men during the previous year. American consuls shipped and discharged during the year 52,896 men.

Of 276,093 officers and men shipped before shipping commissioners 116,325 were native Americans, 41,015 naturalized Americans, 156,340 in all, or 56 per cent, compared with 54 per cent the previous year. For many years it has been the practice of the bureau to recommend the establishment of a shipping commissioner's office at ports where for a consecutive number of years the collectors of customs acting as shipping commissioners have shipped and discharged in excess of 1,000 men. The increase in the work at Mobile, Ala., and Portland, Oreg., has been such as to require shipping offices at those places. At Mobile in 1920 there were 12,340; in 1921, 13,943; and in 1922, 7,505 men shipped and discharged. At Portland, Oreg., 4,688 in 1920, 4,907 in 1921, and 6,362 men in 1922 shipped and discharged. The number of questions arising for adjudication in such a large volume of business requires the attention of a shipping commissioner trained to the law and the customs of the sea. The shipping commissioners serve in a semijudicial capacity, their findings as to questions of fact being by statute made final.

The service at present is underpaid, both shipping commissioners and their deputies. We can not expect to secure men qualified to carry on independent offices requiring intimate knowledge of one of the large titles of our statutes, judicial temperament, unusual judgment, and the assumption of large responsibilities at salaries in many instances less than is being paid to clerks.

The Government service, in order to secure the best material, should hold out to young men the possibility of their making such services their life work. The appropriation for deputy shipping commissioners, however, has for years carried a restriction that no man. in that service may be paid more than $1,600 a year. How can we expect an energetic, ambitious young man to enter and remain in such a service? He has no incentive to perfect himself, to become an expert in his line. It is an antiquated provision and should be removed.

PREVENTING OVERCROWDING OF EXCURSION STEAMERS.

During the fiscal year 1923 passengers were counted on 9,524 trips of excursion steamers, the number of passengers aggregating 6,143,081. Of this number navigation inspectors made 6,579 counts of 3,006,588 passengers. On 403 occasions it was found necessary to stop passengers going on excursion boats, the limit of safety having been reached. This involved the safety of 250,819 passengers.

The importance of this service in its direct relation to safety to life is growing each year. The public is entitled to the protection of

the laws they have placed on the statute books and to a considerable extent rely on that protection. So far as the limited facilities will permit, the work is being well done. The cooperation of the great excursion industry of the country is, of course, general, without which the department and its small force of inspectors would avail little. In this, as in all other laws enforced by this bureau, the steamboat owner is found diligent to comply with such laws, the deliberate violation being the rare exception.

NAVIGATION RECEIPTS.

The receipts from tonnage duties during the fiscal year amounted to $1,688,786.68, including $11,957.60 alien tonnage tax and light money, compared with $1,843,148.34 collected from the same sources last year. These taxes and also the navigation fees and fines are collected by the collectors of customs in the administration of laws through the Bureau of Navigation. The receipts during the past year compared with those of the previous year and 1917, the last pre-war year, were as follows:

The Bureau of Navigation is a revenue-producing bureau. The collection of this revenue, however, is but incident to the great work of enforcing the laws under its jurisdiction. The figures are interesting in showing a source of revenue and also the close relation of the bureau's work to the shipping industry of the country.

NAVIGATION APPROPRIATIONS.

The appropriations for the bureau for the past fiscal year compared with those for the years ended June 30, 1922 and 1917, were as follows:

It will be noted that the only material proportionate increases in these appropriations are for enforcement of the navigation laws due to acquiring three additional inspection vessels from the Navy at the close of the war and that for the enforcement of the wireless law due to the unprecedented development and use of this means of communication, especially for broadcasting. Congress through new legislation has considerably increased the scope, responsibility, and importance of the work, while the clerical force and compensation rolls have remained nearly stationary. This has resulted in the loss of most of our trained men and the bureau is more and more handicapped by the inexperience of most of its administrative force. This work, however, is thoroughly systematized and I feel justified in reporting to you that the Bureau of Navigation, with its limited forces, is carrying on its functions with a degree of efficiency perhaps never excelled in its history.

Very truly yours,

D. B. CARSON, Commissioner of Navigation.

STEAMBOAT INSPECTION SERVICE.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE,

STEAMBOAT INSPECTION SERVICE,

Washington, July 1, 1923.

HON. HERBERT HOOVER,

Secretary of Commerce.

DEAR MR. SECRETARY: In response to your request, I furnish the following condensed report upon the work of the bureau during the past year:

ORGANIZATION.

The following positions were embraced in the Steamboat Inspection Service at the close of business on June 30, 1923:

At Washington, D. C.:

Supervising Inspector General____.

Deputy Supervising Inspector General (who is Acting Supervising
Inspector General in the absence of that officer) __.

Private secretary to the Supervising Inspector General.

Clerks

Messenger.

In the service at large:

Supervising inspectors

Traveling inspectors

Local inspectors of hulls..

Local inspectors of boilers__.

Assistant inspectors of hulls__

Assistant inspectors of boilers---.

Clerks to boards of local inspectors--.

Total___

1

1

1

10

1

10

3

46

46

75

75

92

361

The boards of local inspectors at Burlington, Vt., and Apalachcola, Fla., and the supervising inspectorship at Pittsburgh, Pa., have been discontinued by the department, and efforts are being made to have these positions abolished by congressional action. On July 1, 1922, four additional assistant inspectorships were made available, the same having been created by law, two at Mobile, Ala.. and two at Galveston, Tex.

STATISTICS.

The force inspected and certificated 7,653 vessels, with a total gross tonnage of 14,982,850, of which 7,316 were domestic vessels, with s total gross tonnage of 11,659,374, and 337 were foreign passenger

steam vessels, with a total gross tonnage of 3,323,476. Of the domestic vessels, there were 5,941 steam vessels, 790 motor vessels, 19 passenger barges, and 566 seagoing barges. There was an increase of 110 in the total number of vessels inspected and an increase of 1,050,973 in the total gross tonnage of vessels inspected as compared with the previous fiscal year. There were 755 cargo vessels examined to carry persons in addition to crew under the provisions of the act of Congress approved June 5, 1920. Letters of approval of designs of boilers, engines, and other operating machinery were granted to 32 steam vessels, with a total gross tonnage of 971. There were inspected for the United States Government 50 hulls and 1,983 boilers. There were 2,774 reinspections of steam vessels, motor vessels, and barges.

Licenses were issued to 25,052 officers of all grades. There were examined for visual defects 7,917 applicants for license, of whom 23 were found color blind or with other visual defects and rejected. Certificates of service were issued to 10,456 able seamen and 890 were rejected. Certificates of efficiency were issued to 14,913 lifeboat men and 4,234 were rejected.

Steel plates for the construction of marine boilers to the number of 2,689 were inspected at the mills and a large amount of other boiler material was inspected. There were examined and tested 166,434 new life preservers, of which number 4,398 were rejected. There were 478 wooden life floats inspected, of which none was rejected. There were inspected 6,860 cork ring life buoys, of which number 149 were rejected. There were inspected at factories 425 new lifeboats, of which 9 were rejected. There were inspected at factories 104 new life rafts, of which 1 was rejected. There were tested by iring 20 line-carrying guns, all of which passed.

The total number of accidents resulting in loss of life was 197. The total number of lives lost was 247, of which 59 were passengers. Of the lives lost 166 were from suicide, accidental drowning, and ther similar causes, leaving a loss of 81 as fairly chargeable to ccidents, collisions, founderings, etc. There was a decrease of 19 the number of lives lost as compared with the previous fiscal year. Passengers to the number of 323,130,362 were carried on vessels quired by law to make report of the number of passengers carried. ividing this number by 59, the total number of passengers lost, ows that 5,476,785 passengers were carried for each passenger lost. he number of lives directly saved by means of the life-saving -pliances required by law was 907.

STABILITY TESTS.

The rule adopted by the board of supervising inspectors in Janu. 1922, with reference to stability tests has proved most valuable.