Pledged to support a policy of moderate protection, I can not approve a measure which violates its principle.

The empirical and haphazard character of this bill is shown more clearly perhaps in the amendment to Schedule A than in any other.

I earnestly hope that Congress will take immediate action in this regard, as recommended by the Secretary of War.

I concur fully in the conclusions which the Secretary of War has reached and in the recommendations which he makes.

Of course if it shall turn out that the most thorough excavation will not disclose the cause we must be content, but as long as there remains unexcavated any portion of the mud and debris within the wreck or its neighborhood from which evidence may be had of the original cause of the disaster, we shall be derelict in our duty in not prosecuting a further search.

The Navy Department has no objection to the proposed salvage operations, but the Department of State holds the view that these wrecks are public property of the United States, which may be alienated only by an act of Congress or by a convention having the force of law.

It appears that a Norwegian company has applied to the Cuban Government for permission to raise these wrecks and that before considering the proposition the Cuban Government desires to receive the views of the United States in regard thereto.

The matter is therefore submitted to the Congress in accordance with the recommendation of the Acting Secretary of State, with a view to its considering whether the President shall be authorized to relinquish to Cuba all right and claim of right of the United States to these wrecks.

The issue is not now whether we ought originally to have begun this investigation, but it is whether, having expended a very large part of the necessary amount to do the full work, we ought to break it off for lack of a comparatively small additional appropriation.

Another clause that calls for comment is in the leather paragraph, which reads as follows: \Leather cut into shoe uppers or vamps or other forms suitable for conversion into manufactured articles.\

The truth is that the language of the act is so ambiguous and possibly all-embracing that it is impracticable for the Treasury Department to give an exact estimate as to the diminution in revenue which will follow its passage.