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maintain hospitals for persons afflicted with tuberculosis where

such patients may be cared for and treated. It follows, therefore, that cities and towns which maintain wards or beds in private hospitals or in general city hospitals are not entitled to the subsidy provided for in the section above quoted.

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To the

Treasurer

and ReceiverGeneral.

1911 December 4.

The Massachusetts Agricultural College is a public charitable corporation organized for educational purposes, and is not, strictly speaking, a State institution and its teachers and employees are not eligible to participate in the retirement system established by St. 1911, c. 532, for employees of the Commonwealth.

You have requested my opinion as to whether teachers and employees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College are eligible for participation in the retirement system for the employees of the Commonwealth, established by chapter 532 of the acts of the present year. Only employees of the Commonwealth are eligible for such participation. By the terms of the statute "the word 'employee' means any person on the pay roll of the commonwealth, whether employed in the direct service of the commonwealth or in the metropolitan district service, who regularly gives his whole time to that service" (section 1). The teachers and employees of the Massachusetts Agricultural College are not, in my opinion, employees of the Commonwealth, within this definition. Under date of June 13, 1910, my predecessor advised the House of Representatives that the Massachusetts Agricultural College was "a public charitable corporation organized for educational purposes," and that it was not "in the strict sense of the words . . . a State institution." Ante, pp. 308, 312. Since that time the Massachusetts Agricultural College has transferred its property to the Commonwealth under authority of St. 1911, c. 311. That statute did not, however, change the nature of the institution. Its teachers and employees are, therefore, employees of a public charitable

corporation and not of the Commonwealth, even though considerable sums of money are appropriated by the Commonwealth for the support of the corporation.

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CIVIL SERVICE VENDOR OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS - DRUG-
GIST - SIXTH-CLASS LICENSE.

A druggist who holds a sixth-class license to sell intoxicating liquors is a "vendor
of intoxicating liquors" within the meaning of R. L., c. 19, § 16, providing
that "no. . . vendor of intoxicating liquors shall be appointed to or retained
in any office, appointment or employment to which the provision of this
chapter shall apply."

Civil Service

1911

In behalf of the Civil Service Commission you have re- To the quested my opinion as to whether a druggist who holds a sixth- Commission. class license to sell intoxicating liquors is a "vendor of in- December 11. toxicating liquors" within the meaning of section 16 of chapter 19 of the Revised Laws.

Chapter 19 of the Revised Laws deals with the civil service. Section 16 of this chapter is as follows:

No person habitually using intoxicating liquors to excess and no vendor of intoxicating liquors shall be appointed to or retained in any office, appointment or employment to which the provisions of this chapter apply.

Licenses of the sixth class are "licenses to retail druggists and apothecaries to sell liquors of any kind for medicinal, mechanical or chemical purposes only, and to such persons only as may certify in writing for what use they want them." R. L., c. 100, § 18.

I am of opinion that a druggist who holds a sixth-class license, and by virtue thereof sells intoxicating liquors, is a "vendor of intoxicating liquors" within the meaning of the civil service statute quoted. It may be that the reasons which in the mind of the Legislature make the holder of a license of one of the first five classes an improper person for appointment under the civil service law do not apply to the holder of a sixth-class license. A holder of a sixth-class license who sells intoxicating

liquors thereunder is, however, clearly within the ordinary meaning of the words "vendor of intoxicating liquors." In my judgment, the intention of the Legislature to exclude the holder of such a license from the statutory prohibition is not clear enough to justify a departure from the ordinary construction of the phrase.

To the Bank
Commissioner.
1911
December 21.

SAVINGS BANKS-LEGAL INVESTMENT - BONDS OF TERMINAL
RAILROAD.

CORPORATIONS

By providing in St. 1908, c. 590, § 68, cl. 3, subdivision a, that deposits in savings banks and the income derived therefrom may be invested "in the bonds or notes, issued in accordance with the laws of this commonwealth, of a railroad corporation incorporated therein, . . . or in the first mortgage bonds of a terminal corporation incorporated in this commonwealth," and in subdivision c of cl. 3 of said § 68, as amended by St. 1909, c. 491, § 8, that such deposits and the income derived therefrom may be invested "in the first mortgage bonds of a railroad corporation incorporated in any of the New England states, the railroad of which is located wholly or in part therein," the Legislature intended to restrict the investment of such deposits and income to the first mortgage bonds of terminal companies incorporated within the Commonwealth.

The Portland Terminal Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Maine for the purpose of establishing, maintaining, operating and developing a terminal in the city of Portland, and authorized to acquire and hold any or all of the franchises, rights or properties of certain railroad corporations within the territory designated as such terminal, which within such territory operates trains, issues time-tables, sells tickets therefor, and generally engages in the business of a common carrier of passengers, baggage and express, may, however, be construed to be a "railroad corporation" within the meaning of St. 1908, c. 590, § 68, cl. 3, subdivision c, as amended by St. 1909, c. 491, § 8, above quoted.

You have submitted for my opinion the following request: "Will you kindly give me your opinion as to whether the bonds of the Portland Terminal Company will be legal investments for Massachusetts savings banks, if in proper form."

While your question is a broad one, from the correspondence and memoranda accompanying your letter I assume that the specific point of inquiry is whether or not the bonds of the Portland Terminal Company would be legal investments for Massachusetts savings banks, or, in other words, whether the Portland Terminal Company is to be considered as a railroad, under the

provisions of St. 1908, c. 590, § 68, cl. 3, subdivision c, as amended by St. 1909, c. 491, § 8, which, in substance, provides that deposits in savings banks, and the income derived therefrom, shall be invested only as follows:

c. In the first mortgage bonds or assumed first mortgage bonds or in the bonds secured by a refunding mortgage as described in paragraphs (3) or (4) of subdivision g, of a railroad corporation incorporated in any of the New England states, the railroad of which is located wholly or in part therein, which have been guaranteed as to principal and interest by a railroad corporation described in subdivisions a or b which is in possession of and is operating its own road.

Said company was incorporated under the laws of Maine, by chapter 96 of the Acts of 1887, entitled "An Act providing for a Union Railway Station at Portland." Section 1 of that act named the incorporators and provided that the corporation should be authorized "to erect, maintain, manage and govern a union railway station in Portland, for passengers, with convenient approaches, tracks, round houses, car sheds, signal towers and all other convenient and usual appurtenances of union railway stations; and for those purposes (was) authorized to purchase, lease or otherwise obtain the right to occupy so much as may be convenient therefor, of the tracks and road-bed of any railroad company, with the consent of the company owning or controlling such tracks or road-bed, and also to acquire, hold and dispose of all such lands and buildings and other property, real or personal, as may be convenient for the purposes aforesaid." By section 2 a provision was made for such rules and regulations for the government of such union station and its grounds and approaches as might be consistent with the laws of the State of Maine and the ordinances of the city of Portland. This section also contained a provision that any railroad entering Portland might have the common use of the station. In section 4 it was provided that any railroad company whose tracks had entered or might thereafter enter the city of Portland should have the lawful right to purchase, hold and dispose of shares in the capital stock or bonds, scrip or

other negotiable promises issued by the Union Railway Station Company, "or guaranty to other purchasers or holders thereof, the payment of said bonds, scrip, or other promises or any part thereof.”

This chapter was amended during the present year by chapter 189 of the laws of the State of Maine for 1911, by which the name of the corporation was changed to the Portland Terminal Company. By section 2 it was provided that the railroad terminal created by the act should include within its limits any or all the properties of the Union Railway Station Company, the Boston & Maine Railroad, the Maine Central Railroad Company, the leasehold interests of the Maine Central Railroad as lessee of the Portland & Ogdensburg and of the Portland & Rumford Falls Railroad, situated in the cities of Portland, South Portland or Westbrook; and any or all the properties in such cities of any other railroad company using the terminal facilities under agreement with the terminal corporation. Section 3 was as follows:

For the establishment, maintenance, operation and development of such railroad terminal, and for the regulation of railroad business, passenger, freight and express, within its limits, the Portland Terminal Company may acquire by contract, purchase or lease from the Boston & Maine Railroad and the Maine Central Railroad Company, or from any other railroad company using or desiring to use said terminal, all or any part of the railroad franchises, rights or properties within the limits of said terminal, including lands, rights of way, tracks, road-beds, bridges, wharves, water rights, round-houses, railroad repair shops, stations, or other buildings; and all title to the same or any interests therein, or any right of exercise or operation thereof or to manage the same, within the limits aforesaid; nothing herein contained, however, shall authorize the Portland Terminal Company to acquire or to renew the use of the abandoned railroad location from Woodfords to the junction with the belt line, so called, running from the foot of Preble street to the Union station in Portland. The tracks on said abandoned location and Pitt street bridge, so called, over the same to be removed by the Boston & Maine Railroad at its own expense within three months after this act takes effect.

Within the limits of said terminal for the purpose of making changes and improvements therein and for all the purposes of its charter, the terminal company shall have the same powers of eminent domain as said railroad companies have by law; damages for real estate taken by

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