Sec. 4. Sec. 5. Mar. 3, 1915. June 23, 1910. Sec. 2. Sec. 3. Sec. 4. Any violation of this Act shall be prosecuted in the district court of the United States of the district wherein the offender is found or into which he is first brought. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of Commerce to enforce the provisions of this Act, and he is authorized to empower such officers and employees of the Department of Commerce as he may designate, or such officers and employees of other departments as may be detailed for the purpose, to make arrests and seize vessels and sponges, and upon his request the Secretary of the Treasury may employ the vessels of the Revenue Cutter Service or the employees of the Customs Service to that end. For expenses in protecting the sponge fisheries, including employment of inspectors, watchmen and temporary assistants, hire of boats, rental of office and storage, care of seized sponges and other property, travel, and all other expenses necessary to carry out the provisions of the Act of August fifteenth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, to regulate the sponge fisheries, $2,500. 430. Liens on vessels. Any person furnishing repairs, supplies, or other necessaries, including the use of dry dock or marine railway, to a vessel, whether foreign or domestic, upon the order of the owner or owners of such vessel, or of a person by him or them authorized, shall have a maritime lien on the vessel which may be enforced by a proceeding in rem, and it shall not be necessary to allege or prove that credit was given to the vessel. The following persons shall be presumed to have authority from the owner or owners to procure repairs, supplies, and other necessaries for the vessel: The managing owner, ship's husband, master, or any person to whom the management of the vessel at the port of supply is intrusted. No person tortiously or unlawfully in possession or charge of a vessel shall have authority to bind the vessel. The officers and agents of a vessel specified in section two shall be taken to include such officers and agents when appointed by a charterer, by an owner pro hac vice, or by an agreed purchaser in possession of the vessel, but nothing in this Act shall be construed to confer a lien when the furnisher knew, or by the exercise of reasonable diligence could have ascertained, that because of the terms of a charter party, agreement for sale of the vessel, or for any other reason, the person ordering the repairs, supplies, or other necessaries was without authority to bind the vessel therefor. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent a furnisher of repairs, supplies, or other necessaries from waiving his right to a lien at any time, by agreement or otherwise, and this Act shall not be construed to affect the rules of law now existing, either in regard to the right to proceed against a vessel for advances, or in regard to laches in the enforcement of liens on vessels, or in regard to the priority or rank of liens, or in regard to the right to proceed in personam. This Act shall supersede the provisions of all state Sec. 5. statutes conferring liens on vessels in so far as the same purport to create rights of action to be enforced by proceedings in rem against vessels for repairs, supplies, and other necessaries. 431. Enforcement of navigation laws. To enable the Secretary of Commerce to provide and Mar. 4, 1915. operate such motor boats and employ thereon such persons as may be necessary for the enforcement, under his direction by customs officers, of laws relating to the navigation and inspection of vessels, boarding of vessels, and counting of passengers on excursion boats, $22,000. To enable the Secretary of Commerce to employ tem- Mar. 4, 1915. porarily, in addition to those now provided for by law, such other persons as may be necessary, of whom not more than two at any one time may be employed in the District of Columbia, to enforce the laws to prevent overcrowding of passenger and excursion vessels, and all necessary expenses in connection therewith, $15,000. 432. Licensing of customhouse brokers. The collector or chief officer of the customs at any port June 10, 1910. of entry or delivery shall, upon application, issue to any person of good moral character, being a citizen of the United States a license to transact business as a customhouse broker in the collection district in which such license is issued, and on and after sixty days from the approval of this Act no person shall transact business as a custom-house broker without a license granted in accordance with this provision; but this Act shall not be so construed as to prohibit any person from transacting business at a custom-house pertaining to his own importations. The collector or chief officer of the customs may at any Sec. 2. time, for good and sufficient reasons, serve notice in writing upon any custom-house broker so licensed to show cause why said license shall not be revoked, which notice shall be in the form of a statement specifically setting forth the grounds of complaint. The collector or chief officer of customs shall within ten days thereafter notify the custom-house broker in writing of a hearing to be held before him within five days upon said charges. At such hearing the custom-house broker may be represented by counsel, and all proceedings, including the proof of the charges and the answer thereto, shall be presented, with right of cross-examination to both parties, and a stenographic record of the same shall be made and a copy thereof shall be delivered to the custom-house broker. At the conclusion of such hearing the collector or chief officer of customs shall forthwith transmit all papers and the stenographic report of the hearing, which shall consti Sec. 3. Sec. 4. Sec. 5. Mar. 3, 1911. Aug. 1, 1912. Sec. 2. tute the record in the case, to the Secretary of the Treasury for his action. Thereupon the said Secretary of the Treasury shall have the right to revoke the license of any custom-house broker, in which case formal notice shall be given such custom-house broker within ten days. Any licensed custom-house broker aggrieved by the decision of the Secretary of the Treasury may, within thirty days thereafter, and not afterwards, apply to the United States district court for the district in which the collection district is situated for a review of such decision. Such application shall be made by filing in the office of the clerk of said court a petition praying relief in the premises. Thereupon the court shall immediately give notice in writing of such application to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall forthwith transmit to said court the record and evidence taken in the case, together with a statement of his decision therein. The filing of such application shall operate as a stay of the revocation. of the license. The matter may be brought on to be heard before the said court in the same manner as a motion, by either the United States district attorney or the attorney for the custom-house broker, and the decision of said United States district court for the district in which the collection district is situated shall be upon the merits as disclosed by the record and be final, and the proceedings remanded to the Secretary of the Treasury for further action to be taken in accordance with the terms of the decree. The Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe regulations necessary or convenient for carrying this Act into effect. The word person wherever used in this Act shall include persons, copartnerships, associations, joint stock associations and corporations. Hereafter when there is cargo space available without displacing military supplies, transportation [or army transport may be provided for merchandise of American production consigned to residents and mercantile firms of the island of Guam, rates and regulations therefor to be prescribed by the Secretary of War. 433. Assistance and salvage at sea. The right to remuneration for assistance or salvage services shall not be affected by common ownership of the vessels rendering and receiving such assistance or salvage services. The master or person in charge of a vessel shall, so far as he can do so without serious danger to his own vessel, crew, or passengers, render assistance to every person who is found at sea in danger of being lost; and if he fails to do so, he shall, upon conviction, be liable to a penalty of not exceeding one thousand dollars or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both. Salvors of human life, who have taken part in the Sec. 3. services rendered on the occasion of the accident giving rise to salvage, are entitled to a fair share of the remuneration awarded to the salvors of the vessel, her cargo, and accessories. A suit for the recovery of remuneration for rendering Sec. 4. assistance or salvage services shall not be maintainable if brought later than two years from the date when such. assistance or salvage was rendered, unless the court in which the suit is brought shall be satisfied that during such period there had not been any reasonable opportunity of arresting the assisted or salved vessel within the jurisdiction of the court or within the territorial waters of the country in which the libelant resides or has his principal place of business. Nothing in this Act shall be construed as applying to Sec. 5. ships of war or to Government ships appropriated exclusively to a public service. 92075°-15-30 PART XLII.-LEGAL PROCEDURE. 434. Jurisdiction of district courts. 436. Summary trial. 435. Seizure. Mar. 3, 1911. Mar. 3, 1911. Sec. 46. Sec. 47. 434. Jurisdiction of district courts. Wherever, in any law not embraced within this Act, any reference is made to, or any power or duty is conferred or imposed upon, the circuit courts, such reference shall, upon the taking effect of this Act, be deemed and held to refer to, and to confer such power and impose such duty upon, the district courts. 435. Seizure. Proceedings on seizures made on the high seas, for forfeiture under any law of the United States, may be prosecuted in any district into which the property so seized is brought and proceedings instituted. Proceedings on such seizures made within any district shall be prosecuted in the district where the seizure is made, except in cases where it is otherwise provided. Proceedings for the condemnation of any property captured, whether on the high seas or elsewhere out of the limits of any judicial district, or within any district, on account of its being purchased or acquired, sold or given, with intent to use or employ the same, or to suffer it to be used or employed, in aiding, abetting, or promoting any insurrection against the Government of the United States, or knowingly so used or employed by the owner thereof, or with his consent, may be prosecuted in any district where the same may be seized, or into which it may be taken and proceedings first instituted. Proceedings on seizures for forfeiture of any vessel or cargo entering any port of entry which has been closed by the President in pursuance of law, or of goods and chattels coming from a State or section declared by proclamation of the President to be in insurrection into other parts of the United States, or of any vessel or vehicle conveying such property, or conveying persons to or from such State or section, or of any vessel belonging, in whole or in part, to any inhabitant of such State or section, may be prosecuted in any district into which the property so seized may be taken and proceedings instituted; and the district court thereof shall have as full jurisdiction over such proceedings as if the seizure was made in that district. |