or vacancy caused by the promotion of another to such position may be supplied by a person other than defined in paragraph (a) and (b) until the first call of such vessel at a port in the United States where such replacements can be obtained.

(d) The owner, agent, or officer of any such vessel, who shall employ any person in violation of the provisions of this section, shall be subject to a penalty of $500 for each offense.

SEC. 6. That any person who (1) shall receive or have in his possession any certificate, license, or document issued to vessels or officers or seamen by the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation or by any officer or employee of the United States authorized by law to represent such Bureau, to which he is not lawfully entitled, with intent unlawfully to use the same; or (2) shall use or exhibit or attempt to use or exhibit any such certificate, license, or document to which he is not lawfully entitled; or (3) without lawful authority shall alter or change, or attempt to change, any such certificate, license, or document by addition, interpolation, deletion, or erasure; or (4) shall forge, counterfeit, or steal, or shall attempt to forge, counterfeit, or steal, any such certificate, license, or document; or (5) shall unlawfully have in his possession or knowingly use any such altered, changed, forged, counterfeit, or stolen certificate, license, or document; or (6) shall print or manufacture, or cause to be printed or manufactured, any blank form of such certificate, license, or document without first obtaining the authority of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation; or (7) shall have in his possession without lawful excuse, and with intent unlawfully to use the same, any blank form of such certificate, license, or document; or, (8) shall in any manner transfer, or cause to be so transferred, or negotiate such transfer of, any blank form of such certificate, license, or document, or any such altered, changed, forged, counterfeit, or stolen certificate, license, or document, or any such certificate, license, or document to which the party transferring or receiving the same is not lawfully entitled; or (9) shall aid or abet the perpetration of any of the foregoing acts shall for each offense, upon conviction thereof, be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.

SEC. 7. The Secretary of Commerce shall enforce this Act as to all vessels of the United States subject to the provisions of this Act through collectors of customs and other Government officers acting under the direction of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, and shall make such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 8. No provision of this Act and no amendment made by this Act shall apply to fishing or whaling vessels or yachts: Provided, however, That the provisions of law herein amended shall continue in effect insofar as they are applicable to said vessels or yachts with like force and effect as if this Act had not been passed.

SEC. 9. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of the Act, and the application of the provisions thereof, shall not be affected thereby.

SEC. 10. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. Approved, June 25, 1936.

(H. R. 8555]

AN ACT

To further the development and maintenance of an adequate and well-balanced American merchant marine, to promote the commerce of the United States, to aid in the national defense, to repeal certain former legislation, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

TITLE I-DECLARATION OF POLICY

SECTION 101. It is necessary for the national defense and development of its foreign and domestic commerce that the United States shall have a merchant marine (a) sufficient to carry its domestic water-borne commerce and a substantial portion of the water-borne export and import foreign commerce of the United States and to provide shipping service on all routes essential for maintaining the flow of such domestic and foreign water-borne commerce at all times, (b) capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency, (c) owned and operated under the United States flag by citizens of the United States insofar as may be practicable, and (d) composed of the best-equipped, safest, and most suitable types of vessels, constructed in the United States and manned with a trained and efficient citizen personnel. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to foster the development and encourage the maintenance of such a merchant marine. TITLE II-UNITED STATES MARITIME COMMISSION

SEO. 201. (a) An agency is hereby created, to be known as the United States Maritime Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Commission). The Commission shall be composed of five persons, in this title referred to as members, to be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The President shall designate the member to act as chairman of the Commission, and the Commission may elect one of its members as vice chairman. The members of the Commission shall be appointed as soon as practicable after the enactment of this Act and shall continue in office as designated by the President at the time of nomination, for terms of two, three, four, five, and six years, respectively, from the date upon which they qualify and take office; but their successors shall be appointed for terms of six years, except that any person chosen to fill a vacancy shall be appointed only for the unexpired term of the member whom he succeeds. The members shall be appointed with due regard to their special fitness for the efficient discharge of the duties imposed upon them by this Act. Not more than three of the members shall be appointed from the same political party. A vacancy in the Commission shall be filled in the same manner as an original

appointment. Any member may be removed by the President for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. Vacancies in the Commission, so long as there shall be three members in office, shall not impair the power of the Commission to execute its functions, and three of the members in office shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of the business of the Commission. Each member shall receive a salary at the rate of $12,000 per annum.

(b) No person shall hold office as a member of the Commission who, within three years prior to his appointment, shall have been employed by, or have had any pecuniary interest in, any carrier by water or substantial pecuniary interest in any other person who derives a substantial portion of his revenues from any business associated with ships or shipping. Each member shall devote his full time to the duties of his office. It shall be unlawful for any member, officer, or employee of the Commission to be in the employ of any other person, firm, or corporation, or to have any pecuniary interest in, or hold any official relationship with, any carrier by water, shipbuilder, contractor, or other person, firm, association, or corporation with whom the Commission may have business relations. (c) The Commission shall, through its secretary, keep a true record of all its meetings and the yea-and-nay votes taken therein, on every action, order, contract, or financial transaction approved or disapproved by the Commission. It shall have an official seal which shall be judicially noticed, and shall adopt rules and regulations in regard to its procedure and the conduct of its business.

(d) The Commission may make such expenditures as are necessary in the performance of its functions from funds made available to it by this Act or hereafter appropriated, which further appropriations are hereby authorized.

(e) Without regard to the civil-service laws or the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, the Commission may appoint and prescribe the duties and fix the salaries of a secretary, a director for each of not to exceed five divisions, a general counsel, a clerk to each member of the Commission, and not more than three assistants, not more than a total of twelve each of naval architects, special experts, attorneys, and examiners and not more than two inspectors at each shipyard at which vessels are being constructed by it or under its supervision. No employee so appointed may receive an annual salary at a rate in excess of that provided under the Classification Act of 1923, as amended. The Commission may, subject to the provisions of the civil-service laws and the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, appoint such other officers, engineers, inspectors, attorneys, examiners, and other employees as are necessary in the execution of its functions: Provided, That trained and satisfactory present employees of the United States Shipping Board Bureau or United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation shall be eligible for transfer to the Commission, and if after the expiration of a probationary period of six months from the date of employment the Commission shall certify to the United States Civil Service Commission that the services of any employee so transferred are satisfactory, the employee shall thereupon acquire the same status as though certified after examination by the Civil Service Commission.

(f) Each member, any employee of the Commission, and any person detailed to it from any other agency of the Government

shall receive necessary traveling and subsistence expenses, or per diem allowance in lieu thereof, within the limitations prescribed by law, while away from his official station upon official business of the Commission. Expenditures by the Commission shall be allowed and paid on the presentation of itemized vouchers therefor approved by the Commission or a designated employee thereof.

(g) This section shall take effect immediately upon approval of

this Act.

SEO. 202. All money, notes, bonds, mortgages, and securities of every kind, contracts and contract rights, lands, vessels, docks, wharves, piers, and property and interests of every kind, owned by the United States, and now controlled by the Department of Commerce as the successor to the powers and functions of the former United States Shipping Board, by virtue of the President's Executive order of June 10, 1933, are hereby transferred to the Commission. SEO. 203. The United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation shall cease to exist and shall stand dissolved. All the records, books, papers, and corporate property of said dissolved corporation shall be taken over by the Commission. All existing contractual obligations of the dissolved corporation shall be assumed by the United States. Any suit against the dissolved corporation pending in any court of the United States shall be defended by the Commission upon behalf of the United States, under the supervision of the Attorney General, and any judgment obtained against the dissolved corporation in any such pending suit shall be reported to Congress in the manner provided in section 226, title 81, United States Code, for reporting judgments against the United States in the Court of Claims,

SEC. 204. (a) All the functions, powers, and duties vested in the former United States Shipping Board by the Shipping Act, 1916, the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, the Merchant Marine Act, 1928, the Intercoastal Shipping Act, 1933, and amendments to those Acts, and now vested in the Department of Commerce pursuant to section 12 of the President's Executive order of June 10, 1933, are hereby transferred to the United States Maritime Commission: Provided, however, That after the date of the passage of this Act no further construction loans shall be made under the provisions of section 11 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, as amended.

(b) The Commission is hereby authorized to adopt all necessary rules and regulations to carry out the powers, duties, and functions vested in it by this Act. After the expiration of two years from the effective date of this Act, the President is authorized to transfer, by Executive order, to the Interstate Commerce Commission any or all the regulatory powers, regulatory duties, and regulatory functions which, by this title, are vested in the United States Maritime Commission.

(c) The orders issued by the United States Maritime Commission in the exercise of the powers transferred to it by this title shall be enforced in the same manner as heretofore provided by law for enforcement of the orders issued by the former United States Shipping Board, and violation of such orders shall subject the person or corporation guilty of such violation to the same penalties or punishment as heretofore provided for violation of the orders of Baid Board.

SEO. 205. Without limiting the power and authority otherwise vested in the Commission, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier by water, either directly or indirectly, through the medium of an agreement, conference, association, understanding, or otherwise, to prevent or attempt to prevent any other such carrier from serving any port designed for the accommodation of ocean-going vessels located on any improvement project authorized by the Congress or through it by any other agency of the Federal Government, lying within the continental limits of the United States, at the same rates which it charges at the nearest port already regularly served by it. SEC. 206. All sums of money now in the construction loan fund created by section 11 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1920, as amended, together with the proceeds of all debts, accounts, choses in action, and the proceeds of all notes, mortgages, and other evidences of indebtedness, hereby transferred to the Commission, and all of the proceeds of sales of ships and surplus property heretofore or hereafter made, including proceeds of notes or other evidences of debt taken therefor and the interest received thereon, shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States and there maintained as a revolving fund, herein designated as the construction fund, and shall be controlled and employed by the Commission in carrying out the provisions of this Act. All moneys received by the Commission under the provisions of titles IV, V, VI, and VII, of this Act shall be deposited in its construction fund, and all disbursements made by the Commission under authority of said titles shall be paid out of said fund. Further appropriations by Congress to replenish said fund are hereby authorized.

SEC. 207. The Commission may enter into such contracts, upon behalf of the United States, as may, in its discretion, be necessary to carry on the activities authorized by this Act, in the same manner that a private corporation may contract within the scope of the authority conferred by its charter. All the Commission's financial transactions shall be audited in the General Accounting Office according to approved commercial practice as provided in the Act of March 20, 1922 (42 Stat. 444): Provided, That it shall be recognized that, because of the business activities authorized by this Act, the accounting officers shall allow credit for all expenditures shown to be necessary because of the nature of such authorized activities, notwithstanding any existing statutory provision to the contrary. The Comptroller General shall report annually or oftener to Congress any departure by the Commission from the provisions of this Act. SEC. 208. The Commission shall, at the beginning of each regular session, make a report to Congress, which shall include the results of its investigations, a summary of its transactions, its recommendations for legislation, a statement of all receipts under this Act, and the purposes for which all expenditures were made.

SEO. 209. (a) There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.

(b) All appropriations and unexpended balances of appropriations available for expenditure by the United States Shipping Board Bureau and United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation which would otherwise be applicable to functions transferred to the Commission by this Act, including the fund appropriated