The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-05-13
Tho Flag Makes a Great Gain.

The President has signed the measure
known as the Inman bill. and there is no
doubt that the American owners OF the City
Of New York and the City Of Paris will take
advantage OF its provisions. The bill passed
the House without opposition. and it passed
the Senate by vote Of Al to 10.
The popular approval Of the new law. 80
FAR as we have observed. is well-nigh uni
versal. Especial credit belongs to the Hon.
W. BoURKE COCHRAN in the House and to
Senator FRYE for the clearness and vigor OF
their respective expositions Of the merits
of the measure and its importance to the
nation. Both Of these gentlemen are 80
we'll known as friends Of the American ship
building industry that there could be no sus-
picion that the Inman bill was an entering
wedge for any radical legislation threaten
Ing the interests Of our own shipyards.
We called attention on Monday. Just be-
fore the bill reached the Senate, to what
seemed to US to be an important defect in
Its provisions. The text OF the bill. as
printed in the Congressional Record. merely
required the owners Of the Inman ships adj
mitted to American registry to build or
contract for American built ships. OF ton
mage equal In the aggregate to the tonnage
Of the foreign-built ships admitted. This
would enable the beneflciaries to meet the
conditions. II they were disposed to do 80.
by contracting for number Of small ships
provided the total tonnage Of the fleet was
not less than 81 900 tons.
Mr.. COCHRAN explained the next day
through the newspapers that he had
already remedied this oversight by an
amendment incorporated in the original
bill when it passed the House. requiring
that each American-built steamship In
question should be Of tonnage OF not less
than 1000 tons. As the Record shows moth
ing of this amendment. and as Mr.. Fow-
LER's statement Of the provision at the
time the bill was passed contained no refer
ence to any 7.0oo-ton requirement. we have
sought further explanation Of Mr.. Cock
BAN. 1t comes in this shape:
"Ths amendment was written with lead pencin the
printed bill by Mr.. COCHRAN before 1t to the
Clerks desk. The Clerk read and tho House passed
the amended bill presented. to Mr.. FOWLER by Mr..
COCHRAN In making up tho record the official reporter
inserted the drst print Of the bill which did
tain Mr.. CocERAN's amendment Subsequent prints Of
the bn and the enRrossed copy passed by the
and sent to the President contain this sentence which
doss not appear In the copy Of tho bill printed in the
Record: Each steamship built or contracted for to
This substantially meets the point raised
by TIE Sun: but Mr.. COCHRAN should SEQ
to 1t that the official record Of this legjsla-
ton Is corrected. AS the record has been
published there Is nothing to show the
origin of this very important and proper
amendment. or who was responsible for it.
or that 1t was ever adopted or even consid-
cred by the House committee or by the
House itself, or how 1t came to be present
in tho bill that reached the Senate as having
passed the House.
OF course. In the absence OF such An ex-
PLANTATION as Mr.. COCHRAN has unofilcially
given. the impression derived from the
Record would be that laws are made on a
very loose and FREQ and-easy system. and
that dangerous preceden. had been estab-
lished by the Nfty-second Congress. Such.
fortunately. Is not the case.