American Letter

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 476, 28 April 1920, Page 3

American Letter

BY LAURENCE TODD.

WASHINGTON, March 5,

Seamen's Rights.

While the country has been following with intense anxiety, during the past eight months, the developments in the railroad situation, scarcely a word has been printed concerning the struggle of the men of the American merchant marine . to safeguard the standards set up by the La Follette Seamen's Act, which are threatened by the Rowe Bill, now before the Senate Committee on Commerce. The Bill passed the House last autumn without a.α-01l call. It has just had its hearing before the Senate Committee,* and its.fate in that branch of Congress Is in the balance. Andrew Furuseth, president of the International Seamen's Union, arid Capt. W. H. Westcott, president of the Masters, Mates and Pilots of the Pacific, put up an aggressive fight before the Senate Committee. They showed that under the LaFollette Act an American ship must now employ at least 65 per cent, of able seamen in its crew, and that of this 65 per cent. there must be, at least three-fourths who have served three years at" sea, and the remaining one-fourth must have been certified as able seamen after an examination following one year's service.' The Rowe Bill, on the other hand, permits the vessel to ship with only 40 per cent, of her crew trained; the training of this 40 per cent, may consist of six weeks' training at the recruiting station, followed by only nine months' service at sea,and without any final examination in seamanship. Furuseth pointed out that this legislation would destroy the skilled seamanship, upon which sea power must always rest; that it would not only make of American seamen a laughingstock abroad, since all other nations require a three-years' training as the qualification of an able seaman; but it would be used by the foreign competitors of our fleet to persuade travellers and shippers of the danger of patronising American vessels. The LaFollette Act had brought back the American to the sea by its guaranty • of high standards of skill, which safeguard mutually the lives and conditions of all seafarers. This new Bill would as surely drive them back to the land, and they would look with suspicion upon future pledges of better things aboard ship. .! , Capt. Westcott urged that every man permitted to take examination in navi- j gation, to qualify him for an officer's certificate, be first required to serve at least one year as an able seaman, and then to pass an examination in seamanship, wholly aside'from his knowledge of navigation. How far the present policy of the Government has departed from the. policy under which President Wilson signed the LaFollette Act, is shown to-rtay by the news that 34 seamen of the crew of the U.S. Shipping. Board' steamship Poughkeepsie have been brought in irons from the port . of Hamilton. Bermuda, to Norfolk, and have been jailed to await arraignment in Court on a charge of mutiny. The "mutiny" and their voyage home in manacles, guarded by armed bluojackcts from three naval destroyers, is due lo the fact that thtvy quit their jobs in a safe port at the end of their period of six months' service. Their ship had been delayed on her way home and put in at Hamilton for repairs. Under the law they were free to quit at the end of their contract period, if in a snfj, harbor. Yet these men have been in irons since February 10, according to the Press despatch sent from Norfolk last night. The International Seamen's Union will take up the case, since it is vital to the whole structure of civil rights of seamen as established in the LaFollette Act. Public Ownership. Because the Senate Committee on Commerce has been unable to find a way to sell the 10,000,000 tons of Government-owned shipping which is now in commission or building, it has almost reached agreement that the flcci shall be held in. public ownership for two more years. The members of this committee almost to a man voted against holding the railroads two more years in public operation, although demand for that action was made by the entire organised Labor movement and by a majority of the organised farmers. The difference between ships and railroads is that the railroad companies wanted the roads back, while no steamship company has yet come forward with an offer for any large part of the ships, and the senators are afraid that if such a sale were now made the private buyers might lose money by it, and the ships come back to public ownership by the mortgage route. They didn't want that to happen. Women Triule Unionists. One Labor element which seems .to have scored a point on even this most "hard-boiled" of Congresses is the National Women's Trade Union League. It has an ajffiliated membership of over 600,000 women. For years it has been demanding, with the National Consumers' League, that a permanent Women's Bureau be established by statute in the Department of Labor; by statute in order that its annual appropriation may not be ruled out on the floor of the House on a point of order. It secured the endorsement and active advocacy of this measure by the recent convention of the League of Women Voters at Chicago. Rep. Campbell, of Kansas, one of the Republican machine leaders, introduced the Bill. Hearings on it were heard yesterday by the House and Senate Committee on Labor, sitting in joint session. Miss Marie Van Kleek, former chief of the temporary Women's Bureau, explained that 12,000,000 women wage workers in the United States need the assistance of this governmental agency to safeguard their indusfial conditions. Miss Amies Nestor and Miss Mary McDowell of Chicago, for the Women's Trade Union League, outlined the history of the neglect of this whole field of industrial interest, by Congress and by the legislatures of the States. Finally; spokesmen of the women's organisations attached to the Republican and Democratic national committees told the members of their respective parties, on the committee, that they expected a favorable and prompt report on the measure. The League of Women Voters, which is the new name for the American Wdmen 'Suffrage Association, also suggested that it would be well for gentlemen to consider the attitude of women voters on the question. ■ . ■ Soft Coal Commission. Deadlock is reported from the Soft Coal Commission, which has been in session here for nearly two months, seeking to reach a settlement of the dispute over the amount of wage increase to be paid the bituminous coal miners—the dispute which led to the groat strike of last November. As in the case ot the railroad men,, whose sixteen organisations are about to enter into wage negotiations with the managers of the private operating companies, the officers appear to feel I hat. the sentiment for a strike'is past its flood, and that there will be no

stoppage of work in the hear future. With the Presidential campaign beginning, they have hope that in spite of the bludgeoning they received at the hands of Attorney-General Palmer, and in spite of the gross betrayal of the pledge of the administration wh.ich Palmer used the Lever Food Control Act as an excuse for stopping their strike by injunction, the administration will now play fair, and see that I they get a decent living wage. Ka'ihvay Workers and Politics. The railroad men are going into conference with their private bosses, but they are. also going actively into the political field to make sure that the % next Congress shall not brand them as criminals by any anti-strike enactments. Joining forces with the progressive farmer organisations that have been working with them against the railroad bill in favor of a big cooperative development, the 2,000,000 organised railroad workers have formed a Farmer-Labor Congressional Committee. This committee is headed by George P. Hampton, managing director of the Farmers' National Council, and its vice-chairman is Warren S. Stone, grand chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Its purpose is the defeat of hostile members of the present Congress and the election of men in their stead who will vote for the application of democratic principles to the money trust,, the transportation trust, and the food trust.

Since the President signed the Esch-Cummins Bill on February 28, the railroads have gone back into the hands of 240. separate systems for operation. The roads have signified their intention to ask for a rise in freight rates and passenger rates of about 25 per cent.—at the start. Wall Street financial experts declare that the Bill is "highly satisfactory," and stocks have gone merrily upward. The public will pay. But it is not.at all certain, as yet, that the companies will disgorge very extensively to their 2,000,000 employees.