

CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (BUEEATT OF NAVIGATION THE TARIFF BILL.) 203 



Bnrean of Naylgation. April 21, 1884, the se- 

 lect committee on American ship-building and 

 ship-owning interests brought forward in the 

 House the following bill for a bureau of navi- 

 gation, and the rules were suspended and the 

 measure passed by a vote of 168 yeas to 47 

 nays, 107 not voting : 



Be it enacted, etc., That there shall be in the De- 

 partment of the Treasury of the United States a bu- 

 reau of navigation, under the immediate charge of a 

 commissioner of navigation. 



SEC. 2. That the commissioner of navigation, under 

 the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall 

 have general superintendence of the commercial ma- 

 rine and merchant seamen of the United States, so far 

 as vessels and seamen are not, under existing laws, 

 subject to the supervision of any other officer of the 

 Government. He shall be specially charged with the 

 decision of all questions relating to the issue of regis- 

 ters, enrollments, and licenses of vessels, and to the 

 filing and preserving of those documents ; and wher- 

 ever in title 48 or 50 of the Revised Statutes any of the 

 above-named documents are required to be surren- 

 dered or returned to the Register of the Treasury, 

 such requirement is hereby repealed, and such docu- 

 ments snail be surrendered and returned to the com- 

 missioner of navigation. Said commissioner shall have 

 charge of all similar documents now in the keeping of 

 the Register of the Treasury, and shall perform all 

 the duties hitherto devolved upon said Register re- 

 lating to navigation. 



SEO. 3. That the commissioner of navigation shall 

 be charged with the supervision of the laws relating 

 to the admeasurement of vessels, and the assigning of 

 signal letters thereto, and of designating their official 

 number ; and on all questions of interpretation grow- 

 ing put of the execution of the laws relating to these 

 subjects, and relating to the collection of tonnage-tax, 

 and to the refunding of such tax when collected er- 

 roneously or illegally, his decision shall be final. 



SEC. 4. That the commissioner of navigation shall 

 annually prepare and publish a list of vessels of the 

 United States belonging to the commercial marine, 

 specifying the official number, signal letters, names, 

 rig, tonnage, home port, and place and date of build- 

 ing of every vessel, distinguishing in such list sailing- 

 vessels from such as may be propelled by steam or 

 other motive power. He shall also report annually to 

 the Secretary of the Treasury the hi crease of vessels 

 of the United States, by building or otherwise, speci- 

 fving their number, rig, and motive power. He shall 

 also investigate the operations of the laws relative to 

 navigation, "and annually report to the Secretary of 

 the Treasury such particulars as may, in his judgment, 

 admit of improvement or may require amendment. 



SEO. 5. That the commissioner of navigation shall, 

 nder the directio 

 be emowered to 



under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, 

 empowered to change the names of vessels of the 

 United States, under such restrictions as may have 



been or shall be prescribed by act of Congress. 



SEC. 6. That the commissioner of navigation shall 

 be appointed by the President of the United States, 

 by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and 

 shall receive a salary of $4.000 per annum. And the 

 Secretary of the Treasuiy snail have power to transfer 

 from existing bureaus or divisions of the Treasury 

 one^elerk, to be designated as deputy-commissioner of 

 navigation, to act with the full powers of said com- 

 missioner during his temporary absence from his offi- 

 cial duty for any cause, and such additional clerks as 

 he may consider necessary to the successful operation 

 of the bureau of navigation, without impairing the 

 efficiency of the bureaus or divisions -whence' such 

 clerks may be transferred. 



SEO. 7. That this act shall be hi force and take 

 effect on and after July 1, 1884. 



Mr. Dingley, of Maine, summarized the argu- 



ments for the bill in a brief speech. He said : 

 "Under existing laws the supervision of the 

 merchant marine and of all of the interests 

 which attach to it is distributed in various bu- 

 reaus and divisions and among different offi- 

 cials in the Treasury Department. So much of 

 the supervision of the merchant marine as re- 

 lates to the registration, the licensing, and the 

 enrollment of vessels is by an old law, passed 

 in 1792, in the office of the Register of the 

 Treasury. This officer is a financial officer, 

 and has no connection appropriately with the 

 duties that relate to the enrollment, the licens- 

 ing, and the registering of vessels. All the 

 duties which relate to the administration of 

 the tonnage-tax and to the admeasurement of 

 vessels are placed, not by law, but by an order 

 of the Treasury Department, in the so-called 

 tonnage division. All of those matters relat- 

 ing to our merchant marine that affect the 

 naming and the change of names of vessels of 

 the merchant marine are in the Bureau of Sta- 

 tistics. With this divided responsibility, as 

 stated by the Secretary of the Treasury in his 

 last report, there is no official under our Gov- 

 ernment who feels charged with the adminis- 

 tration and the care of the laws relating to the 

 merchant marine of the country. The Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury therefore recommends, 

 and the committee are united in approving the 

 recommendation, that there be established in 

 the Treasury Department a bureau similar in 

 many respects to the British Board of Trade 

 which has charge of the British merchant ma- 

 rine, with a head who shall be amply fitted by 

 experience and by ability to direct affairs relat- 

 ing to our merchant marine, to suggest to Con- 

 gress needed amendments of all antiquated 

 shipping laws, and in general to take that 

 charge of the merchant marine of this country 

 that the President of the British Board of Trade 

 takes of the British merchant marine." 



The bill passed the Senate July 4, and was 

 approved by the President July 5, 1884. 



The Tariff Bill. No measure proposed during 

 the session occupied so much of public atten- 

 tion, or was considered of so much political 

 significance, as the bill " to reduce import du- 

 ties and war taxes," reported by Mr. Morrison, 

 of Illinois, from the Ways and Means Commit- 

 tee of the House, March 11. It was as fol- 

 lows: 



Be it enacted, etc., That on and after the first day of 

 July, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, in lieu of 

 duties and rates of duty imposed by law on the impor- 

 tation of goods, wares, and merchandise mentioned in 

 the several schedules of " An act to reduce internal 

 revenue taxation and for other purposes," approved 

 March third, eighteen hundred and eighty -three, and 

 hereinafter enumerated, there shall be levied, col- 

 lected, and paid the following rates of duty upon said 

 articles severally, that is to say : 



On all articles mentioned in Schedule I, cotton and 

 cotton goods, eighty per centum of the several duties 

 and rates of duty now imposed on said articles sever- 

 ally ; and none of the above cotton goods shall pay 

 a higher rate of duty than forty per centum ad va- 

 lorem. 



