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Show SEAMEN'S BILL. Amendment of the La Pollette seamen sea-men 's law has been rendered necebsary by the construction plared upon it by yolicitor General Thurnuin, which has been fortified by an opinion of Attorney General Gregory. The solicitor general holds that ships of all nations having laws approximating those of the United States are not affected by the seamen's law, and not subject to its provisionE. In an additional opinion Mr. Thunnau holds that vessels brought under America Amer-ica n registry by the act. of the last congress, con-gress, when not actually carrying passengers, pas-sengers, will be immune from the provisions pro-visions of the law for two years. These opinions of the department of justice confirm the judgment of many shipping men that the provision of: the I -a Kollette law, which attempted to compel all vessels. Of whatever nationality, nation-ality, using American ports to otjey the law, regardless of existing treaty pro visions, would prove untenable ou application. appli-cation. The effect of these provisions in practice will be to compel American vessels ves-sels to operate at a higher cost than their competitors, and will therefore operate as a discrimination against them unless the law is amended, and the matter mat-ter will be brought to the attention of eongress early in the session. Mr. La Follctte will oppose the amendment, but it is not believed the Democratic majority ma-jority in the senate will "stand pat'-on pat'-on the proposition in the face of emphatic em-phatic protests from all over the country. coun-try. The opinion of Mr. Thurman that vessels ves-sels recently brought under American registry, and including those which may be brought under American registry by the act of congress, will be exempt for two years, affects 163 vessels, of .nio,n 12 total tonnage. It leaves a free hand for these ships during the present time of high freight rates, and causes the business of buying foreign vessels for American registry to take on an attractive aspect. While such vessels will have to comply with the law in other respects,, this advantage will be considerable during the period of exemption. ex-emption. Notice of the termination of such treaties as conflict with the seamen's law has been given by the state department, de-partment, which is according to custom. The treaty difficulties are said to be principally involved in sections of the bill relating to the punishment of sailors sail-ors in foreign countries. The opinion does not affect the much -disputed section sec-tion 13 of the bill, prescribing standards stan-dards of seamanship and language tests of ship 's crews, but applies solely to the section prescribing elaborate life-saving life-saving regulations. The situation is not so bad as it might be, but it will become be-come worse unless congress modifies the measure at the earliest onnortunity. There is too much at stake to keep experimental ex-perimental legislation on the statute books. |