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exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars nor less than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment (in the case of a natural person) for not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court, one-half of said fine to be paid to the person or persons giving information which shall lead to conviction.

Masters

of

Masters of light-house tenders shall have police powers tenders have poin matters pertaining to government property and lice powers. smuggling.

[The Secretary of the Treasury, in a letter to the Commissioner of Customs, dated April 17, 1863, authorized the rendition quarterly of accounts for disbursements of the Lighthouse Service.]

June 16, 1880 (21 Stat., 263).

Quarterly

counts.

ac

Estimates.
June 28, 1902 (32

Hereafter there shall be submitted in the annual Book of Estimates, under each item of appropriation under the Stat., 433). head of "Light-House Establishment," notes showing the number of persons employed and the rate of compensation paid to each from each of said appropriations during the fiscal year next preceding the fiscal year for which estimates are submitted.

Stat., 755).

Hereafter there shall be submitted, following each esti-June 25, 1910 (36 mate for support of the Light-House Establishment, statements showing the amount required for each object of expenditure mentioned in each of said estimates, together with a statement of the expenditures under each of such objects for the fiscal year terminated next preceding the period of submitting said estimates.

*

*

appropriations.

From and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred, Availability of and seventy-four, and of each year thereafter, the Sec-June 20, 1874 (18 retary of the Treasury shall cause all unexpended bal-Stat., 110). ances of appropriations which shall have remained upon the books of the Treasury for two fiscal years to be carried to the surplus fund and covered into the Treasury: Provided, That this provision shall not apply to * * * * light-houses; appropriations for ** * but the appropriations named in this proviso shall continue available until otherwise ordered by Congress.1 No specific or indefinite appropriation made hereafter in Aug. 24, 1912 (37 any regular annual appropriation Act shall be construed to be permanent or available continuously without reference to a fiscal year unless it belongs to one of the following five classes: "Rivers and harbors," "lighthouses," "fortifications," "public buildings," and "pay of the Navy and Marine Corps," last specifically named in and excepted from the operation of the provisions of the socalled "covering-in Act" approved June twentieth,

1 Extract from decision of the First Comptroller of the Treasury, dated July 17, 1874: "By the proviso to section 5 of the appropriation act of June 20, 1874, appropriations for 'lighthouses,' including former appropriations, which, by operation of previous laws, were not yet subject to be carried to the surplus fund, 'continue available until otherwise ordered by Congress.' I do not understand this provision as extending to all appropriations for the Board, but only to those for construction and repairs."

Stat., 487), sec. 7.

June 23, 1874(18 Stat., 275).

Printing.
Jan. 12, 1895 (28
Stat., 623), sec. 89.

eighteen hundred and seventy-four, or unless it is made in terms expressly providing that it shall continue available beyond the fiscal year for which the appropriation Act in which it is contained makes provision.

All moneys heretofore appropriated for the construction of public buildings and now remaining to the credit of the same on the books of the Treasury Department, or which may hereafter be appropriated for such buildings, shall remain available until the completion of the work for which they are, or may be, appropriated; and upon the final completion of each or any of said buildings, and the payment of all outstanding liabilities therefor, the balance or balances remaining shall be immediately covered into the Treasury.1

* * *

The Secretary of Commerce may authorize the printing * * of the special publications of the * Bureau of Lighthouses * * * in such editions as the interests of the Government and of the public may require.

1 The Secretary of the Treasury stated, in a letter to the Lighthouse Board, dated July 16, 1874, that this act "is held by the Department to apply to public buildings under the supervision of the Lighthouse Establishment."

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION.

The recognized need of uniform regulation of navigation and shipping was one of the reasons for the formation of a more perfect union of the States, and the third act of the First Congress, passed July 20, 1789, provided for imposing duties on the tonnage of vessels. This was followed on September 1, 1789, by the act for the registering and clearing of vessels and regulating the coasting trade, which is still the foundation of the navigation laws and policy of the United States. Succeeding Congresses have built on this foundation a system of laws designed to meet the growth and variety of conditions of our water-borne commerce, with increasing regard in the course of years to the safety of life.

The field force for the administration of these laws from the beginning of our Government has consisted of collectors and surveyors of customs, with their deputies and inspectors, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, acting at Washington originally through the Register of the Treasury in the matter of documents of vessels and through the Navigation Division of the Customs Service in the administration of other features of the navigation laws. By the act of July 5, 1884, the Bureau of Navigation, with a Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, was established. This Bureau was transferred to the Department of Commerce July 1, 1903, by the act of February 14, 1903, and to the Secretary of Commerce were transferred all the duties, power, authority, and jurisdiction previously conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury by acts of Congress relating to merchant vessels or yachts, their measurement, numbers, names, registers, enrollments, licenses, commissions, records, mortgages, bills of sale, transfers, entry, clearance, movements and transportation of their cargoes and passengers, owners, officers, seamen, passengers, fees, inspection, equipment for the better security of life, and by acts of Congress relating to tonnage tax, boilers on steam vessels, the carrying of inflammable, explosive, or dangerous cargo on vessels, the use of petroleum or other similar substances to produce motive power, and relating to the remission or refund of fines, penalties, forfeitures, exactions, or charges incurred for violating any provision of law relating to vessels or

seamen.

The Bureau of Navigation by law has general supervision of the merchant marine and of merchant seamen except in so far as special lines of work are assigned to the Steamboat-Inspection Service and the Public Health Service.

The Commissioner is specially charged with the decision of all questions relating to the issue of registers, enrollments, and licenses of approximately 26,000 vessels of the United States, ranging from trans-Atlantic liners to motor boats. The Bureau prepares and publishes annually a list of these vessels, showing some details of construction and the home port, and a separate list of seagoing vessels showing signal letters, names of owners, signal code, etc. The changes in the names of these vessels are governed by statute and are made through the Bureau.

Entries of vessels at ports of the United States in foreign trade number annually about 30,000, with a corresponding number of clearances, and disputed questions relating to these movements are decided by the Secretary of Commerce through the Commissioner of Navigation.

Measurement of vessels to ascertain the basis upon which Federal tonnage taxes and various other charges-State, municipal, and private are assessed is also conducted by customs authorities under the direction of the Bureau.

Tonnage taxes collected annually on entries amount in round numbers to about $1,000,000, and the decisions of the Commissioner of Navigation on this subject by statute are made final.

Among the special laws enforced through this Bureau are:

(1) Those governing radio communication enacted June 24, 1910, July 23, 1912, and August 13, 1912, which cover wireless telegraph stations both on shipboard and in the United States so far as they affect interstate and foreign commerce. For administrative purposes, the country has been divided into nine districts and inspectors appointed for each district. These laws as well as those covering other items of equipment and the navigation of vessels are intended to safeguard life and property.

(2) The passenger act of 1882, designed to promote the safety and comfort of steerage passengers arriving in and departing from the United States, numbering over a million a year.

(3) The motor-boat act of June 9, 1910, which aims to secure obedience to the principles of navigation involved in the "rules of the road" and to prevent risk of life through fire or water on small motor craft, already numbering approximately 200,000.

(4) Regulations governing the anchorage of vessels in the harbor of New York and other ports; the transit of vessels through the improved waters of St. Marys River, where the navigation movement is greater than that through the Suez Canal; and for the patrol of crowded waters during regattas and marine parades. Regulations are formulated by the Bureau, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce, and then enforced by revenue cutters and other patrol boats.

(5) Laws concerning neutrality, so far as they relate to offenses which are involved in the clearance of any vessel fitted out or built for warlike purposes or the transportation of recruits, arms, or munitions of war by water.

(6) The coastwise laws, designed to reserve to American vessels the transportation of cargo and passengers in the domestic commerce of the United States.

Appeals from the rulings of collectors of customs imposing fines, penalties, and forfeitures on vessels and their owners or masters are decided by the Secretary of Commerce after preliminary investigation and preparation of the evidence and facts by the Commissioner of Navigation, involving a knowledge of precedents, construction of statutes, decisions of the courts, and the practical necessities of the shipping interests as they relate to safety to life and property and the promotion of commerce.

The remuneration of collectors, and in many instances surveyors, is based partly on services rendered to vessels, for which specific fees were formerly provided and are still the basis on which such remuneration is paid. The accounts for these services, in so far as they involve navigation matters, have administrative audit by the Bureau, after which they are transmitted to the Auditor for the State and other Departments for settlement.

The Government of the United States, in accord with ancient maritime custom, exercises supervision over the contracts between the owners and masters of vessels and the seamen, in order, so far as possible, to secure substantial justice in case of dispute, without recourse to the courts. For this purpose shipping commissioners are appointed at the principal seaports and at other seaports collectors of customs act as shipping commissioners under the general supervision of the Commissioner of Navigation. The laws thus enforced also cover the shipment and discharge of seamen, all papers relating to the crew, their wages, scale of provisions, etc. At 17 principal seaports upward of 350,000 seamen in round numbers (counting repeated voyages) are thus shipped and discharged under Government supervision.

The laws administered through and by the Bureau of Navigation, which are compiled every four years by the Commissioner of Navigation, whose duty it is to investigate the operation of these laws and to recommend to the Secretary of Commerce particulars in which they should be amended or improved, are published quadrennially in a separate volume entitled "Navigation Laws of the United States," to which a supplement is issued annually upon the adjournment of Congress. The volume includes the laws relating to the registry, enrollment, and license, official numbers, and names of merchant vessels and vessels engaged in the fisheries, undocumented vessels,

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