A proposal for administrative reorganization introduced in the Senate on December 4, 1901, met a more favorable reception. It was proposed to establish a Department of Commerce and Labor "to foster, promote and develop the foreign and domestic commerce, the mining, manufacturing, shipping, and fishery industries, the labor interests, and the transportation facilities of the United States," and to transfer to the new department all bureaus connected with, and germane to the work and duties thus assigned to it. The bill was received in the House and referred to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on January 30, 1902, which committee reported favorably to the House on January 6, 1903. Not all of the proposed changes, however, were supported. With regard to the transfer of the Steamboat-Inspection Service to the new department, the committee reported: "Possibly the Steamboat-Inspection Service might be transferred without great injury to the public interests, but that bureau has largely to do with collectors of customs at the different ports, and it has not been thought wise by your committee at this time to recommend its transfer." The proposed bill, as finally passed, was substantially that introduced in the Senate in 1901. The act was approved by the President on February 14, 1903 (32 Stat. L., 825). By the express provisions of the act, all the duties, power, authority and jurisdiction, whether supervisory, appellate, or otherwise, previously imposed or conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury by acts of Congress, and relating to the control of American and foreign shipping or to the Steamboat-Inspection Service and officers thereof, was transferred to, and imposed upon the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.

Following the transfer of the Steamboat-Inspection Serin which the naval officers were the inferiors of civilian boilerinspectors, and (2) that the proposed change would subject licensed officers of steam-vessels to a technical and impractical examination that a large number of them could not pass, though having superior practical qualifications for the vocation they had been following, and having, in the past, largely contributed to the support of the inspection service.

vice to the new department, the board of supervising inspectors met in special session during the months of June and July, 1903, to make a thorough revision of the steamboat inspection laws and also of the rules and regulations made in pursuance thereof. After seven weeks of concentrated effort, a bill was framed embodying what seemed to be amendments necessary to harmonize the inspection laws and the organization of the service with modern developments in marine transportation. A bill was introduced in Congress on March 29, 1904, containing these proposed changes, but the bill failed of enactment. An event occurred shortly after, however, which impressed upon the members of Congress the urgent need of such legislation. On June 15, 1904, 957 persons, most of whom were women and children, lost their lives through the burning of the excursion steamer General Slocum in the East River, New York. On June 23, 1904, President Roosevelt appointed a commission to investigate the causes and to make recommendations as to future action. The report of this commission, submitted on October 8, 1904, placed responsibility largely upon the officers of the Steamboat-Inspection Service. The reasons given for the apparent inefficiency of the service were four in number: (1) An inadequate corps of inspectors at the port of New York; (2) opposition from the public to delays for purposes of reinspection, causing personal inconvenience; (3) reluctance of the owners of vessels to maintain life-saving and fire-fighting equipment in proper condition; and (4) inadequate supervision exercised by the supervising and local inspectors over the assistant inspectors who performed the actual work of inspection. The commission submitted a score of recommendations looking toward the improvement of the service. The Supervising Inspector-General of the Steamboat-Inspection Service, who was a member of the commission, concurred in the report except in placing responsibility upon the supervising inspector. The President indicated his entire ap

proval of the report and ordered the dismissal of all officers of the service concerned.

Congress was now convinced of the necessity of legislative action, and a series of amendments was passed and approved on March 3, 1905 (33 Stat. L., 1022), which embodied many of the recommendations of the commission. Some of the more important changes and innnovations were: (1) Provisions authorizing the board of supervising inspectors to prescribe measures to be taken by the owners of vessels to guard against and extinguish fire, and to establish regulations governing the exact number and character of life-saving equip ment to be kept on board, subject to the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor; (2) appeals could thereafter be taken to the supervising inspectors in case of the revocation of certificates of inspection by local boards, or to the Supervising Inspector-General in case of the revocation of the licenses of officers, when such action had received the approval of the supervising inspector; (3) assistant inspectors were expressly placed under the direction, supervision, and control of the local inspectors in the performance of their duties, and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor was authorized to detail assistant inspectors from one port or district to another, as the needs of the service might require; (4) salaries of local inspectors were definitely determined by the terms of the act, thus repealing the provision in the act of March 1, 1895, which based the salaries upon the number of vessels annually inspected; 12 (5) the Secretary of Commerce and Labor was empowered to call in session at any time, after reasonable public notice, an executive committee, to be composed of the Supervising Inspector-General and any two supervising inspectors, which committee, with the approval of the Secretary, should have power to alter, amend, add to, or re

12 The Secretary of Commerce and Labor, in his annual report for 1905, characterized this provision as being by far the most important change made. He pointed out that under the old system, as authorized by the act of 1895, "a substantial premium was thus actually placed on lax inspection."

peal any of the rules and regulations made by the board of supervising inspectors, such alteration, amendment, addition, or repeal to have the full force of law, when approved by the Secretary, and to continue in effect until thirty days after the adjournment of the next meeting of the board of supervising inspectors.

This last innovation made possible changes in the rules and regulations for the administration and enforcement of the steamboat inspection laws to meet emergencies which often arose due to the rapid changes and improvements in the practice of steam engineering and steam navigation. The Secretary of Commerce and Labor took advantage of the authority thus granted him on two occasions in the fiscal year following the passage of the act; and in his annual report for 1906 the Supervising Inspector-General commented upon the work of the committee as showing conclusively "that its establishment was not only important but wise legislation," and that its necessity had been fully proven.

A number of acts were passed in 1906 and the years following which imposed new activities upon the service and enlarged the scope of its work. Some of the more important provisions contained in these acts are the following:

(1) Vessels of fifteen gross tons or less, propelled in whole or in any part by gas, gasoline, petroleum, or electricity could be operated only by persons licensed by a board of local inspectors; 13

13 This provision was in partial response to the forceful recommendation made by the Supervising Inspector-General in his annual report for 1905 for the extension of the act of January 18, 1897, to all motor-driven vessels of whatever tonnage. He charged that many of these vessels were built with the designed purpose of having them a fraction under fifteen tons, which was the maximum tonnage exempted from the restrictions of the law requiring inspection and licensed officers, if engaged in carrying freight or passengers for hire; there being no restriction if the vessel was not used for commercial purposes. He continued: "These craft are used for both commercial and pleasure purposes, and many of them being navigated by inexperienced, incompetent, and irresponsible persons, are a constant menace to life and property. The laws and the rules and regulations applicable to other vessels which must be ob

(2) Local inspectors were given power to determine the necessary complement of officers and crews of all vessels of the United States subject to inspection, and to enter them upon the ship's certificate of inspection, such entry being subject to appeal to the supervising inspector and from that officer to the Supervising Inspector-General;

14

(3) Sea-going barges were required to submit to an annual inspection of hull and equipment;

(4) The chairman of the Lighthouse Board, the Supervising Inspector-General, and the Commissioner of Navigation were charged to convene as a board, when called by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, to establish certain regulations concerning the navigation of sea-going barges and towing vessels within any of the inland waters of the United States;

(5) The permanent indefinite appropriation for the salaries and expenses of the service was repealed and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor was directed to submit estimates annually for the same beginning with the fiscal year of 1912;

(6) The supervising inspectors were directed to make their annual reports to the Supervising Inspector-General instead of to themselves meeting as a board, although the board was still authorized to examine the work of all inspectors in the service and to correct mistakes when possible;

(7) An additional board of local inspectors was established.15

served to insure safe navigation are practically ignored by these motor vessels; and as a consequence, accidents resulting in loss of life, occasioned by their reckless navigation frequently come to the notice of this office, but the Department is powerless to take any action to punish the guilty or to protect the innocent from the result of ignorance and incompetency."

14 This amendment was suggested as highly desirable by the Supervising Inspector-General in his annual report for 1907.

15 The provisions here enumerated give, in summarized form, the most important changes made by the following acts: March 17, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 68); May 16, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 193); May 28, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 204); June 11, 1906 (34 Stat. L., 230); February 8, 1907 (34 Stat. L., 881); April 2, 1908 (35 Stat. L., 55); May 28, 1908 (35 Stat. L., 424); June 25, 1910 (35 Stat. L., 831); May 22,