, in the judgment of the Comptroller General, is deemed appropriate, or they may be destroyed if considered no longer possessed of any value: Provided, That when the estate shall be valued in excess of $500, and no claim therefor has been presented to the General Accounting Office by a legal claimant within the period specified in this paragraph or the legal claimant is unknown, before disposition of the estate as provided herein, notice shall be given by publishing once a week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in the county of the last-known domicile of the deceased, the expense thereof to be deducted from the proceeds of such estate, and any lawful claim received as the result of such advertisement shall be adjusted and settled as provided for herein.

RECONSTRUCTION FINANCE CORPORATION

JANUARY 21, 1932.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. STEAGALL, from the Committee of Conference, submitted the following

CONFERENCE REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 7360]

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 7360) to provide emergency financing facilities for financial institutions, to aid in financing agriculture, commerce, and industry, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows: That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the Senate and agree to the same with an amendment as follows: In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the Senate amendment insert:

That there be, and is hereby, created a body corporate with the name "Reconstruction Finance Corporation" (herein called the corporation). That the principal office of the corporation shall be located in the District of Columbia, but there may be established agencies or branch offices in any city or cities of the United States under rules and regulations prescribed by the board of directors. This act may be cited as the "Reconstruction Finance Corporation Act."

SEC. 2. The corporation shall have capital stock of $500,000,000, subscribed by the United States of America, payment for which shall be subject to call in whole or in part by the board of directors of the corporation.

There is hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $500,000,000, for the purpose of making payments upon such subscription when called: Provided, That $50,000,000 of the amount so subscribed, and the expansion of same through the notes, debentures, bonds, or other obligations as set out in section 9 shall be allocated and made available to the Secretary of Agriculture, which sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, shall be expended by the Secretary of Agriculture for the

purpose of making loans or advances to farmers in the several States of the United States in cases where he finds that an emergency exists as a result of which farmers are unable to obtain loans for crop production during the year 1932: Provided further, That the Secretary of Agriculture shall give preference in making such loans or advances to farmers who suffered from crop failures in 1931. Such advances or loans shall be made upon such terms and conditions end subject to such regulations as the Secretary of Agriculture shall prescribe. A first lien on all crops growing, or to be planted and grown, shall, in the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture, be deemed sufficient security for such loan or advance. All such loans or advances shall be made through such agencies as the Secretary of Agriculture may designate, and in such amounts as such agencies, with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture, may determine. Any person who shall knowingly make any material false representation for the purpose of obtaining an advance or loan, or in assisting in obtaining such advance or loan under this section shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not exceeding $1,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.

Receipts for payments by the United States of America for or on account of such stock shall be issued by the corporation to the Secretary of the Treasury and shall be evidence of the stock ownership of the United States of America.

SEC. 3. The management of the corporation shall be vested in a board of directors consisting of the Secretary of the Treasury, or, in his absence, the Under Secretary of the Treasury, the governor of the Federal Reserve Board, and the Farm Loan Commissioner, who shall be members ex officio, and four other persons appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Of the seven members of the board of directors not more than four shall be members of any one political party and not more than one shall be appointed from any one Federal reserve district. Each director shall devote his time not otherwise required by the business of the United States principally to the business of the corporation. Before entering upon his duties each of the directors so appointed and each officer of the corporation shall take an oath faithfully to discharge the duties of his office. Nothing contained in this or in any other Act shall be construed to prevent the appointment and compensation as an employee of the corporation of any officer or employee of the United States in any board, commission, independent establishment, or executive department thereof. The terms of the directors appointed by the President of the United States shall be two years and run from the date of the enactment hereof and until their successors are appointed and qualified. Whenever a vacancy shall occur among the directors so appointed, the person appointed to fill such vacancy shall hold office for the unexpired portion of the term of the director whose place he is selected to fill. The directors of the corporation appointed as hereinbefore provided shall receive salaries at the rate of $10,000 per annum each. No director, officer, attorney, agent, or employee of the corporation shall in any manner, directly or indirectly, participate in the deliberation upon or the determination of any question affecting his personal interests, or the interests of any corporation, partnership, or association in which he is directly or indirectly interested.

SEC. 4. The corporation shall have succession for a period of ten years from the date of the enactment hereof, unless it is sooner dissolved by an Act of Congress. It shall have power to adopt, alter, and use a