Executive Order 977

It is hereby ordered that hereafter no officer, clerk, or employee in the executive service of the government (except postmasters at offices of the fourth class and rural carriers), who is also a notary public, shall charge or receive any compensation whatever for performing any notarial act for an officer, clerk, or employee of the government in his official capacity, or for any person when, in the case of such person the act is performed during the hours of such notary's service to the government. Disobedience of this order shall be ground for immediate dismissal from the service.

This order shall not apply to oaths of disinterestedness or other oaths required to be made by law, provided that the work in connection therewith is not performed during office hours.

For the purposes of this order, the expression "office hours" shall be construed to include the half hour allowed each working day for luncheon.

Theodore Roosevelt.

The White House

November 24, 1908.