66 PANAMA CANAL TOLLS A2 16 935 HEARING BEFORE A Compess SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON SEVENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON H. R. 1399 TO PROVIDE FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF VESSELS USING 113956 JANUARY 24, 1935 Printed for the use of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1935 CLARENCE F. LEA, California ROBERT CROSSER, Ohio PARKER CORNING, New York VIRGIL CHAPMAN, Kentucky PAUL H. MALONEY, Louisiana WILLIAM P. COLE, JR., Maryland CARL E. MAPES, Michigan CHARLES A. WOLVERTON, New Jersey ALFRED L. BULWINKLE, North Carolina PEHR G. HOLMES, Massachusetts SCHUYLER MERRITT, Connecticut B. CARROLL REECE, Tennessee JAMES W. WADSWORTH, JR., New York Co. t. Supt. Doc, 3-7-35 PANAMA CANAL TOLLS THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1935 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m., Hon. Clarence Lea (chairman) presiding. Mr. LEA. The committee will come to order. We meet this morning to have a partial hearing on H. R. 1399, a bill to provide for the measurement of vessels using the Panama Canal, and for other purposes. (H. R. 1399 follows:) [H. R. 1399, 74th Cong. 1st sess.] A BILL To provide for the measurement of vessels using the Panama Canal, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first five sentences of the third paragraph of section 5 of the Act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. 560, 569), as amended by the Act of June 15, 1914 (38 Stat. 385), are hereby amended so as to read as follows: "Tolls on merchant vessels, Army and Navy transports, colliers, hospital ships, supply ships, and yachts shall be based on net vessel tons of actual earning capacity, determined in accordance with the 'Rules for the Measurement of Vessels for the Panama Canal' prescribed by proclamation of the President, November 21, 1913, and as may be amended from time to time by order of the President, and shall not exceed $1 per net vessel-ton so determined, nor be less than 60 cents per net vessel-ton so determined, on laden vessels, and on vessels in ballast without passengers or cargo shall be less than the rate of tolls for vessels with passengers or cargo: Provided, That no charge shall be made for deck load, which is defined, for the purpose of this Act, as cargo situated in a space which is at all times exposed to the weather and the sea and which space is not included in the net tonnage determined under the said 'Rules for the Measurement of Vessels for the Panama Canal.' Tolls on other floating craft shall be levied on displacement tonnage at rates to be prescribed by the President. In addition to the tolls based on measurement or displacement tonnage, tolls may be levied on passengers at rates prescribed by the President but not to exceed $1.50 for each passenger. The levy of tolls is subject to the provisions of article XIX of the convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Panama, entered into November 18, 1903, and of article I of the treaty between the United States of America and the Republic of Colombia, proclaimed March 30, 1922." SEC. 2. That this Act shall take effect and be enforced on and after January 1, 1936. During the last session of Congress, we held a hearing at length on a similar bill. So, it is not the purpose of the committee to go over the whole matter again, certainly not from the standpoint of the Government, but inasmuch as some of the shipping companies |