Part IV-Digest of Opinions Construing the Repeal Provisions of the Revised Statutes SEC. 5595. The foregoing seventy-three titles embrace the statutes of the United States general and permanent in their nature, in force on the 1st day of December one thousand eight hundred and seventy- three, as revised and consolidated by commissioners appointed under an act of Congress, and the same shall be designated and cited as The Revised Statutes of the United States. U.S. v. Bowen, 100 U. S. 508 Bowen, a Civil War veteran, was drawing a pension for service in the United States Army, during which certain deductions were made from his pay. On September 13, 1876, he entered the Soldiers' Home. This action was to recover the amount of the pension from the time he entered the home until he left it, December 4, 1877. Judgment was rendered in his favor in the United States Court of Claims for $264.60, and the Government appealed. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment. The act of 1851 founding the institution provided that pensioners were entitled to the privileges of the home upon transferring their pension for the period they were in it to the Soldiers' Home; and the act of 1859 changing the name to the "Soldiers' Home" provided for such transfer. R. S . 4820 provided: "* * * the fact that one to whom a pension has been granted for wounds or disability received in the military service, has not contributed to the funds of the Soldiers' Home, shall not preclude him from admission thereto; but all such pensioners shall surrender their pensions to the Soldiers' Home during the time they remain therein and voluntarily receive its benefits." It was held the word "such" above quoted distinguished those who had not contributed to the funds of the Soldiers' Home from those who had so contributed. Bowen by his pay reductions while in the service had contributed to the funds of the home. Therefore, he was in the class that were not required to surrender their pensions. The court said: "The Revised Statutes must be treated as the legislative declara- tion of the statute law on the subjects which they embrace on the 1st day of December, 1873. When the meaning is plain the courts cannot look to the statutes which have been revised to see if Congress erred in that revision, but may do so when necessary to construe doubtful language used in expressing the meaning of Congress." See also Deffeback v. Hawke, 115 U. S . 392, where the court said, "No reference
- can be had to the original statutes to control the construction of any
section of the Revised Statutes, when its meaning is plain, although in the original statutes it may have had a larger or more limited application than that given to it in the revision," citing U. S . v . Bowen, 100 U. S. 508, 513. Dwight v. Merritt, 140 U. S. 213 Action by an importer against a collector of customs to recover alleged excess duties on a shipment of iron rails from Russia. The collector assessed a duty on the merchandise at 70 cents per hundred pounds under Schedule E, section 2504, Revised Statutes, as "iron bars for railroads or inclined planes." The importer claimed the merchandise was dutiable at only $8 per ton under the following provision of the same schedule: "Wrought scrap iron of every description: eight dollars per ton. But nothing shall be deemed scrap iron except waste or refuse iron that has been in actual use, and is fit only to be remanufactfred." The importer paid the duty assessed under protest and brought this action to recover the difference between the amount paid and what he claimed he should have paid, or $2,880.65 . The jury, under instructions from the court that the only question to be considered was whether the rails had been in actual use, found for the collector. Writ of error to the United States Supreme Court. Judgment affirmed. Before the Supreme Court the importer contended the action of the collector was illegal in assessing as "iron bars for railroads or inclined planes" old iron rails which were not adapted to any such use, but which were imported solely for remanufacture. The law as it stood prior to enactment of the Revised Statutes read: "On all iron imported in bars for railroads or inclined planes made to patterns and fitted to be laid down upon such roads or planes without cxcv
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