benefit of the person to be assessed, together with their stores or appurtenances, at their fair market value, or belonging to any person, company, association, or corporation in or out of this State, and not paying taxes at the domicile of the said company, person, association, or corporation; all railroads and other roads, all canals and other ways of communication, travel, or transportation; all locomotives, dummies, and other motive powers; all engines, boilers, and other appurtenances, appliances, and attachments for steam, electric, and other engines; all telephone and telegraph lines; all machines and machinery; all cars, carriages, wagons, and other vehicles; all patents, copyrights, trade-marks, privileges, charters, and franchises, including stock of any lottery charter or privilege, domiciled in or out of this State, unless exempted by the constitution of the State; all lumber, brick, and other building material; all movable property and chattels; all personal property; all goods, wares, and merchandise, and other stock in trade, in possession, on hand, or under control; goods bought and paid for; goods bought and to be paid for; all goods on consignment for sale, without reference to whom they belong; goods in transit for forwarding, not on consignment for sale, are not to be assessed; all alcoholic, vinous, and malt liquors; all household, kitchen, and other furniture exceeding five hundred ($500) dollars in value; all jewels and jewelry, diamonds, pearls, and precious stones, real or imitation; all gold and silver ware and silver plate, paintings, engravings, statuary, and other works of art, bric-a-brac, and "articles of virtu," and ornaments; all horses and other live animals; all personal property held in trust, or by a wife, or for a minor child; all property held, controlled, or administered in each separate capacity as president, cashier, treasurer, liquidator, assignee, master, superintendent, manager, sequestrator, receiver, trustee, stakeholder, depository, warehouseman, keeper, curator, tutor, executor, administrator, legatee, heir, beneficiary, father, agent, attorney, usufructuary, mandatory fiduciary, or official capacity; the cash value of all judg ments, suits, and causes in action; all rights, credits, bonds, stocks, and securities of all kinds, promissory notes and other obligations; all cash on hand on the day upon which notice is served to make return of taxable property in conformity with this act, including checks payable on that day, and drafts and notes due at that date which have not been included as money at interest or debts due; also all borrowed money or deposits in banks or elsewhere. The amount of cash on hand will not be offset or lessened because money is owed or by liabilities of any kind, but must represent the full amount standing in the name of the person to be assessed or subject to his control on the day above named. All coins, United States and foreign, whether current or uncurrent; all currencies, bank notes, and other paper money; all moneys loaned at interest; all shares of stock in all banking, insurance, manufacturing, and all other incorporated or non-incorporated companies, chartered under the laws of Louisiana or under the laws of any other State than Louisiana; and all other articles and things whatever, possessing any money value. This enumeration shall not be construed so as to exempt from taxation any property or values uot enumerated herein: Provided, That no articles or things herein above enumerated shall be assessed more than once the same year.

FLORIDA.

In the State of Florida shipping has to pay a local tax, which is levied on the owners at a rate similar to that on other personal property. The collector at Jacksonville, writing on the subject, says:

There is no question but what a great amount of ship property escapes taxation altogether, and that the transfer of ownership of vessels or of the citizenship of the owners from one State to another is in many instances made, not only to escape ouerous taxation, but to avoid the payment of any taxes. I see no remedy for the matter unless it might be that the production of tax receipts to the collector of customs should be made a prerequisite to the renewal of marine documents.

CALIFORNIA.

In the State of California ship property of all kinds pays a tax (as, in fact, it does in all the States not mentioned as exceptions here) like other personal property. In the city of San Francisco the value of shipping documented at the port is $1,342,075, and the tax for 1885 amounted to $45,544.03.

A bill was introduced in the California senate last year, which had received the support of the San Francisco shipping people, in regard to taxation, the principles of which were that ships and vessels engaged

in the foreign carrying trade, and owned entirely within the State, should not, for the purpose of taxation, be included in the personal estate as things to be taxed, but that the net yearly income of such ship or vessel be taxed to the owners according to their several interests at the places of their residence or insurance, and that the net earnings shall constitute the valuation upon which such vessels shall be taxed. The theory is often advanced that each citizen of the municipality must contribute his quota in aid of the local government as an equivalent for the protection that he and his property receive at its hands; but the rule can hardly be made to apply to ship property, more especially to such ships as are engaged in the foreign trade, as such property comes under the protection of the National Government only. Indeed, a ship may never be in the home port, or where her owner resides, after sailing away from it on her first voyage, and certainly in such cases owes little for protection or benefits received, excepting to the General Government. For this reason it is thought that if any tax is placed upon shipping it should be levied by the National Government. Moreover, the lack of uniformity in the taxation of shipping now practiced creates an element of disturbance to the commercial balance between the States.

Section 10, Article I, of the Constitution provides that "no State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing the inspection laws." "No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any duty of tonnage."

The Constitution also provides that "Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises;" but that all such taxes, &c., "shall be uniform throughout the United States."

This section, with the clause which gives Congress "power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States," would seem to indicate that taxation of ship property is one of the prerogatives of the national legislature, and one which Congress might asume much to the advantage of all interested, and to the relief of the several States, which under the various conflicting systems that are in vogue are in danger of introducing a spirit of antagonism among themselves.

PILOTAGE.

When, as has been stated in the report of the select committee of the Forty-eighth Congress on the ship-building and ship-owning interests, it is admitted that American vessels pay to the support of the different pilot systems of the country a sum probably exceeding a million dollars annually, the pilotage rates must be acknowledged to be one of the most costly charges that our merchant marine has to bear.

This fact would be a sufficient reason for investigation of the subject, and together with the general lack of uniformity in the regulations and rates established by the different State laws has brought the question of pilotage into prominence, and it has been pretty thoroughly discussed during the past few years.

The employment of pilots by vessels entering strange harbors is a custom that has been handed down to us from the earliest dawn of commerce. The origin and history of the first pilotage organizations are alike difficult to trace, but the practice undoubtedly arose from the necessities of ships when approaching an unknown coast, in want of persons acquainted with the local dangers who could take them safely into port. At first there were, of course, no pilot organizations, seafaring persons having the requisite local knowledge being employed in5556 NAV-—6

discriminately as pilots; but as the demand increased with the growing trade of large sea-ports, it became important that a stated number of pilots should hold themselves in readiness to go on board ships and bring them into harbor. Hence the rise of the various pilot organizations in the most frequented parts of the world. These associations of seamen were inaugurated at an early time in the principal ports of Europe. The employment of pilots was, however, quite optional in the beginning, and it was found to be a hardship on the pilots to maintain their establishments, inasmuch as they were not always taken by ships entering; for, although in thick or stormy weather shipmasters were sure to require their services, there were few of them who would employ a pilot at an expensive rate in the summer season.

In consequence of the uncertainty of being employed, the pilots at some ports found it difficult to keep up their establishments with a supply of pilots throughout the year. The scanty encouragement that the pilots received under the free system, as operated at that early time, in the ports of Great Britain, and its frequent losses, finally led to acts of Parliament making pilotage compulsory. In the year 1765 pilotage was first made compulsory on vessels bound into the port of Liverpool, and in 1796 an act was passed extending the compulsory provisions to outward-bound vessels. From that time until the advent of steam navigation pilotage continued to be compulsory at the principal British ports. But the new mode of propulsion, which was largely introduced into coasting, and the employment of tow-boats by sailing ships, rendered necessary some change in the compulsory-pilotage laws, and numerous acts have been passed by Parliament modifying the pilot regulations at certain ports to suit the requirements of the improved mode of navigation and needs of commerce. Interference with the system of compulsory pilotage has, however, met with strong opposition in England, where great difference of opinion exists on the matter. The entire question is now being made the subject of official inquiry there, and it is probable that a new law will soon be adopted more in keeping with the present circumstances and putting the pilots all under one general system of rules and regulations.

The pilotage laws of this country as established by the different States were based chiefly on those of Great Britain; but the business of regulating pilots and pilotage properly belongs to the Government of the United States, although Congress at the time of the formation of the Government was not sufficiently acquainted with the local details necessary for forming a general pilot law. A law was therefore enacted declaring that all pilots in the bays, rivers, harbors, and ports of the country should continue to be regulated in conformity with the existing laws of the respective States, or with such laws as they might hereafter enact for the purpose, until further legislative provision should be made by Congress. The State law then existing was made valid by act of Congress, as well as any subsequent pilotage laws the States might adopt. On the basis of the original act of Congress, the States have generally passed pilotage laws as if the power to do so belonged solely to them. The ends of trade and commerce have in general been promoted by this course, as the legislatures of the different States were sufficiently inclined to facilitate the entrance of ships into their ports; but there was a lack of system and uniformity due to the needs existing in different localities.

Several pilot laws have been passed by Congress abolishing discriminations and regulating the administration of certain State laws.

The system of compulsory pilotage is being abolished in many of the large sea-ports in foreign countries, and its repeal is generally found to work no injury to either the general safety of navigation or the pilotage service. The pilotage service at many of our ports is acknowledged to be very efficient and valuable, having adapted itself to the requirements of each separate harbor; but the State pilotage laws are some of them unjust and onerous in their discrimination against sailing ships.

The pilotage system on a coast so extensive as that of the United States calls for such a variety of regulations in different localities that it would be difficult to frame a pilotage code that would apply to all the ports of the country. Some general enactment in which Congress should assume to control and limit the powers of the States would seem to be proper.

A careful study of the subject, having reference to the statistics of the number of vessels lost and leaving our harbors, does not show that compulsory pilotage is a protection against such disasters. At ports where the compulsory system is enforced upon vessels trading foreign, and not upon those trading coastwise, there appears to be no increase in the ratio of casualties since the latter were relieved from compulsory pilotage.

That a strict system of compulsory pilotage is not necessary, even in places of dangerous navigation, seems also to be proven by the practice adopted on the Northern lakes. The whole lake region is without any organized system of pilotage; every master is his own pilot except when in tow of a tug, when the master of a tow-boat, who is a regularly licensed pilot under the United States inspection laws, is authorized to act as such. It has been remarked that if a pilot's services can be dispensed with in such navigation as the lakes, where the wind often blows on a lee-shore and the harbors are mostly approached by intri cate and shallow channels, often during thick and foggy weather, the same rule might be as safely adopted on our seaboard.

Looking to our Atlantic coast, we have as many different laws in regard to pilotage as there are different States. In some of them, as Maine and New Hampshire, pilotage is free. In the others, the compulsory system in some shape or other exists.

With a view to arrive at the practical effect of the diverse and conflicting laws of different States in their operation upon vessels arriving under different circumstances at various ports, a brief synopsis of the pilot laws of the different seaboard States is subjoined to the national statutes on the same subject.

It has been claimed by the pilots, who have in some of the large ports inaugurated some very creditable organizations, that the safety of life and property would be endangered by any change in so important an arm of the maritime service as a long-established system of pilotage; but this does not appear to have been the result where a different system has been adopted. It will be seen by reference to the annexed extract from the report made to the House of Representatives by the Select Committee on Ship-building and Ship-owning Interests, submitted by Mr. Dingley to the Forty-eighth Congress, that

Under State laws, the master of a coast wise sailing vessel has the privilege of exercising his discretion as to whether or not he will employ and pay a State pilot in the ports of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, California, Mississippi; South Carolina, as to vessels trading between ports in that State; Florida, as to vessels owned in the State; Georgia, as to vessels trading between her ports or with the ports of Florida and South Carolina; and Pennsylvania, as to vessels coal-laden and as to vessels outward bound.

But the same coastwise vessel, under the same master, is required to pay a pilot or a pilotage tax, when his services are not needed nor used, in the ports or waters of

Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, as to vessels trading with ports out of the State; Oregon, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida, as to vessels owned out of the State.

A sailing or steam vessel in the foreign trade is required to pay for the services of a pilot, whether one is employed or not, in every seaboard State except Maine and New Hampshire, the rates varying between $2.25 per foot draught in New Bedford, Mass., and $6.37 per foot in New York.

The practical operation of these diverse and conflicting laws shows that they cannot be in the interests of our merchant marine. An American sailing vessel hailing from New Orleans, or any other port of the United States, may enter the ports of New York and Boston without paying for a pilot when the master takes a tug or is able to pilot his own vessel. But the same vessel, under the same master, entering the same ports in a similar manner, must pay an average of at least $7.90 per foot draught, or $158 for a vessel of 20 feet draught, entering and leaving, if she ventures to engage in the American carrying trade between Boston and Cuba. Why should we allow any State to discriminate against American vessels when they attempt to carry the American flag into foreign waters?

A vessel going from any port in the United States to Philadelphia, when passing up Delaware Bay and River, is compelled to pay a Delaware pilot, whom she does not need, in order to secure the privilege of sailing in waters of the United States. In other words, Delaware practically imposes a tax on vessels going to Philadelphia. Maryland and Virginia even license coast wise vessels to enter and leave their ports without a pilot, on payment of a tonnage tax.

The ship-owners and representatives of maritime associations who appeared before your committee presented abundant facts to demonstrate the unnecessarily burdensome and injurious character of the pilotage legislation of the States, affecting all the vessels of our commercial marine except coasting steamers. An examination of the arguments and evidence before the committee, as published in House Miscella neous Document 37, satisfies us that Congress should give some measure of relief. The fact that within the last ten or fifteen years sailing vessels have found it necessary, in order to meet the requirements for speedy transportation, to take the tow of tugboats, which must be in charge of a United States pilot, has made the State laws, compelling vessels to pay for pilots whom they have no use for, peculiarly oppressive. An instance was presented to the committee where a small American vessel paid $840, or one-tenth of her freight money, for pilotage on ten trips, notwithstanding the master used no State pilot, but either was towed by a tug or piloted his vessel himself.

It is thought that the passage of an act relieving all classes of sail vessels from compulsory pilotage in cases where a tugboat (with a pilot having a United States license on board) is employed would be desirable as a step in the direction of free pilotage and economy in the navigation of American vessels. It is presumed that foreign vessels commanded by strangers (as well as many Americans not acquainted with the locality) would in nearly all cases feel it incumbent on themselves as a measure of safety to employ a pilot. While the great value of the pilot service is recognized, and the benefits conferred upon commerce and upon humanity by that hardy and courageous body of men deserve all praise, the requirements of the times seem to demand a reorganization of the whole pilotage system, and it is claimed by some that it would be better for the pilots themselves, as well as others interested, for Congress to assume jurisdiction over the whole question.

ACTS OF CONGRESS RELATING TO PILOTS.

ACT of 1789.

SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That all pilots in the bays, inlets, rivers, harbors, and ports of the United States shall continue to be regulated in conformity with the existing laws of the States respectively wherein such pilots may be, or with such laws as the States may respectively hereafter enact for the purpose, until further legislative provisions shall be made by Congress.

ACT of 1837.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for the master or commander of any