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20 TAE MarRINE REVIEW DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Company CLEVELAND. CHICAGO: MONADNOCK BUILDING. PITTSBURG: PARK BUILDING. NEW YORK: 150 NASSAU STREET. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. , Subscription, $3.00 perannum. To Foreign Countries, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on Thursday preced- ing date of publication. The Cleveland News Co. willsupply the trade with the MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, Chancery Lane, London, E. C. England, Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland. Ohio, as 'Second Class Matter. May 24, 1906. -FOREIGN-BUILT DREDGERS. Congress is now recognizing that the construction of foreign-built sea-going dredging ships is clearly an evasion of the United States shipping regulations and is seeking to provide definite laws for the future so as 'o prevent introduction hereafter into American wa- ters of this class of foreign ship building. A year ago this journal first took occasion to call attention to the fact that over a million dollars in value of this class of ship construction had been brought from abroad and placed in use in Galveston. In_ these times when every ship building company in America needs the few rare contracts in sight it is then a mani- fest injustice that builders of foreign dredger ships should send their products over here, and that they should escape all customs dues as a manufactured product, and should be able to place them under the American flag when our laws distinctly state that no foreign built ship shall wear the American colors. Yet this feat was accomplished by the purchasers-- and these ships fly the American flag--because some official in Washington ruled that a dredging ship was not a ship; consequently shipping laws did not apply, and it was a matter of indifference what colors they should decide to use. : Recent events in congress indicate that the legisla- tors have awakened to what possibility the future evasion of this law may mean; and in the disagree- ments over the measure which have occurred between the house and the senate, it would appear that we are to finally have a law which will cover the contingen- cies of the future, even although it may not correct the injustice done American builders by the past Gal- yveston contracts. In the minds of a great many of the legislators there is the thought that it would be decidedly unwise to in any way handicap the earnest efforts being made by the great port of Galveston to repair its damages created by the floods and hurri- canes of a few years since; hence in framing a new law there are not many who would care to see it made retroactive, so that dredgers already in use at that port should be stopped or penalized. In the future the plan evidently is, to so phrase the law that these foreign ships shall not go about into other American harbors doing work, nor shall other foreign built dredges be permitted to come in. All friends of American ship building would furth- er hope to see the bills in congress made so broad as to cover the possibility of limiting to American build- ers the construction of dredgers for our insular and canal zone possessions. Owing to the neglect of some matters of interparlia- mentary custom between the senate and house the bills concerning foreign dredgers have recently been brought into. greater prominence, and the following extract from the Washington Post would indicate the general range of the discussion: Owing to the abuse of the power lodged in its conferees, sometimes exercised to insert in: proposed legislation matter foreign to the in- tent of either branch of congress, the house some time ago changed its rules so as to require the printing in the record of all conference reports before they could be called up for consideration. This was manifestly to enable members to know exactly what was' provided in the report. Such is now the rule of the house, but in nine cases out of ten such reports are never read. One was made to the house last week, however, that, promises to receive more than the usual perfunc- tory..attention. It is a conference report from the managers on the part of. the house representing a bill favorably reported. from the committee om merchant marine and fisheries. 'This bill, as it passed the house, provided that a foreign-built dredge shall not, under penalty of forfeiture, engage in dredging in the United States unless docu- mented as a vessel of the United States. This is a simple, straight- forward enactment, about which there could be no possible doubt. <A proviso: was added that "'this act shall not apply: to any foreign-built dredges now. at work under contract in the waters of the United States. This proviso was intended to apply to four foreign-built dredges now at wofk at Galveston. When the bill was passed by the senate, this proviso was struck out and a new section added, as follows: "That the commissioner of navigation is hereby authorized and di- rected to document as vessels of the United States the foreign-built dredges Holm, Leviathan, Nereus, and Triton, owned by American citizens and now employed at Galveston, and the dredge Sea Lion, now under construction abroad for use at Galveston, on which an Amer- ican citizen, the contractor at Galveston, has an option." The house did not agree to this amendment, and sent the bill to conference. May 11 the conferees on the part of the house submit- ted a report showing they had yielded to the senate, and recommended that the house agree. The statement of the conferees was that "'the difference between the bill as it passed the house and the bill as it passed the senate is an amendment offered by the senate exempting from the operation of the first section of the bill certain dredges now en- gaged in the work of 'the Galveston harbor. The senate added to the list of names,one called the Sea Lion, and the house disagreed to that amendment. Members of the house who are opposed to extending an American registry to these foreign-built dredges have discovered that the state- ment of the conferees does not fit the case at all. At least, that was their claim yesterday, and there may be, it was intimated, some pub- lic reference to this fact. Che house bill exempted '"'any foreign-built dredge now at work un: der contract," etc., but the senate bill gives American registry to these vessels, The house bill did not, as set out in the statement of the con- ferees, name the dredges. The senate, therefore could not have added to these names "one. called the Sea Lion,"and this,' therefore, was not the only name disagreed to by the house. It is further claimed that the addition of the name of the Sea Lion to the list of dredges now engaged" at Galveston is incorrect, because the senate amend- ment not only includes such dredges, but also the Sea Lion, which' is building abroad. Members opposed to admitting foreign ships to American registry claim that the use of the word "exempting" in the conferees' state- ment is totally misleading, for the reason, as they claim, that it con-