Calendar No. 513 
72d Congress ) SENATE J Report 
1st Session ) 1 No. 491 
AMENDING THE MERCHANT MARINE ACT AS APPLIED 
TO THE VIRGIN ISLANDS 
March 23 (calendar day, March 31), 1932.—Ordered to be printed 
Mr. Johnson, from the Committee on Commerce, submitted the 
following 
REPORT 
[To accompany S. 3950] 
The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill 
(S. 3950) to amend section 21 of the act approved June 5, 1920, 
entitled “An act to provide for the promotion and maintenance of 
the American merchant marine, to repeal certain emergency legisla¬ 
tion, and provide for the disposition, regulation, and use of property 
acquired thereunder, and for other purposes,” as applied to the Virgin 
Islands of the United States, have considered the same and report 
thereon with an amendment, and as so amended, recommend that 
the bill do pass. 
The bill thus amended has the approval of the United States Ship¬ 
ping Board, as will appear by the annexed communication, the amend¬ 
ment referred to therein having been incorporated in the bill as 
reported, and which is as follows: 
Line 11, after the words, “United States/’ strike out the period and 
quotation marks, and add the following: 
until the President of the United States after a full investigation of the local 
needs and conditions shall, by proclamation, declare that an adequate shipping 
service has been established to such islands and fix a date for going into effect 
of the same. 
United States Shipping Board, 
Washington, March 25, 1932. 
Hon. Hiram W. Johnson, 
Chairman Committee on Commerce, 
United States Senate, Washington, D. C. 
Dear Senator Johnson: Referring further to your letter of March 5, 1932, 
with which you transmitted a copy of S. 3950, a bill to amend section 21 of the 
merchant marine act, 1920, involving the coastwise laws, as applied to the Virgin 
Islands, and requested that we furnish the Committee on Commerce with such 
2 
AMEND MERCHANT MARINE ACT AS TO VIRGIN ISLANDS 
suggestions as we might deem proper touching the merits of the bill and the 
propriety of its passage: 
I now beg to advise you that the Shipping Board recommends amendment 
of the bill by an additional provision which would, in effect, place the Virgin 
Islands in the same situation as the Philippine Islands with respect to the coast¬ 
wise laws as set forth in the last paragraph of section 21 of the merchant marine 
act of 1920. That is, that section 21 be amended by adding thereto the following 
proviso: 
“And provided further, that the coastwise laws of the United States shall not 
extend to the Virgin Islands of the United States until the President of the United 
States after a full investigation of the local needs and conditions shall, by 'proclama¬ 
tion, declare that an adequate shipping service has been established to such islands 
and fix a date for going into effect of the same.” 
The italicized language above is additional to that in the proposed bill. 
It is the same language adopted by the Senate in the recent bill to provide a 
government for American Samoa (S. 417). 
There is attached hereto a copy of the bill incorporating the amendment 
suggested by the board. 
Very respectfully, 
o 
T. V. O’Connor, Chairman.