HARDWOOD RECORD 



IkcorotMT 2.'., lOir 



liable. The provwion tli.>i ; "• •■■ 



.lit woiilJ be rather »ubven»ive to disciplino. What 



' .• owner and the men — 

 . which U in charge of 



.allv ouo ul the u,. in tlie occupation Oic 



-. of the crew. I( ^ '■'' is cet nsido nil din- 



iplino would be at an end. 

 Thr ' -- daninfrod 11..-1. m ...1. .ilmont to annihila- 



tion, • -: for life boBta and other equipment boing 



of such a nature that mtv few pasgcngor bonis could comply and 

 have room left for their trnnic. These bonts arc seldom out of «i(fht 

 of land or of other bonts. The loss of life on this class of boat* 

 in 1914, when they carried 31.3,094,347 passcngcrH, was only 105. On 

 the Great Lakes about the only accidents in the passoncor traffic 

 aa far as loss of life is concerned are not ronlly accident?, but 

 premeditated suicides. 



With the froiffht boats there is practically no loss of life cti-optiiig 

 under conditions caused by almost unprecedented storms that no 

 sort of shipping, even the strongest type of ships built for ocean 

 traffic, could withstand. 



The much talked of Section No. 13, as applied to the Great 

 Lakes, would be !>erious in case of labor troubles. Any sailor could 

 make affidavit that would delay departure of a vessel and it would 

 be a powerful wc-npon in the h.inds of a cre^ in case of a strike, 

 and would virtually put it in the power of any one man to quit and 

 ause deby, indefii.itely continued by the crew quitting, one man 

 it a time, and thus bringing the number below that called for by 

 ortificate of inspection. 



If the Great Lakes need any legislation, pass it in the light of lake 

 conditions instead of covering them with blanket legislation with 

 snch absnlulely dissimilar conditions as exist on the ocean. 



Regarding the application of this law to ocean traffic I would like 

 to quote in a more extended way the ob.ieetion of various authorities, 

 but for lack of time must be brief. "The present law allows liberty 

 of contract and immediate pn.i-ment when not contrary to contract. 

 It is proposed to take away the liberty of contract. We think the 

 nctive seamen would not ask such law. Certainly it is un-American." 



.\ N.^Bnow View 

 As to the number of watches, the act does not discriminate between 

 a voyage to Bombay or .\ustralia and a trip outside of the Hudson 

 river to the 6shing banks or one of the excursion routes on the 

 Great Lakes. To enforce such a distribution of hours of labor 

 wiU be particularly burdctisome on those vessels making frequent 

 I.inds at small ports in sparsely settled communities along the Pa- 

 ci6c coast, where the volume of freight to be handled is not large 

 enough to attract a sufficient supply of shore forces to load and 

 discharge the vessel promptly, and where the steamer must under 

 this act, to obviate this disability, carry a large number of deck 

 liands for this purpose, only one-half of whom under this require- 

 ment of the act would be available at the time when most of these 

 landings would be made: while the other half of these deck hands 

 would be on duty when, probably, no landings were to be made, and 

 would have little or nothing to do. It is not a question of over- 

 working the trews on these ships, as everyone connected with ships 

 is fully sensible of. 



Even where the men are willing to continue the present system 

 of operation on such exceptional routes, and where there is no hard- 

 ship involved, the steamer owner would be impelled to comply with 

 this requirement rather than jeopardize liability. 



As to desertion — the provision in Section No. 13 of the law says 

 that sixty-three per cent of the crew, exclusive of licensed officers, 

 must be certified able seamen — is of serious import, likely to be far- 

 reaching. The work performed by deck hands aboard a modem 

 steamer is of the most ordinary kind of unskilled labor. Most of 

 the heavy work is, done today by machinery controlled by the engine 

 room force. 



As far as coastwise ships are concerned, certified men wrill naturally 

 concentrate at the larger ports, and few will be found at the lesser 

 ports, where should a number of these certified able seamen leave a 



..., , ..... .lit to replare tbem. This would bo a handi- 

 cap to the commorco of tlicso porta. 



Should the crow fnll below Kixtysix i<cr cent at a forel(^ port it 

 in hard to undcrntiind where nn American ship master would prucurp 

 his complement of men holding such certiflcntec; and a» n ship can- 

 not leave port without thcin only under heavy penalty, the cmbar- 

 rnnsment from such a state of affnirn can be imnginoil in cniii> of a 

 veNiel V having a liirge number of pH!iwii;,'.T« <it :\ liit;)ih |.i ii~ti:illi' 

 cargo or mails aboord. 



There is no provision on the Senmm n A<-t inr imv j.in.-uiy m 

 cn.Hc of dcfertinn of tlie certified able seamen, except that when he 

 violates his shipping articlei, ho merely forfeits his accrued wni;."- 

 no protection ns in the cns^ of a licensed officer, who if he sln'iil'l 

 wrongfully or unreasonably violate his contract would have Ink 

 lieonso siisi.fndi il or revoked. 



IHF. Language Test 



.\notlicr provision 111 Section No. 13— thot sevcntv me [nr irnt 

 of the crow in all departments must be able to understand any 

 orders given by the officcri), must of necessity preclude .Vmericnn 

 steamers from participation in the trans-Pacific trade. 



The steamers now operated by Americans in this trade are nniong 

 the largest flying the American flag. These steamers arc obliged 

 by law to carry American licensed officers, but their crews, owing 

 to the active competition of the Japanese lines, are Chinese. The 

 petty officers among the crows are bi-lingual, and are able without 

 difliculty to communicate to the crew the orders given them by the 

 .Vmerican officers. On no large steamers are the orders given by 

 the officers to the seamen direct. It would be a physical impossibility 

 to do so. 



To insist that seventy-five of these Chinese crews speak Englisli 

 would prevent their being any longer available in any department 

 of an .\meri('an ship. This means that under this act — in the opinion 

 of those in full knowledge of the situation, and those vitally inter- 

 ested, that with the difference in wages between the operation of 

 American ships under this act in competition with foreign ships; 

 for example .Tapanefe ships with their Japencse crews and the 

 wages they receive, it would put our -■Vmerican ships under .\merican 

 registry out of business, or force them to foreign registry. 



I quote from the Literary Digest rf .Time, lOl.T: 



From ttie Pacific comes the most StartlInK evidence In support of tlil» 

 vleW, as wc are told tlint the new law would add $130,000 a year to the 

 cost of operating the Minnesota which runs between the Pacific coast and 

 the Orient. 



Report has It that James ,T. Hill may have to withdraw the Great 

 Northern liner Minnesota, oue of the largest ships flying the .Vmerican 

 flag, from the run to the Orient. 



Right here I want to quote from a letted of Nov. 19tli from San 

 Francisco from Robert Dollar, who is at the head of the Robert 

 Dollard Company, operating nine ships: 



The part of the seamen's bill which put all the Americas ships out of 

 the Pacific coast and Orient trade was the langtiape test. The law prac- 

 tically says that the language of the oflicers shall be the language of 

 the crew; so that the Amerlran ships having .American officers and 

 Chinese crews cannot understand the English language. This would he 

 all right provided all ships were treated alike. 



The Japanese steamers coming In here with Japanese officers and 

 having a Japanese crew Is Immune : therefore It works out this way : 

 That Japanese on their vessels pay $10.00 or $12.00 a month to their 

 sailors, and we on American ships are obliged to pay the full union 

 wages of $60.00 a month, which makes It an Impossibility to operate 

 our vessels. 



The Flag Hauled Down 



The following is a wireless that came in from the Steamship Min- 

 nesota as she was passing San Francisco recently: 



To the good people of San Francisco, care of the San Francisco Chron- 

 icle : The Great Northern Steamship Minnesota, the finest ship that ever 

 sailed the sea, and the largest ship flying the American flag, Is now pass- 

 ing down by your beautiful city, bound for a foreign country, never again 

 to return with Old Glory floating from her stern. The reason for this 

 Is well known to the business Interests of the country. I bid you all 

 farewell. 



This is the largest ship of the Pacific Ocean th.it was engaged 

 in Asiatic trade. 



The same article in the Literary Digest mentioned above says 

 that "Capt. Dollar, who operates nine ships to the Orient, was 



