Speech #560095463

Of course. they do not get compensation for their full capacity for carrying commercial cargo if they do not carry it. This provision as to a requirement of 50 per cent of cargo is another blind. It allows fleet vessels to sail in ballast if immigrants or tourists pay better than freight. There is no other penalty for not carrying 50 per cent of cargo than a reduction of compensation. But the fraud of the provision is that it says no vessel shall receive full compensation unless she shall clear from a port of the United States with a cargo of 50 per cent of her capacity for carrying cargo. and then says that compensation is to be reduced by not carrying any cargo at all.