of men and materials in keeping the vessel in order and away from the repair vanie ani repair shops. Upon this will depend the quickness of the turn around teab, ity of the vessel to pay dividends.

Ie development from bov to master must be open to all as nearly as possible Only this can the calling acquire, develop, and keep the best

Hi, e, which means the best men.

THE ENGINE DEPARTMENT

1- †' is department as in the deck department, the advance from wiper or coal [her to chief engineer must be step over step, based upon fitness, experience, practical and theoretical knowledge ascertained through examinations and periods of service in each rating This work is different from the work on deck but it is it different in the necessity for acquisition of the sea habit, the sea mind, and xa gs. In all but important and serious repairs the personnel must be able to krep the vessel from the repair shop. The lack of skill in the men and officers it erenses ecal and oil consumption, decreases the speed and causes the vessel to go to the repair shop when in port The general manager's attention will be peremptorily called to this at such times as he compares the expenses of the last report and the previous ones.

Le personnel in the steward's department must be developed in the same gradial manner as the other two departments. Here the lack of skill will make is of seen and heard after every trip through the progressive loss of passengers, the waste of food, quarrels on the vessel, and a constant and expensive turn-over u t'e crew.

There can be no doubt that everything else being equal, the victory in compettom will go to the highest skilled crew if employed when and where possible. In this as in all other competitive business the highest skilled man is the most da: gerous competitor; but aside from the comparatively few ports where men can be obtained from shore to do the repair needed there are the much greater n.mbers of seaports where no such conveniences are at hand. This will include ment 75 percent of the world's seaports. To be able to earn the most money a vesse i must be able to go to any and all places where she can enter with the depth od water to float her. With any accident in or near such places the vessel that has an inefficient or too smail a crew is at a great disadvantage and the extra cost easily eat up her other earnings.

The vessel with the highest skilled crew has at all times the advantage To develop such personnel is therefore of the highest importance. But such a personnel can only be developed where the men are emploved to do all work tama,tide in port This develops skill and the steadiness of employment keeps it d in the business,

With reference to the wisdom and necessity for subsidies I respectfully *ruit the following reprint from a British publication entitled “Public Opitaon." We sibimit this reprint because it shows that Great Britain is seriously considering t'is question and that the most weighty opinions lead us to the belief that they win finately use the sovereignty of the British ports to compel other nations to erase paving operating wibsidies It was the sovereignty of the American f***e trat was used in the writing and passing of the Seamen's. Act DECEMBER 22, 1933.

PUBLIC OPINION

THE UNFAIR TREATMENT OF BRITISH SHIPS BY OTHER NATIONS

By Lord Runeiman, President of the Board of Trade.

et ing will have to be done but Mr. Rurciu an is taking care that tat does not do "more harm than good

You can't sq jeeze voirself into Heaven by defving natural laws

poury of the subsidy is neither sound trading nor sound france

I e entries that are wil splizing st 25ping, or any other industry, will soop zybow fitue it is as a remedy for plunging enterprise

Not er a company for a é suntry can get out of a dirty mess by defying atra. laws

I am not so certain that we should get to an end of our troubles even if we --plexi a subsidy of 108, or 3s. See how easy it is for that 10% to ship from the chagers of the sapowner. If he is going to get a sut sidy of 3s he comes to the fre gut market with that 5. up his sleeve.

"The tendency will be to bid up to the limit of that 5s. in order to get his cargo. While he is doing that the amount we have given may quite easily be going for the benefit of the merchant, perhaps of a foreign merchant belonging to a nationality we do not like. It is quite possible it may go in directions we never intended."

*

The nations of the world are subsidizing shipping to the extent of something like £30,000,000 a year. It is now proposed, in view of the steps being taken to drive British shipping off the sea by these subsidies and other trade limitations, to grant subsidies to British ships, or to adopt special economic measures to deal with the problem. In the discussion all political parties in the House of Commons agreed that something would have to be done.

OUR SHIPPING TRADE FIGURES TODAY

"I do not know if the House has appreciated fully these remarkable figures," said Mr. Runciman in the Commons.

"Of world international trade 15 percent is British inter-Empire trade, 39 percent is between the British Empire and foreign countries and 46 percent is between foreign countries alone. British shipping carries of this 90 percent of the inter-Imperial trade, 60 percent of the trade between the Empire and foreign countries, and 25 percent of the trade between foreign countries alone.

"Indeed, it is a remarkable fact that there are a great many vessels engaged in foreign trade alone, which only come home once in 4 years to be refitted and their classification maintained. We have to be careful not to do anything by way of retaliation or discrimination of a damaging character that may do more harm than good.

"We are taking into account the disabilities under which liners labour, and if necessary we will take steps to see they get fair play.

"It is as well that other countries should know our minds. They have the full right to pursue a shipping policy which they think best for their needs, but we may have just cause for complaint if action is taken against the spirit if not against the letter of our commercial treaties, and we may not always be able to give privileges to others which they deny to us."

RUN SHIPS OFF THE SEAS

"There are certainly some traffics in this world which are subsidized very heavily by other nations," said Sir Robert Horne, M. P. "I would say to those nations that when it comes to a question of subsidies we have as long a purse or longer than you have. If you are going to continue your subsidies we will run your ships off the sea. What we demand is fair play. I think some very definite action ought to be taken in this way."

"The ultimate object," says the Times, "must be to make subsidies unnecessary by bringing direct economic pressure to bear upon foreign governments to abandon their subsidies and to give reasonable treatment to British shipping. The services of British ships are one of the staple exports of this country, one of the sources out of which it pays for the excess of the goods imported over the visible exports.

"Great Britiain is still the chief market for over a score of countries and a most important market for many others. In the negotiation of terms on which imports from these countries are to be admitted the aim must be to secure that a reasonably substantial proportion is carried in British ships.

"The means by which this object can be achieved most effectively demands, of course, the most careful scrutiny of trade relations in each case and collaboration with all the interests affected. All suggestions must, however, be examined with the determination to apply with the utmost vigor those which seem most likely to lead to negotiations. In whatever form the policy of self-defense is adopted, the test of it will be whether it is calculated to induce in other maritime nations the willingness, hitherto lacking, to discuss in practical terms the restoration of more equal conditions."

"Shipowners themselves," asserts the Birmingham Post, "are by tradition free traders, averse from governmental 'interference.' At any time up to a year ago they would have said—as a class-that no good could come of any attempt to fight the foreigner with his own weapons, and that their position must be amended, if at all, through the abandonment of foreign subsidies, and the restoration of open competition upon equal terms.

"The failure of the World Economic Conference compelled a change of view; and today the Chamber of Shipping stands for a full-blooded retaliatory policy.

Its program includes the imposition of discriminatory duties upon subsidized stups or cargoes, together with the refusal of preferences upon Empire goods unless carried in British vessels.

"It is taking, furthermore, for a £3,000,000 subsidy in aid of tramp shipping less than half the sum which Italy is paying on the same account and hardly more than one-sixth of the amount similarly paid out by the United States.”

WHAT OTHER COUNTRIES PAY

"If Italy can find £5,000,000 and France £4,000,000 a year for their mercantile Marines," says the Daily Mail, “we can provide the £3,000,000 needed at this ..mert of ours

Moreover, the subsidies must be granted quickly. The patient is in a desperate condition; and aid has been delayed only too long largely, we are bound to add, because the heads of the industry in the past could not agree as to what remedies were required.

After a scheme of subsidies has been enacted, further measures can be condered and applied, such as the restriction of inter-Empire trade to British #ting, the limitation of preferences to goods carried in British vessels, and the employment of our great buying power as a bargaining factor in agreements with foreign powera "'

FRIGHTEN OTHER COUNTRIES

*The only hope for the subsidy policy--and it is an extremely fast one is that it will frighten other countries into making an international agreement to abandon the whole poliey," says the Economist.

** I ́e Liverpool owners quite rightly appreciate that freedom is the lifeblood of the tramp steamer business. But if the free area is more and more circumscribed, whether by eompetitive subsi fies or by direct restriction, there comes a post at which we must use our most effective weapon to enlarge the area of freed im

*In this matter we have a strong position in the size of our overseas commerce a i the use that is made of British ports by an immense proportion of foreign *. In our view, a declaration that we would only give foreign shipping the same terms in British ports as British ships receive in foreign ports, but that we were prepared to continue the regime of free shipping in regard to any country Puch, would do the same for us, is, we believe, the most direct method of obtaining the result the slapping industry desires

Ihe secord of these conditions is, of course, essential if our action is not to lesi to economie war It is true that even this would not at once solve all the 12 th multies of the shipping industry, for that can only recover when the volume of international commerce revives But such a step would be an immensely important part of a polev of recresting not merely a regime of free shipping but a mh greater freedom of trade in goods, if Great Britain were ready to take the lead in association with those countries of the world whose vital interests and at happy experience of the present drift into nationalism would induce them to Coperate with us

Ise crux of the question is whether the Government really wishes to bring about any such result or whether it is so badly bitten with the baculus of nationalwarn t'at it is incapable of taking a bold initiative in the opposite direction Mr. Re man's speech shows little sign that the Government is likely to take the far躇 It it fails to rise to the occasion we are in danger of tying another

m...st. ne round the neck of the taxpaver, of accent iating the excess capacity of

"We cannot con

one of the world's most important industries, and of prolongir g the depression by action which will have a deflationary effect on world prices. "What is to be done?” asks Mr. Á G Gardiner in the Star template the struggle going on to the bitter end on its present basis We cannot contemplate this been ise our geographic and economie position, makes an efficient mercantile marine vital to our existence So far we have fought the battle in the hope that foreign countries would be ecmpelled for fi, ancir! reasons to cease this

"Bat that hope can no longer be ei tertained. They are committed to it, and they are waging it, each in its own sphere, as a political instrument and as a means of controlling world markets The World Economie Conferer ee, so complete a failure in other respects, left no doubt on this point The governments which are using subsidies most ruthlessly made it clear that they have not the remotest intention of abandoning or modifying their mode of warfare

OUR CONTROL OF PORTS

"In these circumstances the state must take action. The entrance of this country upon a direct subsidy war is an incalculable adventure which would only be undertaken as a desperate necessity. But much can be done immediately on the other line of defense.

"Britain is still the greatest market of the world, and with the Dominions controls by far the most important system of ports in the world. This weapon should be used against the attack of uneconomic shipping with the utmost rigor consistent with justice, and with the clear intimation that it is only employed as a defense against unfair competition and will be withdrawn when that competition ceases."

COMMENT

The foregoing facts are most respectfully submitted for your serious consideration in the confidant hope that legislation will be enacted which will with the addition of restoring partially or completely the shipowners' liability provide real improvement in safety on sea and in building real sea power for the United States only possible when American boys seek the sea and American men remain in the calling.

ANDREW FURUSETH,

President, International Seamen's Union of America.

(At the conclusion of the hearing Mr. Furuseth made the following additional statement:)

Mr. FURUSETH. One of the troubles with our merchant marine is that our officers are not examined in practical seamanship when they get their certificates. In other countries a verbal examination in practical seamanship is the main thing.

As an illustration, when the Mohawk lost her power of steering, a really practical, experienced seaman on her bridge would have immediately issued orders to the engine room to stop.

The CHAIRMAN. I think any man of common sense would have done that.

Mr. FURUSETH. That would have been inevitable for the signal, at any rate.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Furuseth, if I were running an automobile and I found things were developing in that way, the first inclination I would have would be to stop the automobile.

Mr. FURUSETH. Sure.

The CHAIRMAN. It seems to me any man of common sense would do that.

Mr. FURUSETH. That ship was lost just because of that.

I can give you an illustration how they examine men in Europe. It is very short. I was present at the examination of officers in London many years ago. A man came walking up. It was a room longer than this, about twice the length of this. He was half-way up to one of their examiners-there were three of them-when the examiner said, "Hard aback port." The response to the order, if that man had been aseaman, would have come automatically, without thinking. But the man was not able to answer it right. He began shivering. And the examiner said, "Go back to sea for a year, and when you come back again you will be a seaman."

The CHAIRMAN. Is that all, Mr. Furuseth?

Mr. FURUSETH. That is all.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Furuseth. Mr. O'Brien we will hear you now.

STATEMENT OF PATRICK J. O'BRIEN, VICE PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL SEAMEN'S UNION OF AMERICA

Mr. SIROVICH. Mr. O'Brien, you represent what organization? Mr O'BRIEN, I represent, in conjunction with Mr. Furuseth, the International Seamen's Union of America.

Mr SIROVICH, About how many members has that organization? Mr O BRIEN. Approximately 50,000, I think.

Mr SIROVICH. What is your official position there?

Mr O BRIEN. I am vice president of the organization.

Mr. SIROVICH. Mr. O'Brien, as vice president of the organization of which Mr. Furuseth is the president, would you personally or would your organization be opposed to having a minimum salary of $100 a month for American seamen put into this bill?

Mr O'BRIEN. The organization that I represent on the Lakes gets $10 a month.

Mr SIROVICH. They do get it?

Mr. O BRIEN. Yes.

Mr. SIROVICH. Are they satisfied with it?

Mr. O'BRIEN. No, sir.

Mr SIROVICH. They want less?

Mr. O'BRIEN. We had $125 a month and an 8-hour day 15 years

Mr. SIROVICH. Fifteen years ago the salaries of everybody during the war were twice what they are today.

Mr. O'BRIEN. I would not say that, Mr. Sirovich.

Mr SIROVICH That is what it is. We have 15,000,000 working people who get nothing.

Mr. O'BRIEN. I understand that perfectly, but we get that money only when we are working. We do not get that when we are idle. We lost $25 since 1920. We had $125 a month and an 8-hour day in 1929, up to 1921.

Mr SIROVICH. How many seamen who were members of your organization were working in those days?

Mr O'BRIEN. Up to 1921 in January, we had approximately 10% 900 men in our organization.

Mr SIROVICH. How many have you today?

Mr. O'BRIEN. A; proximately 30,000.

Mr SIROVICH. Where have the other 60,000 gone?

Mr O'BRIEN. Some of them are dead, some of them have gone into other businesses- a great number who have lost hope. You mast remember tãe conditions that prevail on the Atlantie co.. t, wich Wares of 857 50 a month.

Mr FURUSETH. 855,

Mr O'BRIEN. I am speaking of the able seamen. The able Pargets wares are 857 59 a month.

Mr SIROVICH. Today, Mr O'Brien?

Mr O Ban Today, right now, sir.

In connection with this bill a great many have been intimating that the sestden are going to get the subsidy. There is not a thing in this bill that says anything about the seaman getting any thing more than what he is getting now, not a single solita, y syllable.