mation shall exclude from the benefits of the suspension. herein authorized the vessels of any foreign country in whose ports the fees or dues of any kind or nature imposed on vessels of the United States, or the import or export duties on their cargoes, are in excess of the fees, dues, or duties imposed on the vessels of such country, Apr. 4, 1888. or on the cargoes of such vessels. But this proviso shall not be held to be inconsistent with the special regulation by foreign countries of duties and other charges on their own vessels, and the cargoes thereof engaged in their coasting trade, or with the existence between such countries and other states of reciprocal stipulations founded on special conditions and equivalents, and thus not within the treatment of American vessels under the most-favored nation clause in treaties between the United States and such countries. The President be, and hereby is, directed to cause the Governments of foreign countries which, at any of their ports, impose on American vessels a tonnage-tax or lighthouse dues, or other equivalent tax or taxes, or any other fees, charges, or dues, to be informed of the provisions of the preceding section, and invited to co-operate with the Government of the United States in abolishing all lighthouse dues, tonnage-taxes, or other equivalent tax or taxes on, and also all other fees for official services to, the vessels of the respective nations employed in the trade between the ports of such foreign country and the ports of the United States. June 19, 1886. Sec. 12. No vessel belonging to any citizen of the United States, R. S., 4220. trading from one part within the United States to another port within the United States, or employed in the bank, whale, or other fisheries, shall be subject to tonnage tax or duty, if such vessel be licensed, registered or enrolled. In cases of vessels making regular daily trips between R. S., 4221. any port of the United States and any port in the Dominion of Canada, wholly upon interior waters not navigable to the ocean, no tonnage or clearance fees shall be charged against such vessel by the officers of the United States, except upon the first clearing of such vessel in each year. The mail steamships employed in the mail service be- R. S., 4232. tween the United States and Brazil shall be exempt from all port-charges and custom-house dues at the port of departure and arrival in the United States if, and so long as, a similar immunity from port-charges and customhouse dues is granted by the government of Brazil. 157. Discriminating tonnage taxes. Upon satisfactory proof being given to the President, R. S., 4228. by the government of any foreign nation, that no discriminating duties of tonnage or imposts are imposed or levied in the ports of such nation upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, or upon the produce, July 24, 1897. R. S., 4229. R. S., 4230. R. S., 4231. R. S., 4219. manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United States or from any foreign country, the President may issue his proclamation, declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are suspended and discontinued, so far as respects the vessels of such foreign nation, and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported into the United States from such foreign nation, or from any other foreign country; the suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given to the President. and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels, belonging to citizens of the United States, and their cargoes, shall be continued, and no longer. Provided, That the President is authorized to suspend in part the operation of sections forty-two hundred and nineteen and twenty-five hundred and two so that foreign vessels from a country imposing partial discriminating tonnage duties upon American vessels, or partial discriminating import duties upon American merchandise, may enjoy in our ports the identical privileges which the same class of American vessels and merchandise may enjoy in said foreign country. No other or higher rate of duties shall be imposed or collected on vessels of Prussia, or of her dominions, from whencesoever coming, nor on their cargoes, howsoever composed, than are or may be payable on vessels of the United States, and their cargoes. The preceding section shall continue and be in force during the time that the equality for which it provides shall, in all respects, be reciprocated in the ports of Prussia and her dominions; and if at any time hereafter the equality shall not be reciprocated in the ports of Prussia and her dominions, the President may issue his proclamation, declaring that fact, and thereupon the section preceding shall cease to be in force. From Spanish vessels coming from any port or place in Spain or her colonies, where no discriminating or countervailing duties on tonnage are levied upon vessels of the United States, or from any other port or place to and with which vessels of the United States are ordinarily permitted to go and trade, there shall be exacted in the ports of the United States no other or greater duty on tonnage than at the time may be exacted of vessels of the United States. 158. Alien tonnage taxes (in exceptional cases). Upon vessels which shall be entered in the United July 24, 1897. States from any foreign port or place there shall be paid. duties as follows: On vessels built within the United States but belonging wholly or in part to subjects of foreign powers, at the rate of 30 cents per ton; on other vessels not of the United States, at the rate of 50 cents per ton. Upon every vessel not of the United States, * * 159. Light money (in exceptional cases). June 26, 1884. Sec. 14. A duty of fifty cents per ton, to be denominated "light R. S., 4225. money," shall be levied and collected on all vessels not of the United States, which may enter the ports of the United States. Such light-money shall be levied and collected in the same manner and under the same regulations as the tonnage duties. The preceding section shall not be deemed to operate R. S., 4226. upon unregistered vessels, owned by citizens of the United States, and carrying a sea-letter, or other regular document, issued from a custom-house of the United States, proving the vessel to be American property. Upon the entry of every such vessel from any foreign port, if the same shall be at the port at which the owner or any of the part owners reside, such owner or part owners shall make oath that the sea-letter or other regular document possessed by such vessel contains the name or names of all the persons who are then the owners of the vessel; or if any part of such vessel has been sold or transferred since the date of such sea-letter or document, that such is the case, and that no foreign subject or citizen has, to the best of his knowledge and belief, any share, by way of trust, confidence or otherwise, in such vessel. If the owner or any part owner does not reside at the port or place at which such vessel shall enter, then the master shall make oath to the like effect. If the owner or part owner, where R. S., 4222. June 26, 1884. Sec. 10. there is one, or the master, where there is no owner, shall refuse to so swear, such vessel shall not be entitled to the privileges granted by this section. 160. Consular tonnage charges. No consul or consular agent of the United States shall exact tonnage fees from any vessel of the United States, touching at or near ports in Canada, on her regular voyage from one port to another within the United States, unless such consul or consular agent shall perform some official services, required by law for such vessel, when she shall thus touch at a Canadian port. 161. Refund of tonnage tax. Whenever any fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge arising under the laws relating to vessels or seamen has been paid to any collector of customs or consular officer, and application has been made within one year from such payment for the refunding or remission of the Feb. 14, 1903. same, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, if on investigation he finds that such fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge was illegally, improperly, or excessively imposed, shall have the power, either before or after the same has been covered into the Treasury, to refund so much of such fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge as he may think proper, from any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. July 5, 1884. On all questions of interpretation relating to the collection of tonnage tax, and to the refund of such tax when collected erroneously or illegally, his [Commissioner of Navigation] decision shall be final. Sec. 17. Whenever any foreign country whose vessels have been June 19, 1886. placed on the same footing in the ports of the United States as American vessels (the coastwise trade excepted) shall deny to any vessel of the United States any of the commercial privileges accorded to national vessels in the harbors, ports, or waters of such foreign country, the President, on receiving satisfactory information of the continuance of such discriminations against any vessels of the United States, is hereby authorized to issue his proclamation excluding, on and after such time as he may indicate, from the exercise of such commercial privileges in the ports of the United States as are denied to American vessels in the ports of such foreign country, all vessels of such foreign country of a similar character to the vessels of the United States thus discriminated against, and suspending such concessions previously granted to the vessels of such country; and on and after the date named in such proclamation for it to take effect, if the master, officer, or agent of any vessel of such foreign country excluded by said proclamation from the exercise of any commercial privileges shall do any act prohibited by said proclamation in the ports, harbors, or waters of the United States for or on account of such vessel, such vessel, and its rigging, tackle, furniture, and boats, and all the goods on board, shall be liable to seizure and to forfeiture to the United States; and any person opposing any officer of the United States in the enforcement of this act, or aiding and abetting any other person in such opposition, shall forfeit eight hundred dollars, and shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years. 163. Discrimination against American fishing vessels. Whenever the President of the United States shall be Mar. 3, 1887. satisfied that American fishing vessels or American fisher men, visiting or being in the waters or at any ports or |