The "Jones Act" "third proviso" has been in
the news regarding the transportation of fish and fish products
from Alaska to the lower 48 states. It might be useful to review
how that proviso came about.
In 1919-1920, the U.S. Congress was faced with the problem of
what to do with an enormous fleet of vessels built to prosecute the
war in Europe. A decision was taken to sell the fleet to private
companies over time in as orderly a process as possible. That
process eventually had to be re-visited, but the basic framework
was set out in the Merchant Marine Act, 1920.
Sen. Wesley L. Jones (R-WA), then Commerce Committee Chairman,
shepherded the legislation through the Senate and was even then
associated with the Act which was known at the time as the
"Jones Law" or the "Jones Act." Thus, the focus
of the legislation was U.S.-flag vessels in the foreign trade, not
in the U.S. domestic trade, and virtually every press account of
the day focused on provisions in the Act
