Chapter 83. Construing the Acts of Congress in relation to the award of life-saving medals
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CHAP. 83.— An Act Construing the Acts of Congress in relation to the award of life-saving medals. January 21, 1897. Preamble.Whereas the Attorney-General, under date of January thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, has rendered an opinion that the statutes authorizing the award of life saving medals apply to the rescue of those persons only who, in the vicinity of a life-saving station, life boat station, or house of refuge, are in danger of drowning in any of the waters over which the United States, by reason of their right to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, have jurisdiction, and that the purpose of such statutes is to cause such medals to be bestowed upon the members, whether regular or volunteer, and whether permanent or temporary, of the life-saving crews; and that the terms “succoring the shipwrecked” and “saving persons from drowning,” employed Vol. 20, p. 165.in section twelve, Act approved June eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, authorizing the bestowal of life-saving medals of the second class, were intended to embrace only those persons who were suffering from the perils of the sea, either by actual shipwreck or from being upon or connected with any vessel in distress:
Therefore, *Be it enacted by the Senate anti House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, That so much of the Acts Life-saving medals. May be bestowed for rescuing any person from drowning or shipwreck. Vol. 18, p. 127; Vol. 20, p.165, Vol. 22, p. 57.relating to life-saving stations and the Life-Saving Service approved June twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, June eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, and May fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, as provide for the award of life-saving medals shall be construed so as to empower the Secretary of the Treasury to bestow such medals upon persons making signal exertions in rescuing and succoring the shipwrecked and saving persons from drowning in the waters over which the United States has jurisdiction, whether the said persons making such exertions were or were not members of a life-saving crew, or whether or not such exertions were made in the vicinity of a life-saving station.
Approved, January 21, 1897.