CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (AMERICAN SHIPPING.) 



235 



we not do something for the encouragement 

 of our merchant marine ? It is a matter which 

 concerns the safety of the nation; it concerns 

 our independence; it concerns our national 

 prestige. 



u When I was abroad in Europe, going from 

 port to port, I saw so rarely the American flag 

 that it was the source of humiliation to me, 

 for I felt the nation was better known by the 

 flag which floated from the mast-heads of its 

 ships and exerted a greater influence in conse- 

 quence of that than anything else. We are 

 known abroad by the flag which floats in for- 

 eign harbors. Our influence is felt abroad in 

 proportion to the extension of our merchant 

 marine. Our commerce is more or less de- 

 pendont on it, as well as our independence in 

 peace and our safety in war. I beg of you, 

 gentlemen, therefore, however many differ- 

 ences of opinion there may be as to methods, 

 to be willing to try something, to take a step 

 forward in this matter, for if we go on ten 

 years more in the way we have been going on 

 for twenty-five years past, the American mer- 

 chant marine and the American flag will have 

 faded from the ocean." 



Mr. Springer, of Illinois, argued that there 

 was nothing in the Constitution to authorize 

 the prohibition of State or municipal taxation 

 on vessels engaged in the foreign trade. 



In Committee of the Whole, section 11 of the 

 bill as reported was amended by adding a pro- 

 viso "that this section shall not apply to ves- 

 sels engaged in the whaling business." An 

 amendment proposed by Mr. Murch, of Maine, 

 by way of substitute, and designed to maintain 

 the practice of paying advance wages to sea- 

 men, was rejected. The following further 

 amendment to section 11 was then adopted: 



And that all laws or parts of laws requiring the pay- 

 ment of any remuneration to the shipping commis- 

 sioner for the shipment of seamen, if snipped by said 

 master or owners, be and the same are hereby re- 

 pealed: Provided, That the. duties of the shipping 

 commissioner at home port* shall be performed by 

 the- collectors of the several ports of the United 

 States, and that no fees shall be charged for such 

 services. . 



Section 15 was stricken out. Section 16 was 

 amended to read : 



That instead of the assessment of forty cents per 

 month upon seamen engaged in the foreign carrying- 

 trade, authorized by sections 4585 and '4587 of the 

 Revised Statutes of the United States, there shall here- 

 after be assessed and collected twenty cents. 



Section 17 was amended to read as follows: 



SEC. 17. That the individual liability of a ship- 

 owner shall be limited to the proportion' of any or all 

 debts and liabilities that his individual share of the 

 vessel bears to the whole. And the aggregate liabili- 



es of the owners of the vessels on account of the same 

 shall not exceed the value of such vessel : Provided. 

 lhat this provision shall not affect the liability of any 

 owner incurred previous to the passage of this act, 

 nor prevent any claimant from joining all the owners 

 in one action. Nor shall the same apply to wa-es 



ie to persons employed by said ship-builder. 



For section 14 the following substitute was 

 adopted : 



That section 2514 of the Revised Statutes be amend- 

 ed so as to read as lollows : 



That all materials of foreign production, to be 

 manufactured in this country into articles needed for 

 and used in the construction, equipment, repairs, or 

 supplies of American vessels employed or to be em- 

 ployed exclusively in the foreign trade, including the 

 trade between the Atlantic ports and Pacific ports of 

 the United States, may be withdrawn from bonded 

 warehouse free of duty, under sucli regulations as the 

 Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe; and if the 

 duty shall have been already paid on such materials 

 so used, the same shall be refunded and repaid to the 

 owner or owners of such vessel so using them or their 

 legal representatives. 



Section 15 was amended by adding the fol- 

 lowing provision : 



Provided, That nothing in this section shall be 

 construed to repeal section 2793 of the Revised Stat- 

 utes : And provided also, That the aggregate duty 

 imposed under this section in any one year upon any 

 vessel engaged in no other foreign trade than the 

 trade between the United States and the Dominion of 

 Canada or the Republic of Mexico, or any ports or 

 places south of Mexico down to and including Aspin- 

 wall and Panama, or any ports or places in the West 

 India Islands, shall not exceed 30 cents per ton. 



The following new sections were added to 

 the bill : 



Whenever any fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, 

 or charge arising under the laws relating to ves- 

 sels or seamen has been paid under protest to any 

 collector of customs or consular officer, and applica*- 

 tion has been made within one year from such pay- 

 ment for the refunding or remission of the same, 

 the Secretary of the Treasury, if on investigation he 

 finds such fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge 

 was illegally, improperly, or excessively imposed, 

 shall have the power, either before or after the same 

 has been covered into the Treasury, to refund so 

 much of said fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or 

 charge as he may think proper from any moneys in 

 the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 



That section 2906 of the Revised Statutes be amend- 

 ed by striking out the words " propelled in whole or 

 in part by steam" ; so that the section as amended 

 shall read as follows : 



SECTION 2966. When merchandise shall be import- 

 ed into any port of the United States from any for- 

 eign country in vessels, and it shall appear by the 

 bills of lading that the merchandise so imported is to 

 be delivered immediately after the entry of the ves- 

 sel, the collector of such port may take possession of 

 such merchandise and deposit the same in bonded 

 warehouse ; and when it does not appear by the bills 

 of lading that the merchandise so imported is to be 

 immediately delivered, the collector of the customs 

 may take possession of the same and deposit it in 

 bonded warehouse, at the request of the owner, mas- 

 ter, or consignee of the vessel, on three days' notice 

 to such collector after the entry of the vessel. . 



That section 2S72 of the Revised Statutes be amend- 

 ed bv adding thereto the following : 



When the license to unload between the setting 

 and risinar of the sun is granted to a sail ing- vessel 

 under this section, a fixed, uniform, and reasonable . 

 compensation may be allowed to the inspector or in- 

 spectors for service between the setting and rising of 

 the sun, under such regulations as the Secretary of 

 the Treasury may prescribe, to be received by the 

 collector from the master, owner, or consignee of the 

 vessel, and to be paid by him to the inspector or in- 

 spectors. 



On the adoption of section 18 a vigorous de- 

 bate occurred, various gentlemen opposing it 

 as creating a subsidy to ship-builders, and others 

 pressing strongly for a substitute in favor of 



