ators at its Signal Corps station at Fort Omaha. The wireless ship act has met with general approbation, and in its enforcement the Department has had, with rare exceptions, the cordial cooperation of the steamship companies concerned and of the wireless telegraph companies. Austria has passed a similar law, effective January 1, 1912, and doubtless other nations will follow our example if our administration of the act shall prove successful. At present 488 ocean passenger steamships are regularly subject to the provisions of the law, and others on occasional voyages come within its requirements. In addition 142 vessels, including 15 yachts, not subject to the law, have been voluntarily equipped in the United States.

During July, the first month of the operation of the act, there were 1,163 departures of steamships subject to the act, and the number during the year will exceed 10,000. Congress appropriated only $7,000 for the enforcement of the law, and with this amount it was possible to select only three competent inspectors-one for New York and New England, one for the rest of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and one for the Pacific coast. Several months' work has shown that constant inspections are needed to give full effect to this useful law, and I renew the recommendation for an appropriation of $10,000, which will allow an inspector exclusively for Gulf ports and Porto Rico. Trade of these ports is increasing even in advance of the opening of the Panama Canal. The mutual usefulness of wireless apparatus to two or more steamships or to a shore station affords a special reason for Government inspection. Supervision of the equipment of ocean passenger steamships with wireless apparatus has already taken its place and at relatively small cost among the several services which Congress has created for the safety of life. and property at sea.

While the Congress of the United States was the first legislative body to recognize by statute the protection to life and property at sea afforded by radiocommunication, we are backward in the necessary regulation of the use of wireless apparatus. A bill for this purpose, prepared by this Department in conjunction with the Treasury Department, the War Department, and the Navy Department, passed the Senate unanimously on June 16, 1910, and a similar bill was unanimously reported to the House on April 1, 1910, but was not reached. The passage of this measure is again recommended. It avoids difficulties which have thus far delayed ratification of the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Convention of 1906, adopted by practically all other maritime nations. The international radiotelegraphic conference will meet again in June, 1912, and it is hoped that Congress will provide for the participation of the United States in its deliberations.

MOTOR-BOAT ACT.

The motor-boat act went into effect on July 9, 1910, and the improvement during the year in navigation conditions on rivers, harbors, and lakes under Federal jurisdiction is everywhere recognized by the masters of large vessels as well as by those who operate motor boats. Its first purpose was to substitute reasonable requirements as to lights and sounds for the impossible requirements of the acts of 1895 and 1897, passed when motor boats were almost unknown. Its second purpose was to provide simple and effective means of extinguishing fire and preventing drowning. Compared with former years, the summer season of 1910 showed relatively few accidents and the past summer was almost wholly free from those fatalities which the law was designed to prevent. Of course these results are in a great measure due to the better construction and equipment provided by builders and to the increasing skill of operators, but the law has been a stimulus to both and has exerted a wholesome check on the reckless. Motor-boat clubs and the daily newspapers and sporting press throughout the country have been prompt to recognize the usefulness of the law, and their cooperation has helped much in its administration.

The law, however, could have been only feebly enforced had not Congress provided an appropriation of $15,000 to enable collectors. of customs to enforce this and other navigation laws upon the water, where in fact violations occur. The same sum was placed at the Department's disposal for the current year and is recommended for the coming year. The Department has endeavored to be both just and considerate in the imposition of penalties, as the law was new, but the receipts from fines under this and other laws have been about double the appropriation. The expenditure will thus prove advantageous even from the fiscal point of view.

The Department has been urged to recommend an extension of the law so as to require Government inspection of the hulls and machinery of motor boats and Government examinations of their operators. At a conservative estimate there are 150,000 motor boats always under Federal jurisdiction. To carry out the recommendation a great extension of the Federal service, with a large appropriation, would be necessary. I am satisfied that some additional supervision should be provided for, but I do not believe that it is necessary to extend the rigid rules of general navigation and inspection to this smaller craft.

NAVIGATION REVENUES.

Tonnage duties during the fiscal year amounted to $1,083,255.34, an increase of $1,728.64 over the previous year and the largest amount collected from this source since 1884. The full effect of the reduction

in rates from near-by foreign ports under the tariff act of August 5, 1909, is shown in receipts of $124.772.65 from vessels entered from such ports, compared with $163,731.81 from the same source during the fiscal year 1909 under the former rate. Tonnage rates are reasonable compared with those imposed by foreign nations generally, and are much less than those of the ports of continental Europe. They will provide an annual revenue of about $1,000,000 for some years to come, as increase in ocean traffic will be taken up by regular lines rather than by tramp steamers.

Our law fixing the tonnage of vessels, which is the basis of tonnage duties and other public and private charges, was brought into substantial accord with the laws of the principal maritime nations by the act of March 2, 1895. International uniformity on this subject is essential to the expeditious dispatch of modern steamers, and actual remeasurement of foreign vessels is to be avoided when possible. Marine construction, especially in shelter decks, has improved since 1895, and we should recognize, not penalize, these improvements. Amendments to the measurement laws are the more desirable at this time, as a system for the purpose of Panama tolls must soon be established.

MISCELLANEOUS RECOMMENDATIONS.

From the beginning of the Government, collectors of customs have been charged with the duty of enforcing the comprehensive scheme of navigation laws, which was enacted simultaneously with the first laws to collect revenue at seaports. As Congress has extended the scope of the navigation laws with increasing regard for the safety of life at sea, the duties of collectors of customs have been increased correspondingly, until at the present time many collectors of customs collect little or no revenue from the tariff, but are wholly occupied with the enforcement of laws relating to shipping. For this reason the ratio between the cost of operating a customhouse and the amount of revenue from the tariff it collects was never a correct measure of the usefulness of a collector of customs or of the amount of work he performed. It is an even more inaccurate measure now than it was 20 years ago. In any reorganization of customs districts which Congress may contemplate, the dual duties of collectors of customs should be fully considered, lest unintentionally an important part of the administrative machinery of the Department of Commerce and Labor be disarranged.

Congress has provided for the representation of the United States at three sessions of the International Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Law, and the proposed salvage convention, which is generally commended by the maritime world, has been transmitted to the Senate. I recommend that the United States be represented hereafter

at these sessions, for in the preliminary work of unifying the maritime law of nations our country should do its share.

The repeal of the law permitting imprisonment of seamen for desertion from American ships in remote foreign ports is again recommended. Men who want to desert American ships leave unmolested. In such ports not 1 man out of 200 deserts, and there are not half a dozen arrests a year. The situation is the reverse of that in our ports, where seamen desert from foreign ships to enjoy the larger opportunities of American life. Imprisonment for desertion from American ships in domestic ports and in near-by foreign ports was abolished in 1898, and the fragment of the law remaining is worse than valueless.

STEAMBOAT-INSPECTION SERVICE.

STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF WORK.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, there were transported on vessels which by law are required to report the number of passengers carried, 314,768,885 passengers. The total number of accidents resulting in the loss of life during this period was 48, a decrease from the previous year of 7, and the number of lives lost 392, including passengers and crew, an increase of 13 over the previous year. Of the total number of lives lost, 113 were from accidents incident to the perils of navigation, and 48 were from suicide and other unrelated causes, leaving 231 which can fairly be charged to accidents, collisions, or foundering. The total number of 392 lives lost, when compared with the number of passengers that were carried, makes a ratio of 1 life lost, including passengers and crew, for every 802,981 passengers carried.

The number of vessels inspected and certificated in the fiscal year 1911 was 8,335, with a tonnage of 8,494,986, a decrease of 94 in number, with an increased tonnage of 20,280, as compared with the previous fiscal year. Of the vessels certificated 6,999 were domestic steamers with a tonnage of 4,703,518, a decrease of 115 steamers and of 175,718 tons; and 468 were foreign passenger steamers with a tonnage of 3,330,267, an increase of 4 in number and of 200,395 tons. Sail vessels and barges to the number of 36 were inspected, with a tonnage of 18,561, a decrease of 2 in number and of 2,579 tons, and also 475 seagoing barges of 424,829 tons, a decrease of 5 in number and of 3,103 tons from the previous year. Three hundred and fiftyseven motor vessels with a tonnage of 17,811 were inspected and certificated, an increase of 24 in number and 1,285 tons over the previous year.

Licenses were issued during the year to 14,006 officers of all grades, an increase of 850 over the preceding year. There were 1,317 applicants examined for color blindness, of whom 30 were rejected and 1,287 were passed. As compared with the previous year, these figures show an increase of 299 in the number examined and 287 in the number passed.

At the various mills 3,916 steel plates for the construction of marine boilers were inspected, a decrease from the previous year of 610, and of this number 311 were rejected. In addition to these plates, there were inspected at the mills a large number of steel bars for braces and stay bolts for marine boilers, and also several hundred