vision of the work of the local inspectors within their respective districts, to assist in the actual work of inspection when necessary, to report cases of neglect, carelessness and inefficiency among local inspectors to the Secretary of the Treasury, who was given the power of removal, and to furnish the latter with technical information on matters pertaining to the welfare of the service. The supervising inspectors were to receive a salary of $1500 per annum and all necessary and reasonable traveling expenses incurred in the performance of their duties.

The provisions of this act, in regard to the appointment of local inspectors, superseded the act of 1838. For certain collection districts specifically enumerated in the act, two inspectors were to be appointed by a commission consisting of the collector or other chief officer of customs of the district, the supervising inspector in charge of the district, and the judge of the United States District Court, and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury. The compensation of these local inspectors, to be known as the inspector of hulls and the inspector of boilers, was definitely fixed by the act, and ranged from $200 to $2000 per annum, being based upon the estimated amount of work required in the various districts. Fees for the inspection of vessels and the issuance of license certificates to officers of the same were to be turned over to the collector of customs who would remit the same to the Treasurer of the United States. In addition to their work in the inspection of vessels, the local inspectors, acting as a board, were authorized to license and classify all engineers and pilots of steamers carrying passengers. Appeals were permitted to be taken from the decisions of the local boards to the supervising inspector of the district. The act also prescribed additional requirements for vessels, such as precautions against fire, additional life-saving equipment, and a special license to carry certain dangerous or inflammable articles.

In addition to approving the appointment of local inspectors, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by the

act of 1852 to receive reports from the board of supervising inspectors, to inquire into the operation of the inspection laws, and to make recommendations to Congress. Accordingly a personal agent of the Treasury Department was appointed by the Secretary to collect information as to the work of the service and to attend the meetings of the board of supervising inspectors. The reports of this officer, together with the annual reports of the proceedings of the board of supervising inspectors, furnished the Secretary with information as to the needs of the service upon which to base his recommendations to Congress. The rather prevalent hostility and opposition to the inspection laws in the years immediately following the passage of the "Steamboat Act," especially among the officers and owners of vessels, was later greatly minimized by the increasing and apparent benefits of their operation. The board of supervising inspectors in their annual report to the Secretary of the Treasury for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1862, noted particularly this changed attitude on the part of those directly affected by the work of the inspection service: “A general admission of the great utility of the laws and expressions of satisfaction at the results which have followed its observance, which to those interested in such property is now fully apparent, has now taken the place of the original opposition with which the inspectors were met in many instances; and incomplete as this law may be, in some respects, the cause of almost every accident to passenger steamers which now occurs can be readily traced to a violation of its provisions, or of the regulations of this board made pursuant thereto."

Numerous acts were passed, following the reorganization of the service in 1852, usually upon recommendations made to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, which served to enlarge the work of the service by providing new inspection districts and imposing additional requirements upon the owner of steam-vessels. The provisions of these acts, in summary form, are as follows:

(1) Joint resolution of March 3, 1853 (10 Stat. L., 262), defining more specifically the duties of inspectors under the "Steamboat Act."

(2) Act of March 3, 1855 (to Stat. L., 715), regulating the carriage of passengers on steam-vessels both as to number and accommodations therefor.

(3) Act of June 8, 1864 (13 Stat. L., 120), making provision for an additional supervising inspector and two local boards, and abolishing one local inspection district. The act of 1852 was also extended to include ferry-boats, tug-boats, and canal-boats carrying passengers for hire.

(4) Act of July 4, 1864 (13 Stat. L., 390), further regulating the carriage of passengers on steamboats and other vessels.

(5) Act of March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. L., 514), providing for two local assistant inspectors and one additional local inspection board, and reëstablishing the inspection district abolished the previous year.

(6) Act of July 25, 1866 (14 Stat. L., 227), further providing for the safety and accommodation of passengers, and fixing the salaries of local inspectors.

Establishment of a Central Office: 1871-1903. The act of 1852, while giving the Secretary of the Treasury a certain amount of indirect supervision over the work of the Steamboat-Inspection Service, failed to place the service definitely under the direction and control of any one of the executive departments, without which the necessary and proper direction and control could not be had. This serious defect in the Steamboat Act was pointed out by the special agent of the Treasury Department in his reports to the Secretary of the Treasury as early as 1855. In his report dated November 6, 1855, that officer said:

The system is at present without an efficient head. The president of the board of supervising inspectors is, from the necessity of the case, little more than a moderator of debates

at their annual meetings. The powers that the law confers on the Secretary of the Treasury are very limited. A body without a head is a monster; and so likewise is a body with nine heads. With the Union divided into nine districts, and the supervising inspector in each district exercising a wide discretion in regard to rules and regulations, there has been no uniformity in the operation of the act. It is only at Washington City, where the accounts are collected from all quarters, that there can be a proper supervision of the system. Whether this should be by a Supervisor-General, by the Secretary of the Treasury, or by a board especially constituted for that purpose, is for the wisdom of Congress to determine. . . . As at present constituted, the board of supervising inspectors is an anomaly. All the other officers of the government are, in some way, brought under suitable responsibility, either to the President or to the head of some depart

ment.

Some effort must have been made by the Secretary of the Treasury, under the limited authority granted to him by the act of 1852, to provide such a head for the service, for we find that a report was made to him in 1870, on a proposed bill to reorganize the service, by the Chief of the SteamboatInspection Division.1 The chief of this division, in all probability created by departmental order, commented favorably on the work of the special agent detailed by the Secretary of the Treasury in 1852 to report on the operations of the serv ́ice and to draw up the proposed bill. The appropriation acts for the fiscal years ending June, 30, 1870 and 1871, providing for the Steamboat-Inspection Service, contain items covering the salary and traveling expenses of this special agent of the department.2

The proposed bill submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury in 1870, by the chief of the Steamboat-Inspection Division,

1 Diligent search of the available records and appropriation acts, as well as inquiries directed to the present head of the bureau, have failed to reveal at what time and by what authority such a division in the Treasury Department was organized.

2 Act of March 3, 1869 (15 Stat. L., 301); and act of July 15, 1870 (16 Stat. L., 291).

which had been approved by the board of supervising inspectors, was the subject of legislation passed by Congress and approved February 28, 1871 (16 Stat. L., 440). By the terms of this act, which marks a third important step in the development of steamboat inspection, the recommendations previously noted for an administrative head of the service were given recognition, in the creation of the office of "Supervising Inspector-General" who, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, should have immediate direction and supervision over the entire work of the service. This officer, who was to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and selected with reference to his fitness and ability to systematize and carry into effect all the provisions of law relating to the Steamboat-Inspection Service, was granted a salary of $3500 per annum, in addition to traveling expenses incurred in the performance of his duties at the rate of ten cents per mile.

The joint meeting of the supervising inspectors, first provided for in the act of 1852, was now given a more definite status. The supervising inspectors together with the Supervising Inspector-General, were to assemble as a board, at Washington once a year, and at such other times as the Secretary of the Treasury might prescribe, for joint consultation and for assignment to each of their number the limits of the territory within which he should perform his duties. The board was vested with authority to establish all necessary rules and regulations required for the proper and uniform administration of the inspection laws, and such regulations, when approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, should have the full force of law.

With one exception, the act of 1871 superseded or repealed all previous legislation on the subjects of inspection, licensing of officers, and the transportation of passengers and merchandise on vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam.3

3 The exception here noted is that section of the act of August 30, 1852, which provided for the punishment and the forfeiture of