SEAMAN'S LAW HAS MADE GOOD
Seaman's Law Has Made Good (From The New Republic.) SOME statistics which the Shipping Board has just published make it possible to test out a bold and striking theory which the framers of the...
...Hence the natural tendency of seamen's wages is toward equalization, regardless of flag or trade...
...Norway is the next most important competitor...
...The American wage scale does, in fact, appear to dominate the commerce of the world...
...Was have increased, not only absolutely, but in relation to purchasing power—for seamen in the trans-Atlantic trade the increase in wages since 1914 has been 164 per cent, and for firement 89 per cent...
...These facts should be remembered when the agitation for the repeal of the Seamen's law begins again, at the next session of Congress...
...Yet as compared with foreign vessels, the cost of operating American ships is relatively cheaper than before the war...
...On each of the eight Norwegian ships clearing in December, both seaman and firemen were paid the American scale in dollars...
...The other 14 had hired their crews in England, and were paying the British rate, namely $57.50 for seamen, and $60 for firemen plus a bonus in each case of $15 a month—a total wage of $72.50 for seamen and $75 for firemen...
...The theory is a simple one...
...By the end of 1918, the American rate had risen to $75 a month for both seamen and firemen...
...To keep him, the ship with the cheap crew will need to raise its scale of wages to the level prevailing in the port...
...The result has been to place American seamen and American shipowners in a better position than any they hafe occupied since the Civil war...
...As a result, every foreign ship touching an American port would face the alternative of rais-ing its wages or losing its crew, and the American standard of life would in time dominate the commerce of the world...
...Andrew Furuseth, the president of the International Seamen's Union, and the man who persuaded congress to pass the Seamen's act, had for 20 years been preaching the theory of the international equalization of seamen's wages...
...In 1911, the last year for which official statistics were available, British wages for seamen and firemen ranged from $20 to $25 a month, while American wages ranged from $30 to $50 for the same employment...
...The Scandinavian countries, which have not yet raised their wage scale to the American level, have in 15 out of the 18 cases analyzed, been compelled either to ship American crews at American wages, or to re-ship their own crews at American wages...
...Wages are high enough now to attract the best type of American labor...
...Great Britain, our principal competitor, has been forced to raise her wage scale virtually to the American level...
...They tend strongly to prove that the theory embodied in the Seaman's law is sound and that in this respect the law has been an aid rather than a detriment to American shipping...
...Of the 21 British ships whose shipping articles were analyzed, seven had hired all or a part of their crews in New York, and of these seven ail but one were paying the American rate of $75 a month...
...But countries accustomed to a lower standard of life have interfered with this normal tendency by making it a penal offense for a seaman to leave his ship in a foreign port, and the United States has aided and abetted these countries by entering into treaties which bind the American authorities to arrest deserters from foreign ships and compel them by force to serve out their terms at the low wages of the foreign flag...
...Wages of other European maritime nations were even lower than the British...
...To compare this rate with wages of foreign ships in the same trade, Governor Bass's assistants examined the shipping articles of a large number of foreign ships clearing from New York in the month of December, 1918...
...Two conclusions may be drawn from these figures...
...This means, according to Governor Bass's report, an increase in purchasing power (after allowing for the increased cost of living), of 38 per cent for seamen and 5.4 per cent for firemen...
...The statistics are carefully and conservatively presented, without a suspicion of bias...
...England is of course our most important competitor...
...Furuseth's prophecy has in fact come true...
...the two Danish and one Swedish vessels which paid wages in Kroner paid a wage which, at par of exchange, would equal about $21, plus a bonus ranging from 120 to 140 per cent...
...Unless in some manner restrained, a seaman will normally leave a ship which pays low wages whenever it puts into a port in which higher wages prevail...
...Of the Four Swedish ships analyzed, three paid the American rate in dollars...
...This policy has made it possible for ships of European flags to shield their inferior standard of living from the higher standard in American ports, and by cheapness of operation to underbid the American shipowner and drive him off the seas...
...SOME statistics which the Shipping Board has just published make it possible to test out a bold and striking theory which the framers of the Seaman's law put on our statute books four years ago...
...The statistics are contained in a report of the Marine and Dock Industrial Relations Division of the Shipping Board, a division which, under the capable direction of former Gov-error Bass of New Hampshire, has been able to combine to a notable degree the rapid judgment and prompt action essential in labor all ministration during war, with a far-sighted thoroughness which will count for much in the coming times of peace...
...Of the six Danish vessels four paid the American rate in dollars...
...Furuseth's remedy was to repeal the laws and abrogate the treaties which penalized desertion in American ports, and to finance the deserter's search for a new job by giving every seaman in port a right to demand one-half the wages then earned...
Vol. 11 • May 1919 • No. 5
