act indicates a purpose to exclude, rather than include. these intangibles.

3. Not only were the words "securities or stocks" omitted, but the "Williams amendment" itself carried a recognition that the phrase "property owned in" did not include foreign-held intangible securities. And when, after its adoption by the Senate, the House refused to concur and the conference committee, surrendering to the House, abandoned that amendment, in my judgment the legislative will was clearly expressed against the purpose to tax these intangibles.

4. None of the provisions relating to withholding the tax at its source can operate to enlarge the language here to be read, since these provisions are all expressly and even repeatedly limited to the class of persons who are otherwise subject to the tax, making the case stronger than that before the court in Railroad Co. v. Jackson, supra.

While it is true that this Department should resolve reasonable doubts as to the law in favor of the Treasury, to the end that no possible rights of the Government be surrendered in advance of judicial decision, this can not lessen the force of the rule that the purpose to so tax must be clearly expressed, and such a reading adopted, if within the purpose of the act, as will relieve the legislation from possibility of attack on constitutional grounds.

The suggestion that Congress could not have meant to relieve nonresident alien holders while taxing resident holders on similar securities is completely answered by the fact that, as declared by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Jackson case, it unquestionably did so in the first income-tax act of 1861.

The rule announced by my predecessor in this regard was perpetuated in regulations and practice by the Treasury Department and has since been adhered to. It ought not to be disturbed short of judicial decision, save for compelling reasons. The fundamental question here is involved in the issues raised in a case set for trial in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in October next.

As to the phase of the question involving the tax on income of foreign corporations, no substantial distinction can

be made between the language of that portion of the act and the language first above quoted.

For these reasons I am of the opinion that Congress has expressly refused in the present income-tax act to tax such intangibles when held by nonresident aliens.

Respectfully,

T. W. GREGORY.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

VESSELS SUBJECT TO SECTION 14 OF SEAMEN'S BILL. When not actually carrying passengers, neither foreign cargo nor foreign passenger steam vessels leaving ports of the United States are subject to the regulations prescribed by section 14 of the so-called "Seamen's bill" of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1170). Only foreign private steam vessels carrying passengers from any port of the United States to any other place or country, which are not exempt by reason of the conditions set forth in section 4400 of the Revised Statutes, as amended, are subject to said regulations.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

August 25, 1915.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of June 18, 1915, wherein, in connection with certain acompanying papers submitted by the Secretary of Commerce, you ask my opinion as to whether foreign cargo or foreign passenger steam vessels leaving ports of the United States are subject to the regulations prescribed by section 14 of the so-called "Seamen's bill," approved March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1164, 1170).

I am of opinion that when not actually carrying passengers neither foreign cargo nor foreign passenger steam vessels are subject to the provisions of this section. Only foreign private steam vessels carrying passengers from any port of the United States to any other place or country are so subject. To this latter rule, however, an exception must be noted in favor of a vessel belonging to a country whose inspection laws at the time of the voyage approximate our own and which accords to our vessels like privileges of home inspection: Provided such vessel is (1) possessed of an unexpired inspection certificate properly

issued under and evidencing compliance with such foreign laws, or (2) where its certificate so issued has expired, it has properly obtained in lieu thereof from the Secretary of Commerce a special permit to depart from a port of the United States if possesing an unexpired certificate. My reasons for this conclusion are as follows:

This section 14 of the seamen's bill is an additive amendment to section 4488 of the Revised Statutes, which itself had been previously amended in respects not material here by the acts of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 1012; April 11, 1892, 27 Stat. 16; and March 3, 1905, 33 Stat. 1024. Section 4488 was originally enacted as section 52 of the act of February 28, 1871, entitled "An act to provide for the better security of life on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam," etc. (16 Stat. 440.) Section 41 of the last-named act, which became section 4400 of the Revised Statutes, defined the vessels subject to the operation of the act, and, of course, to the operation of its section 52, now section 4488, Revised Statutes. This section 41 was amended by the acts of August 7, 1882, 22 Stat. 346; March 1, 1895, 28 Stat. 699; February 15, 1902, 32 Stat. 34; and March 17, 1906, 34 Stat. 68, the last amendment being a complete redraft. Since section 14 is expressly an amendment of preexisting law which is to be found in these sections 4400 and 4488 of the Revised Statutes, I quote those portions of the same which are material as they stood prior to March 4, 1915.

"SEC. 4400. All steam vessels navigating any waters of the United States which are common highways of commerce or open to general or competitive navigation, excepting public vessels of the United States, vessels of other countries, and boats propelled in whole or in part by steam for navigating canals, shall be subject to the provisions of this title. (Original section 41.)

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And all foreign private steam vessels carrying passengers from any port of the United States to any other place or country shall be subject to the provisions of sections forty-four hundred and eighty-eight

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of this title, and shall be liable to visitation and inspection

by the proper officer, in any of the ports of the United States, respecting any of the provisions of the sections aforesaid (amendment of August 7, 1882): Provided, however, That when such foreign passenger steamers belong to countries having inspection laws approximating those of the United States, and having unexpired certificates of inspection issued by the proper authorities in the respective countries to which they belong, they shall be subject to no other inspection than necessary to satisfy the local inspectors that the condition of the vessel, her boilers, and life-saving equipments are as stated in the current certificate of inspection; but no such certificate of inspection shall be accepted as evidence of lawful inspection except when presented by steam vessels of other countries which have by their laws accorded to the steam vessels of the United States visiting such countries the same privilege accorded herein to the steam vessels of such countries visiting the United States; etc. (Amendment of February 15, 1902.)

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"It is further provided that the Secretary of Commerce and Labor may, in his discretion, permit any foreign passenger steamer coming within the provisions of this act whose foreign certificate of inspection shall have expired at sea since last leaving the country to which said vessel belongs, or while said vessel shall have been in a port of the United States, to sail upon her regular route without undergoing any further inspection than would have been required had said foreign certificate of inspection been in force: Provided, however, That such discretion shall be exercised only with respect to vessels operated upon regularly established lines, and in cases where such foreign passenger steamer will be regularly inspected by the authorities of her home government before her next return to a port of the United States. (Amendment of March 17, 1906.)

"SEC. 4488. Every steamer navigating the ocean, or any lake, bay, or sound of the United States, shall be provided with such numbers of lifeboats, floats, rafts, life preservers (line-carrying projectiles, and the means of propelling

them) and drags, as will best secure the safety of all per.. sons on board such vessel in case of disaster; and every seagoing vessel carrying passengers, and every such vessel navigating any of the northern or northwestern lakes, shall have the lifeboats required by law, provided with suitable boat-disengaging apparatus, so arranged as to allow such boats to be safely launched while such vessels are under speed or otherwise, and so as to allow such disengaging apparatus to be operated by one person, disengaging both ends of the boat simultaneously from the tackles by which it may be lowered to the water. And the board of supervising inspectors shall fix and determine, by their rules and regulations, the character of lifeboats, floats, rafts, life preservers (line-carrying projectiles, and the means of propelling them) and drags that shall be used on such vessels and also the character and capacity of the pumps or other appliances for freeing the steamer from water in case of heavy leakage, the capacity of such pumps or appliances being suited to the navigation in which the steamer is employed. (Original section 4488 as amended in 1889, shown in parentheses.) Every vessel subject to the provisions of this title shall, while in operation, carry one life preserver for each and every person allowed to be carried on said vessel by the certificate of inspection, including each member of the crew: Provided, however, That upon such vessels and under such conditions as are specified in section forty-four hundred and eighty-two floats may be substituted for life preserv* etc." (Amendment of March 3, 1905.)

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It will thus be observed that while section 4488 is directed in terms to "every steamer navigating the ocean, or any lake, bay, or sound of the United States," and to every seagoing vessel carrying passengers," section 4400, which precedes it, restricts its application to "foreign private steam vessels carrying passengers from any port of the United States to any other place or country," provided they be not exempt by reason of the conditions set forth in that section.

So the law stood at the time of the passage of the seamen's bill. We are therefore confronted solely with the