Stat. L., 94, 102), adopted regulations with a view to securing uniformity of practice in radiotelegraphic communication. The convention was ratified by the Senate on January 22, 1913 (38 Stat. L., 1672).

A division of the bureaus organized within the Department of Commerce and Labor was made by the act approved March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. L., 736), creating a Department of Labor. The Bureau of Navigation was continued under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Commerce. The history of the bureau since 1913 does not reveal any increase in the number of activities in which it was engaged, but rather a development in the scope of the service it performed. Increased appropriations permitted the bureau to enlarge its work, especially in connection with the enforcement of the navigation laws and the regulations governing wireless communication. The enforcement of the laws regulating the carriage of passengers on vessels, prior to 1914, was a part of the field service of the bureau performed by customs officers. The prevention of the over-crowding of vessels, especially during the excursion season, necessitated the appointment of additional employees to aid the customs officers in the work of counting passengers. On July 29, 1914 (38 Stat. L., 559, 573), Congress appropriated $15,000 for the employment by the Department of Commerce of inspectors to count passengers. The scope of the service these inspectors were intended to perform was considerably extended by the inspectors making thorough examinations of vessels, before and after counting passengers, to ascertain that the equipment required by the law was on board, and that the vessel was provided with the necessary number of licensed officers required by the certificates of inspection, issued by inspectors of the Steamboat-Inspection Service. The appointment of these officers enabled the bureau to secure a more thorough and systematic inspection of vessels than had theretofore been possible with its limited force. A special examination was conducted by the Civil Service Commission, at the request of the bureau, to secure the best men available.

A number of acts have been passed adding minor duties to those already performed by the Commissioner of Navigation. The "seamen's act" approved March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. L., 1164, 1169), provided that the Commissioner, under the direction of the Secre

tary of Commerce, should make regulations to carry out the provisions of that act relating to allotments of seamen's wages and to enforce the prohibition of payment of wages in advance to seamen. No allotments were to be valid unless in writing and signed and approved by a shipping commissioner. Another act approved on the same date (38 Stat. L., 1193), providing for the issue of provisional certificates of registry to vessels abroad which had been purchased by citizens of the United States, authorized the Commissioner of Navigation to prescribe the form of such provisional certificate and required copies thereof to be forwarded to the Commissioner by the issuing officer.

An act approved June 7, 1918 (40 Stat. L., 602), required the numbering and recording of "every undocumented vessel, operated in whole or in part by machinery, owned in the United States and found on the navigable waters thereof, except public vessels, and vessels not exceeding 16 feet in length temporarily equipped with detachable motors." This law was intended to assist in the enforcement of the navigation laws, especially against motor-boats, through the identification of the owners of these small vessels. A bill, embodying the essential provisions of the act of 1918, was presented by the Commissioner of Navigation for the consideration of Congress in his annual report for 1913, together with estimates as to the effect of such a law and to the additional personnel required for its enforcement. Reference was made by the Commissioner to his annual report for 1912, which contained statements showing the belief held by collectors of customs, revenue cutter officers, and others interested, that some system of assigning official numbers to motor-boats was both desirable and necessary to give full effect to the existing law. An act approved February 19, 1920 (41 Stat. L., 436), authorizing the Commissioner of Navigation to change the names of vessels, merely embodied the provisions of the early act of 1881 giving this authority to the Secretary of the Treasury, and Section 5 of the act of 1884, transferring such authority to the Commissioner of Navigation.

The unprecedented growth of the American merchant marine. during the war period, while not materially adding to the work of the bureau at that time, did result in a large amount of additional work upon the return to a peace time basis. The sudden demand

for seamen to man and equip naval vessels and merchant ships, especially those owned and operated by the United States Shipping Board, was met, to a large extent, by the Navy Department, which furnished officers and enlisted men to ships engaged in transporting troops, munitions, and supplies to Europe. These enlisted men of the navy served and were paid under their enlistment papers and, consequently, did not appear before the shipping commissioners for shipment and discharge. Thus more than half of the additional work imposed by law on these commissioners under normal conditions was performed as a war emergency measure by the Navy Department. The demand for radio apparatus for the navy and for new merchant ships was very heavy and to economize resources, it was arranged that the Navy Department should allot such apparatus to its own ships and to merchant ships and later that the Navy Department should keep in repair apparatus for Shipping Board ships as well as for the navy. To meet this situation, a change in the inspection system was made in November, 1917, whereby the inspection of merchants ships furnished with apparatus on naval allotment was discontinued except in so far as it was performed by the Navy, which made the repairs. As practically all the ships of our allies in the war and their radio apparatus and operators were under control of the military branches of their respective governments, inspection in American ports of foreign ships was practically abandoned. Many of the radio inspectors of the bureau, in order to meet the increased demand for radio operators, devoted their time after hours to teaching radiotelegraphy in classes or institutions established by local or private organizations. Under executive order of April 30, 1917, "to insure the proper conduct of the war against the Imperial German Government and the successful termination thereof" coast radio stations were operated by the Navy Department or closed, thus obviating the necessity of their inspection by wireless inspectors.

The gradual discharge of naval crews, and consequently the shipment of merchant crews, began in May, 1919. On August 1, about 1500 enlisted naval radio operators were withdrawn from merchant ships. With American shipping still increasing at the rate of nearly 400,000 gross tons a month, the problem of supervising the shipment of seamen, and the licensing of radio operators

necessitated immediate increases in the personnel of the bureau, especially in the radio service and the offices of shipping commissioners, which were provided for in the deficiency act of November 4, 1919 (41 Stat. L., 327, 340). The increase in gross tonnage of American shipping from about 8,000,000 tons in 1914 to something over 16,000,000 in 1920 is an indication of the rapid growth in the work performed by the Bureau of Navigation, which exercises some degree of supervision and regulation over all vessels of the American merchant marine. The work of the radio inspection service alone has increased to such an extent that the creation of a separate office or bureau in the Department of Commerce for that purpose was recognized by the Commissioner, in his annual report for 1920, as a future possibility. Other activities of the bureau have correspondingly increased in scope, commensurate with the increase in the number of American merchant ships.

CHAPTER II

ACTIVITIES

The activities in which the Bureau of Navigation is at present engaged, in the proper execution of its function to administer and enforce the laws of the United States enacted for the purpose of supervising and regulating the merchant marine, may be roughly divided into two classes: (1) The specific, and (2) the general. The first class embraces those having to do with the administration of certain clearly defined features of the navigation laws, such as those pertaining to the documenting of vessels, the shipment of seamen, and the regulation of radio communication. The second embraces duties covering, in a way, the entire scope of the navigation laws. The bureau thus possesses a dual character. On the one hand it is a service with certain specialized duties, and, on the other, a service charged with general responsibility for the administration and enforcement of the navigation and shipping laws. This latter characteristic is clearly seen in the following provision of the act of 1884 creating the bureau:

The Commissioner of Navigation, under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor [Secretary of Commerce], shall have general superintendence of the commercial marine and merchant seamen of the United States, so far as vessels and seamen are not, under existing laws, subject to the supervision of any other officer of the government.

He [the Commissioner of Navigation] shall also investigate the operation of the laws relative to navigation, and annually report to the Secretary of the Treasury [Secretary of Commerce] such particulars as may, in his judgment, admit of improvement or may require amendment.

The general grant of authority contained in these two sections is of great significance, since they make the Bureau of Navigation, more than any other service, the one authority generally responsible for the administration of the navigation laws. Because