SUCCESSFULLY WITH FOREIGN SHIPS? 213 



ward wasting the fresh water, due to the fact that they frequently opened tlie valves and 

 pennitted tons and tons of fresh water to run overboard and into the sea. Furthermore, 

 tons and tons of coal mixed with ashes were lost by being allowed to go overboard, with the 

 ashes, no care being taken to separate the same. Oil waste and other supplies, including 

 silverware, dishes and table cutlery, disappeared in the same manner. Nothing like it ever 

 occurred on any other vessels but ours, due to the fact that our laws are written in such 

 a way that it is practically impossible to compel obedience to the captains and the chief engi- 

 neers of tlie ships flying the American flag. 



Many of the men making up the crews in our vessels during the war were tramps and 

 slackers of the worst kind, of all nationalities, seeking a place of safety on board our ves- 

 sels where they could get plenty to eat and a good place to sleep, safe from any possible 

 chance of being drafted to a field of danger, and receiving large pay for a small amount of 

 work. In a number of cases, after these men were well fed and recovered their strength 

 which they had lost through inferior food and poor housing quarters ashore, they refused 

 to work on our vessels when at sea, claiming that they were sick. According to law, an officer 

 of a ship, when a man is reported sick, is compelled to make an examination of the man, take 

 his temperature, count his pulse beats, respiration, apply a stethoscope to his heart and ascer- 

 tain if the man is normal or abnormal. If we find that he is in first-class health and order 



him back to work, he will say, "I am sick" and you can go to ." In a number of cases 



we were compelled to put such seamen in double irons and feed them on bread and water for 

 five days. In some cases it was a permanent cure; in other cases the cure was only tem- 

 porary. If we logged these men and deprived them of their wages, on return to port they 

 put up an awful fight and, rather than have the ship delayed, all parties interested acqui- 

 esced and agreed to pay them their wages to get rid of them. But the next crew was just 

 as bad, and sometimes worse, demanding, on certain holidays, such as Sundays, etc., their 

 chicken and their turkey and their jam and their fruit, and if they did not get it they refused 

 to work, claiming that the law gave them the right to demand all these things. 



The sooner the La Follette law is changed so that it is reasonable and gives the owners, 

 the captains and the chief engineers a little more authority over the crews on board ships 

 flying the American flag, insisting that they must obey the officers without question ; then we 

 will have a merchant marine that we can be proud of. 



Men with a college education will never be attracted to the merchant marine service as a 

 life profession, due to the fact that it takes a different type of man to pass coal, fire boilers, 

 oil the bearings, make repairs in general on the boilers, engines and auxiliaries, from time 

 to time as they need them, at the wages that the steamship companies pay. A man with a 

 college education may eventually become chief engineer, but when he arrives at that point 

 in his profession he then seeks a position ashore where he can get a salary of $6,000 to 

 $10,000 or $12,000 a year, which he is entitled to with his education and if he has the 

 executive ability. A man does not spend four years in college at an expense of $6,000 to 

 $7,000 or $8,000 for his education for the purpose of preparing himself for a job or posi- 

 tion that would not pay him more, even at the very most over $300 a month for the balance 

 of his life. Therefore it is necessary for us to train the native-born American boy from the 

 bottom up, but the first thing to teach him is obedience and respect to the officers of the ship, 

 who are held responsible for the safety of the vessel, the safety of the cargoes, and the 

 safety of the lives of those who are traveling on that ship. Until all these matters have 

 changed as suggested by me, until that time our merchant marine will be a source of great 

 expense with very little profit for those who have invested their money in our ships. 



