Modifies Free Ship Plan.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 23, 1912:
Treasury Yields to Indignant Builders in Interpreting Panama Act. Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Nov. 22.— President Taft and Secretary MacVeagh have decided to modify in several important particulars the order, recently drawn, but not issued, to carry into effect the so-called free ship provisions of the recent Panama Canal act. The modified order is being put into shape by James F. Curtis, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and may be issued formally to-morrow.
    Among other things, the act permitted the free entry into the united States of material, at present dutiable, to be used in the construction, equipment, and repair of ships owned by American citizens and flying the American flag.
    The Treasury Department had obtained the impression that the shipbuilders would be glad to obtain the free entry of ship machinery and parts of ship machinery constructed abroad. But the builders of ships explained at the hearing, where approximately 75 per cent. of the shipbuilding interests of the United States was represented, that this was exactly what was not wanted.