Revised Statutes as section 3744 provides, so far as is here material, that:
It shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, of the Secretary of the Navy, and of the Secretary of the Interior, to cause and require every contract made by them severally on behalf of the Government, or by their officers under them appointed to make such contracts to be reduced to writing, and signed by the contracting parties with their names at the end thereof; * * *
The requirement of said section has been held to be mandatory and imperative, Clarke v. United States, 98 U. S. 539 ; Monroe v. United States, 184 id . 524. Section 3709, Revised Statutes, requires advertising for supplies or services when the public exigency does not require immediate delivery of the articles or performance of the service, but even where advertising may be dispensed with on account of an exigency, the requirement that a contract therefor be signed by the parties with their names at the end must be complied with in the absence of specific statutory exception to such requirement. The mandatory and imperative requirement of the law obtains whether the purchase be an emergency one or not, and delivery of supplies or performance of services under an agreement which fails to comply therewith imposes no contractual obligation on the United States. See Export Oil Corporation v. United States, 57 Ct. Cls. 519. As to the Department of the Interior, the act of May 18, 1916, 39 Stat. 126, waived advertising for small purchases not exceeding $50 each for the Indian Field Service; the act of June 12, 1917, 40 Stat. 144, for the Geological Survey, the act of July 1 , 1918, 40 Stat. 672, for the Bureau of Mines, and the act of July 1, 1918, 40 Stat. 675, for the Reclamation Service, waived advertising for the respective field services for purchases not exceeding $50 each and authorized them to be made "in the manner common among business men." Both the requirement of advertising and execution of contracts as to transactions not to exceed $ 100 in any instance in any bureau or office in the Department of the Interior are waived by an express statutory provision in the act of June 5, 1924, 43 Stat. 392, but prior to said enactment there appears no waiver applicable to the Department of the Interior field service generally, or to the General Land Office specifically. By recognized canons of statutory construction that which is not excepted is within the requirement; and contracts for the General Land Office field service entered into for any amount prior to June 5, 1924, or in excess of $100 on or after said date are required by law to be reduced to writing and signed by the contracting parties with their names at the end whether the purchase or service be an emergency one or not, unless the delivery of the purchase or performance of the service and payment therefor were simultaneous transactions which have been held to be not within the requirement. 3 Comp. Gen. 314.
