exchange, and recommend any changes that may be desired by the enlisted men, but it is not empowered to criticise the management. Its views and recommendations will be carefully and respectfully considered by the council, whose action thereon will be reviewed by the commanding officer.

7. Rules of order.-Rules of order will be prescribed by the officer in charge, under the commanding officer. Gambling or playing any game for money, or anything of value, is forbidden in any exchange. Civilians, other than those employed and resident on the military reservation, will not be permitted to enter the rooms of an exchange without first obtaining the authority of the exchange officer.

8. First expense of stock and fixtures.—The expense of fitting up the quarters of the exchange and procuring the necessary articles for the first stock and fixtures may be met by an assessment upon the funds of the several organizations contributing to the institution, or these may be contracted for, or procured on credit. When procured on credit, the bills must be paid from the first profits, and it is to be distinctly understood that the officers incurring the debt are responsible for the payment, and not the Government. The Quartermaster's Department is authorized to sell for cash to exchanges at cost, with price of transportation added, such articles of fuel, forage, light, furniture, and fixtures as may be needed and can be spared from stock on hand.

9. Exchange features.-An exchange doing its full work should embrace the following sections: (a) A well-stocked general store in which such goods are kept as are usually required at military posts, and as extensive in number and variety as conditions will justify; (b) A well-kept restaurant supplied with as great a variety of viands as circumstances permit, such as tea, coffee, cocoa, nonalcoholic drinks, soup, fish, cooked and canned meats, sandwiches, pastries, etc.; (c) Reading and recreation rooms, supplied with books, periodicals, and other reading matter, billard and pool tables, bowling alley and facilities for other proper indoor games, as well as apparatus for outdoor sports and exercises, such as cricket, football, baseball, tennis, etc.; a well-equipped gymnasium, possessing also the requisite paraphernalia for outdoor athletics; (d) Barber shop, laundry, tailor shop, and shoe repair shop.

No other features than those enumerated will be added to the business of an exchange without the authority of the War Department. Keeping an open money account with individuals against which checks may be drawn is not a proper feature of an exchange and is forbidden.

Post exchanges may, however, as an accommodation to discharged soldiers, cash their final statements. No charge will be made for the accommodation, but a small part of the value of the final statements may be retained until the account is paid by the paymaster, to insure against loss due to error in calculating interest, travel-pay, etc.

The amount retained, less cost of exchange or post office order, will be transmitted to the soldier as soon as the actual state of the account is known.

The exchange assumes no liability for errors for over payments to soldiers made by paymasters, the liability resting on the company commander who signs the accounts, or the paymaster who pays them, according to the source of the error.

While it is not required that exchanges shall cash final statements of discharged soldiers, it should be done if practicable whenever final statements can not be cashed otherwise without delay or expense to the soldier.

10. Purchase and sale of goods.—Purchases will be made by the exchange officer, but articles in considerable quantities will be procured under contract by the exchange officer, with the approval of the council. In no case will orders for goods, however small, be given by the enlisted attendants to the person furnishing them, nor shall the steward or any employee of the exchange have, either directly or indirectly, any personal interest in the purchases, sales or profits, or any advantage of wastage or perquisites of any kind whatever. Whenever contracts or agreements for purchases are made by exchange authorities, who by change of station or other cause are removed, such contracts or agreements must be carried out by their successors. The Subsistence Department is authorized to sell to the exchange at cost price any of the articles composing the ration, and such other articles as may be on hand for sale. But in reselling such goods in small quantities no profit will be charged by the exchange beyond the fractions of cents that are necessary in making change.

11. Lunch room and price lists.-In the lunch room prices

should be made as low as the cost of the articles, increased by expenses of the attendants, fuel, lights, and waste will permit. Other than this the tariff of prices will be regulated by the circumstances surrounding each exchange. Printed or written price lists will be conspicuously posted in the various sections, and will be corrected when necessary.

12. Checks or coupons.-The use of checks or coupons representing values, and exchangeable for merchandise or other charges at the exchange, is encouraged, merely; but care should be taken that these checks are not disposed of to unauthorized persons, and to provide against this, they should never be redeemed in cash. When permitted by the commanding officer, they should be sold by the exchange officer and regarded as a liability until redeemed.

13. System of keeping accounts.-It is not desirable to enforce a particular method of bookkeeping, or impose a special system of accounts upon exchanges. This will be regulated by the exchange officer, whose accounts should be so kept as to be readily understood by the inspecting officers, and to afford the information necessary to render the reports hereinafter prescribed. All business of the exchange must be transacted in its name, and not that of the exchange officer. Invoices, receipted bills, account books, and other papers relating to the business of an exchange pertain to its records, and will not be removed from the post, except in the event of its abandonment, when they will be forwarded to The Military Secretary of the Army.

14. Sales on credit.-When the commanding officer and council are agreed that it is to the true interest of the command, the former may authorize a credit at the exchange to any soldier in good standing to an amount not exceeding in any month one-fifth of his monthly pay. This will be given upon the request of the soldier in writing, approved by his company commander, and these credit checks will be carried on the accounts of the exchanges as "bills receivable" until paid. Soldiers granted credit will be distinctly informed that they must make prompt and unsolicited payment to the exchange officer on the next pay day. Defaulters will be debarred the privileges of the exchange and are liable to trial and punishment. It is the duty of a soldier who has been given credit to pay the amount as soon as he receives his pay, and the ex

change officer will be present at the place of payment to receive the money or make such arrangements as will facilitate the payment. Credit will not ordinarily be extended to a soldier between the date of last payment on rolls before discharge and the date of discharge. When the debt has remained unpaid one pay day on which the soldier was paid a balance sufficient to discharge such debt and no other means of collection is practicable, the exchange officer will notify the company or detachment commander, who will note the amount on the next pay rolls as "Due Post Exchange

-," and

on succeeding rolls until the debt has been collected or until it is apparent that it can not be collected, when the credit check will be turned over to the company or detachment in lieu of so much cash at the next distribution of profits as provided in paragraph 16.

15. Operating expenses.-To secure uniformity in rendering accounts and accuracy in preparing comparative statements, the following are specified as the items that properly enter into the account of operating expenses:

(a) Compensation of attendants.

(b) Unavoidable breakage, wastage, destruction, and damage.

(c) Insurance on merchandise, furniture, fixtures, and build. ing, if the property of the exchange.

(d) The cost of books, blanks, and other stationery; necessary policing about the quarters, when not performed by the regular attendants; express and freight charges on articles that are neither merchandise nor permanent fixtures.

Transportation should not be charged to operating expenses, but added to the cost of the merchandise or fixtures to which it pertains. Repairs to quarters and repairs to and renewals of fixtures should be charged to buildings and fixtures, and not to operating expenses.

16. Distribution of profits.-When an exchange is absolutely free from debt a sum sufficient to cover all anticipated expenses for at least one month will, at the end of each quarter, or oftener if deemed advisable by the council and commanding officer, be taken from the cash on hand and set aside as a reserve fund, and the remainder, which will represent the net profits of the exchange for the period specified, will be disposed of in the following manner: (a) Five per cent will be paid into

the regimental fund if a band be serving at the post; this amount may be increased by the council with the approval of the commanding officer, but shall in no case exceed ten per cent. If a post receives periodically the services of a band stationed elsewhere the exchange council of such post, with the approval of the commanding officer, is authorized, but not required, to pay into the regimental fund of the organization to which the band belongs not to exceed five per cent of the net profits of the exchange. (b) Such sum as the council, with the approval of the commanding officer, may determine will be appropriated for the benefit of the entire garrison to all or any of the following purposes: Laying out and preparing and cultivating gardens, and supplying seeds, roots, or plants for the same; the purchase of books, newspapers, periodicals, stationery, etc., for the post exchange or post library; the purchase of gymnastic appliances when there is no gymnasium connected with the exchange; prizes for athletic sports. The expenditure of profits for purposes other than these requires the approval of the Secretary of War. (c) The remaining money may be divided among the organizations contributing to the exchange on such equitable basis as shall be determined by the council, with the approval of the commanding officer. Normally the distribution should be made to organizations according to the number of rations drawn by them for the period covered by the distribution. Where differences in this respect arise between the council and commanding officer, the decision of the department commander will be final. The money thus distributed will be paid into the company or detachment funds. In addition to the dividends for the hospital detachment, the proportionate amounts for the sick in hospital who belong to the various companies and detachments that are members of the exchange will be turned over to the surgeon. Any variation from these rules requires the sanction of the Secretary of War.

A division of the cash resources after all debts have been paid will also be made whenever the troops, or any part of them, being members of the exchange, change station; in this event no deduction on account of the reserve fund will be made from the share of the withdrawing troops.

The amount of any loss that an exchange may sustain in consequence of the failure of a soldier to pay for articles