Executive Order 730

by President of the United States

Under authority vested in me by law, it is ordered:

1. Whenever there shall remain in the possession of any common carrier within the Canal Zone any freight, baggage, or other property, transported by or deposited with the common carrier at any point in the Canal Zone, which shall have remained unclaimed by the owner or consignee for a period of six months, and upon which there shall remain unpaid or shall have accumulated freight charges or charges for handling and storage, it shall be lawful for the common carrier to sell the same at public auction, at some designated point within the Canal Zone, after having advertised the sale, with a short description of the property to be sold, for a period of three weeks in some newspaper of general circulation within the Canal Zone.
2. In all cases where any such property is of a perishable character, the carrier shall be authorized to apply to any judge of the circuit court within the Canal Zone, or, if the property shall be of less value than one hundred dollars, to any district judge within the Canal Zone, upon an affidavit describing briefly the property to be sold, its unclaimed state, and its perishable character for an order for an immediate sale, upon such terms as to notice as the nature of the case may admit of, and as to such court or courts as shall seem proper.
3. Before advertising the property for sale the same shall be opened by the carrier, and if it contains any indication of the owner or consignee, a written notice of the existence of the unclaimed property and of the intention to sell the same at public auction shall be mailed by the carrier to the owner or consignee, at any indicated address, four weeks before the date of actual sale.
4. The residue of moneys received from such sale under the foregoing sections, after deducting the accumulated charges for transportation, cost of handling and storage, demurrage, and the cost and expense of the proceedings authorizing the advertising and sale, shall be held for a period of three years, and shall be paid to the owner of such freight, baggage or other property, on demand. If at the end of the three-year period the said residue shall not have been claimed by the owner, it shall be paid into the Treasury of the Canal Zone Government, to the credit of the public school fund.

Theodore Roosevelt.

The White House,

January 9, 1908.