Page images
PDF
EPUB

Senator BORAH. That provision of the law is one of the objections Mr. Gray made to this act of 1912. We may have to repeal that also.

Senator SIMMONS. I do not know anything about that.

The CHAIRMAN. The citizens from the Gulf Southern States and from the Pacific coast, who are particularly anxious to be heard, can not arrive until the latter part of next week.

Senator SIMMONS. I want to inquire from the chairman if he has not some other witnesses not on the Pacific coast that we could get here to-morrow morning by telegraph?

The CHAIRMAN. No, sir.

Senator THOMAS. Senator Chamberlain desires to be heard?

The CHAIRMAN. I do not know. I have not asked him.

Senator THOMAS. It occurred to me that he might desire to be heard.

Senator OWEN. I do not know whether there is in the record a complete and full report of the diplomatic correspondence upon which these treaties were negotiated of 1850, 1900, and 1901, but I think there should be in the report of the committee a complete record of that diplomatic correspondence.

The CHAIRMAN. I think, on a motion of Senator Brandegee a few days since, with the approval of the entire Senate, those records are to be produced and published as a Senate document.

Senator CRAWFORD. Ought they not to be in our regular series of reports?

Senator OWEN. I think they ought to be before this committee in some form, but I do not think it is necessary to reprint and repeat them if they are already available.

The CHAIRMAN. We shall probably have that before the hearings are concluded.

Senator OWEN. I wished to call the attention of the committee to it and suggest that if it was not in a convenient form the chairman should see that it was placed before the committee in a convenient shape.

Senator BORAH. I observed some days ago, in the speech of Senator Root, that he stated that when he negotiated the treaty with Colombia-which was never ratified-by which there was extended to Colombia the right to pass her ships through the canal free of charge, that he obtained the consent of Great Britain to do that. If Great Britain has placed a construction upon this treaty by consenting to that kind of a provision, I think it is the most important correspondence we can have, and I think the committee ought to ask for that correspondence.

The CHAIRMAN. If there be no objection to that suggestion, the Chair will request that correspondence for the use of the committee. (Thereupon, at 11.45 o'clock a. m., the committee adjourned subject to the call of the chairman.)

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1914.

COMMITTEE ON INTEROCEANIC CANALS,
UNITED STATES SENATE,

The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m.

Washington, D. C.

Present: Senators O'Gorman (chairman), Thornton, Chilton, Shields, Walsh, Thomas, Simmons, Brandegee, Crawford, Bristow, Perkins, and Page.

Also present: Senator Reed.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. Is Dr. Huebner present?

Dr. HUEBNER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Dr. Huebner.

Senator SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to say in behalf of Mr. Chamberlain that he is very anxious to give his testimony as soon as possible, because he has some important matters that he wishes to attend to in his office this afternoon.

The CHAIRMAN. Will it be convenient for you to wait, Dr. Huebner? Dr. HUEBNER. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Commissioner Chamberlain will then be heard.

STATEMENT OF MR. E. T. CHAMBERLAIN, COMMISSIONER OF NAVIGATION.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Commissioner, what is your official position?
Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Commissioner of Navigation.

The CHAIRMAN. How long have you occupied that position?
Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Since December, 1893.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you describe for the purpose of the committee the operation of the navigation laws, giving the rules for registry in the foreign and coastwise trade in a general way?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. In a general way, vessels can be admitted to American registry, using the word "registry" for the moment in the comprehensive sense, only if they are built in the United States, if they are owned by American citizens, including in that term corporations organized under the laws of any of the States, and if their watch officers are American citizens. That was the law up to the passage of the Panama Canal act. By the Panama Canal act, section 5, vessels that are built abroad may be admitted to American registry provided that they are not more than five years old. there are certain other qualifications. If they are owned by a corporation, the officers of the corporation, as I recall it, must be American citizens.

The CHAIRMAN. Have any foreign-built ships taken advantage of section 5 of the Panama Canal act?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. None up to this time. There have been several inquiries, but none have actually taken advantage of it.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you completed your answer to the previous question?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. That is, as to the general limitations. Now, as to the distinction between coastwise and foreign trade vesselsThe CHAIRMAN. Yes; over-seas vessels.

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. The word "registration" is used sometimes in a broad sense and sometimes in a more restricted sense. Unlike the laws of most maritime nations the documents that we give to merchant vessels are of two classes. In the registry strictly so-called, the register is the document that is designed to cover vessels in the foreign trade. For our domestic or coastwise trade we have a distinct document known as the enrollment.

The papers, in general respects, in their forms, etc., are practically similar, but we have always made a distinction between the two kinds of papers. A vessel under enrollment, for example, can not engage in the foreign trade without being subject to the penalty of forfeiture. I should make one exception to that, namely, on the Great Lakes, where voyages, of course, are very short. Where the distance across-the distance from an American to a Canadian port, or between American ports-is oftentimes very short, vessels can not be going to the customhouse two or three times a day, or every day or two, to exchange an enrollment for a register. Accordingly, on the Great Lakes the enrollment authorizes a vessel to engage either in the coasting or domestic trade or in the foreign trade.

On the seaboard, of course, there is somewhat similar legislation. A vessel, for example, may be going from New York to Galveston having cargo incidentally for Habana. Of course, that vessel would be simultaneously engaged as to part of its cargo in the foreign and as to part of its cargo in the coastwise trade. To meet a situation of that kind Congress has, years ago, provided that there should be one paper, namely, the register, which would authorize a vessel to engage in those two forms of trade simultaneously.

Senator SIMMONS. Mr. Chamberlain, an enrolled vessel has no right to engage in any but the coastwise trade, has it?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. It has no

Senator SIMMONS. That is, merely a license to do a coastwise business?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. I should have said in addition to the enrollment there is an annual license which authorizes them to engage in the coasting trade. That is, in the transportation of cargoes or in the fisheries. The license has to be renewed annually. The enrollment lasts until there is some substantial change in the ship, either in ownership or through a change of build.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you state for the purpose of the record what is meant by the coastwise trade of the United States?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. The coastwise trade is the trade between domestic ports.

Senator THOMAS. Does that include transportation between continental and insular ports?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Congress has provided that the trade between the mainland of the United States and Porto Rico shall be coastwise trade by specific acts and has provided the same for Hawaii. It provided the same in regard to Alaska at the time of annexation and at the time of the purchase of Louisiana, or a year or two afterwards, it provided the same for Louisiana.

Senator THOMAS. How about the Philippines?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. The Philippines have never been coastwise and are not now. An act was passed shortly after the acquisition of the Philippines saying that after a certain period-I have not the date right in mind-the coastwise laws should apply to trade in the Philippines. A year or two later, because there were no ships to do the business-that was one reason at all events; there were doubtless others-Congress provided that that application should be postponed for several years more, and as the end of that interval neared they repealed that section altogether. So that the Philippine trade is open to foreign ships as well as to American.

The CHAIRMAN. Vessels engaged in the coastwise trade are confined to the coast line of continental United States, with the additional right of entering the ports of Porto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And not the Philippines?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. And not the Philippines.

Senator SIMMONS. Is not what you are saying confined to enrolled vessels? Suppose a vessel is not enrolled, but is a registered vessel, would not that vessel engage jointly in coastwise and, incidentally, in the foreign trade?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. To what extent is the coastwise and foreign trade combined by vessels dealing with South American ports?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. I could not say as to that. It can not be to any considerable extent, because, of course, there geography would control. The vessels that would have favorable opportunities for that would be those going from the Atlantic coast ports destined to Gulf ports, or vice versa, and passing near the West Indian ports. I do not know of any at the moment. I can not recall any vessels at this time that are engaged in the business. There may be occasionally a ship that does, but there is no regular business of that kind. In the same way that could happen on the Pacific coast, in the case of vessels that start from the mainland of the United States and pass along the coast of British Columbia, destined for Alaska, for example, going or coming. Of course, there the register would be used, and there are quite a number of vessels engaged in that form of trade under register.

The CHAIRMAN. On the Atlantic seaboard, as I understand your statement, you know of no coastwise vessels engaged in trade with Cuba and West Indian ports?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. That also go to Galveston; yes, sir. We have vessels engaged in trade with Cuba and West Indian ports, of course. The CHAIRMAN. On their way to Galveston?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Not on their way to Galveston. That qualification must be put in.

« PreviousContinue »