(b) That the provisions of law relating to the limitation of liability of owners of vessels shall not apply with respect to any vessel that proceeds on a voyage not efficiently or sufficiently manned as provided by law or without safe and proper equipment or in violation of the laws relating to protection of life and safety at sea, and any such vessel shall be held to be unseaworthy: Provided, however: That in no case shall the owner or owners limit liability to less than $100 per register-ton for personal injury or death. No fines imposed after the approval of this act, for violation of the laws relating to safety at sea, shall be remitted or mitigated.

Mr. SIROVICH. That is practically in my bill.

Mr. FURUSETH. I know; we would gladly see this cut out and your bill put in, Mr. Sirovich. We would be glad to do it, and assist in every way we could.

Mr. SIROVICH. If you had been here yesterday you would have heard our distinguished chairman say that after the disposition of this bill and whatever little measures may be before this committee they are going to give the opposition the chance to have their day regarding the limitation of liability.

The CHAIRMAN. After the water-carrier bill and possibly some others.

Mr. FURUSETH. That is all. There are three other amendments we want to offer, and Mr. O'Brien has offered them.

Mr. SIROVICH. Suppose when this bill comes up in the executive session of the committee I insert this amendment, that the salaries of able-bodied seamen shall never be less than $100 a month; would you be opposed to that?

Mr. FURUSETH. I do not see how I could really be opposed to it. The CHAIRMAN. Do you not think that that ought to be taken up at a different time?

Mr. SIRVOICH. I want to get his opinion on it, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. FURUSETH. Let me suggest this, that on the question of important matters dealing with this legislation I have no personal opinion. I will report your amendment, if you will draw it, to the executive board of the International Seamen's Union of America, and what their mood upon it is I will bring to you. I have no right to be either for it or against it, because I have no instruction on the subject. I never go outside the instructions that I have.

The CHAIRMAN. Sometimes I would rather have your individual opinion, Mr. Furuseth.

LEST WE FORGET

(By Andrew Furuseth)

The control which the shipping interests exercise over the press through the immense sums paid for advertisements and the apparent effort to cause Congress and the public to forget these late and other disasters and the cause for them has made it appear to me as necessary to submit to those interested the following facts:

MEMORANDUM ON MORRO CASTLE

(By Andrew Furuseth)

JANUARY 14, 1935.

The report submitted on this disaster by Mr. Hoover may be properly and justly summed up as follows:

"(The Morro Castle was built according to the safeguard provided by the treaty and modern ship architecture. She had all the warning appliances and all the life-saving applicances that are put in modern ships, some of them going somewhat beyond the Treaty of Safety of Life at Sea. The disaster resulted from the

failure of the personnel to be used according to American law and to have the efficiency provided by American law.)"

It was the personnel that failed in the Princess Sophia case. It was the personnel that failed in the Vestris case. By turning the supervision of the personnel such as provided in sections 13 and 14 of the Seamen's Act over to the signatory nations who in turn may turn it over to the shipowners themselves or organizations organized by them makes the personnel of the Morro Castle in fact what the treaty permits the personnel to be.

The law provides for the division of the watches-to have at least two. To state that they must have at least two watches necessarily assumes that the watches so divided must be immediately available and they must have the skill needed to understand the warning signals and to use the life-saving appliances.

The condition in the Morro Castle would be parallel on shore if we had in what is known as fireproof buildings-proper and efficient signaling to the fire-fighting force, together with the best appliances for fire-fighting that is known to modern fire-fighting and then put those fire-fighting appliances into the hands of men hired without any regard to their skill or efficiency. Manifestly such a firefighting force in the city would be ridiculous. It is still more so on board of a ship because people may have some escape out of a burning building on shore and if they get out of the building they are safe. In a ship there are two choices-to be burnt or drowned. As a result of the investigation of the Vestris, Mr. Hoover called special attention to the failure of the personnel and urged that in the interest of safety the human element must be seriously considered.

In the investigation of the Morro Castle he repeats this recommendation which the development of conditions have made so plainly true that nothing but the most sordid self-interest can dispute it and the arguments against it should have no influence with thoughtful men.

In our laws we have in most instances fairly good provisions for safety. They should and must be improved. If we want safety they must be, but what is the use of appliances put in the hands of men incapable of using them.

My information coming from scamen direct from the sea has for years now been to the effect that none of the life-saving regulations are obeyed. They are forgotten just as soon as the vessel has ten fathoms of water under her keel. Sometimes there is a man on the lookout and sometimes not-sometimes not even a man at the wheel, the vessel being steered by the iron mike as we seamen call the automatic steering machine.

Vessels were sailing on the ocean at night with only one man on deck-the officer. There is no doubt but that there are a great many of them still sailing that way. I was expecting some disaster to occur that would call attention to the condition and that would compel remedial measures to be adopted. The condition as it existed could not go on without being followed by disaster. It came and there was a temporary excitement. Investigations by naval officers whose reports are not published-investigation of the disaster itself by the Chief of the Inspection Service a further investigation by the courts and a proposed investigation by the Senate.

The vessel is insured and usually up to a figure in which the owner loses nothing. The cargo is insured up to a figure in which the shipper loses nothing. The Protection and Indemnity Association insures against ignorance, incapacity, and inaptitude and the owner loses nothing. The insurance premiums are put into the overhead expenses and prorated back upon passenger fares and freight rates so that the whole thing may be summed up by saying that the passenger is paying additional rates of fare with the prospect of being burnt or drowned without any loss to the shipowner.

This is not to say that the shipowner himself wants this condition to go on. There are men, however, among them who consider nothing except their own success in competition and those men are forcing their views upon the rest. If the United States wants the development of sea power and, of course, she must want it or she would not pay the price she is paying now, laws must be improved. First, the laws we have must be enforced and that cannot be done under existing conditions, because (a) any seaman making complaint that the watches are not properly kept is paid off when he arrives on shore. In a foreign port this is very often equal to marooning him. He has not enough money to get out of the place nor any money for support beyond a few days. (b) If he is paid off in the United States he is immediately placed on the blacklists of all the different shipping offices so that it will be extremely difficult for him to get a job unless he changes his name. Second, the laws must be so amended that we can have reasonable safety to the traveling public and to the country itself by the development of an American personnel dependable in peace and war.

2. In more than 50 years of my study of the question of the necessity for sea power for the United States and the effort of possible adversaries to prevent it, nothing so plainly and specifically points out the means used to prevent any growth of such sea power as the incorporation papers of the International Shipping Federation, Ltd. To understand the methods in all their simplicity and with their inevitable result nothing seems so much needed as a careful reading of these incorporation papers.

THE COMPANIES (CONSOLIDATION) ACT, 1908

COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTY AND NOT HAVING A CAPITAL DIVIDED INTO SHARES

(Memorandum of Association of the International Shipping Federation (Ltd.))

1. The name of the company (hereinafter called "the company") is the International Shipping Federation (Ltd.).

2. The registered office of the company will be situate in England.

3. The objects for which the company is established are:

(1) To federate for the purposes hereinafter expressed or some of them associations of shipowners formed for the support of protection of shipowners or the promotion of defense of their interests and associations formed by shipowners or other persons or for any other objects which the company shall consider analogous or conducive and whether incorporated or not incorporated and whether formed in the United Kingdom or abroad and whether already existing or hereafter formed and their nominees.

(2) To consider all questions affecting the interests of the shipping trade and other trades connected therewith and to do all such things as may seem expedient with a view to the promotion of such interests.

(3) To procure the adoption, improvement, repeal, abrogation, or alteration of any laws, maritime contracts, usages, and customs in relation to such trades which it may seem to the company desirable to adopt, improve, repeal, abrogate, or alter, and to oppose delay and resist any enactments, rules, regulations, bylaws, customs, or usages which may seem adverse to the interests of such trade or any department thereof.

(4) To indemnify any persons and companies interested in the shipping trades or other trades connected therewith against losses, liabilities, and contingencies in relation to any such trade, and generally to carry on any kind of guaranty and indemnity business other than employers' liability insurance.

(5) To establish and maintain in any parts of the world bureaus or registries for engaging the services, whether in relation to navigation or management of ships or vessels or in loading or discharge of cargoes or any other operations, whether on land or sea, of officers, managers, stewards, clerks, messengers, servants, seamen, firemen, laborers, and other persons employed in any such business and for collecting and supplying information to members of the company and others in relation to any of the said businesses, and to supply such services and information accordingly, whether gratuitously or otherwise, as may be deemed expedient.

(6) To. communicate with any other like federation, association, or company, whether incorporated or not, in any parts of the world, and concert with it in promoting measures of any kind which the company is authorized to promote. (7) To diffuse amongst the members information on all matters affecting the shipping trade, and to print, publish, issue, and circulate such papers, periodicals, books, circulars, and other literary undertakings as may seem conducive to any of these objects.

(8) To raise funds for any of the purposes of the company, whether by entrance fees or periodical subscriptions from members or voluntary contributions from members or other persons, or otherwise.

(9) To purchase, take on lease or in exchange, hire, or otherwise acquire any real or personal property and any rights or privileges which the company may think desirable, and to hold, build upon, manage, improve, and develop, and to sell, lease, mortgage, or otherwise dispose of any such real or personal property rights or privileges for any estate or interest therein.

(10) To construct, equip, maintain, and alter or reconstruct any building or works necessary or convenient for the purposes of the company.

(11) To invest and deal with any moneys of the company not immediately required in such manner as may be determined.

(12) To borrow or raise and secure the payment of money in such manner as the company shall think fit.

(13) To undertake and execute any trust the undertaking whereof may seem desirable, and either gratuitously or otherwise.

(14) To transfer all or any part of the undertaking, assets, and liabilities of the company to any federation or association having objects altogether or in part similar to those of the company, or to amalgamate with any society or association having objects altogether or in part similar to those of the company.

(15) To enter into any arrangement with any authority, supreme, local, municipal, or otherwise, or any association or company, incorporated or unincorporated, in furtherance of any of the objects of the company, and to obtain from any such authority, association, or company any rights or privileges which may seem conducive to any of the objects of the company.

(16) To admit any members, whether eligible or not for membership, to be honorary members of the company, and to confer on any person contributing to the funds of the company without constituting them members such rights and privileges as may be legally granted to persons not being members of the company and on such terms as may be expedient.

(17) To do all such other lawful things as are identical or conducive to the attainment of the above objects or any of them.

4. The liability of the members is limited.

5. Every member of the company undertakes to contribute to the assets of the company in the event of the same being wound up during the time that he is a member or within 1 year afterward for payment of the debts and liabilities of the company contracted before the time at which he ceases to be a member, and the costs, charges, and expenses of winding up the same and for the adjustment of the rights of the contributors amongst themselves such amount as may be required, not exceeding £1,000.

COMPOSITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING FEDERATION, LTD. Board of Directors: Britain, E. Pembroke, 34 Leadenhall Street, London, E. C., shipowner; Sweden, A. O. Wilson, Gothenberg, shipowner; Germany, P. Ehlers, Hamburg, shipowner and doctor of law; Denmark, C. Kronman, Copenhagen, chairman Danish Shipping Federation; Holland, J. Visser, Rotterdam, delegate for Shipping Federation of Holland; Belgium, J. Langlois, Antwerp, ship broker; Holland, J. Vink, Amsterdam, shipowner.

COPY OF THE REGISTER OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING FEDERATION, LTD.

Name, address, and occupation: Jacques Langlois, 7 Quai Van Dyck, Antwerp, average adjuster; Maurice Ortmane, 15 Canal des Brasseurs, Antwerp, ship broker; K. Reinhard, Borsen, Copenhagen, shipowner; A. O. Anderson, 22 Ameliegade, Copenhagen, shipowner; C. Leist, Norddeutscher Lloyd, Hamburg, shipowner; Paul Ehlers, Adolphsbrucke 2, Hamburg, doctor of law; J. Vink, Messrs. Hudig, Voder & Co., Amsterdam, ship brokers; E. Indebeton, Sveriges, Redareforening, Gothenburg, master mariner; A. O. Wilson, Sveriges, Redaregorening, Gothenburg, shipowner; Thomas L. Devitt, 13 Fenchurch Avenue, London, E. C., shipowner; T. F. Harrison, 67 South John Street, Liverpool, shipowner; R. M. Hudson, Tavistock House, Sunderland, shipowner; Henry Radcliffe, the Docks, Cardiff, shipowner; Sir Walter Runciman, bart, Masonic Building, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, shipowner; F. S. Watts, 7 Whittington Avenue, London, E. C., shipowner; J. Visser, Messrs. Wambersie & Son, Rotterdam, ship broker.

(3) After 21 years of agitation the Seamen's Act was signed by President Wilson on the 4th of March 1915. President Wilson about 3 years later when he was presented by a Committee of the International Seamen's Union with The Dawn of The New Day framed, said "Nothing has given me greater satisfaction than my assistance and signature on that legislation." The three papers which seemed to be of most importance with reference to the passage of this act are(a) "Appeal to the World."

FROM A MESSAGE TO SEAMEN-APPEAL TO THE WORLD

"To those who govern nations, to whose who make the laws, to humanitarians, Democrats, Christians, and friends of human freedom everywhere do we, the seamen, the yet remaining bondmen, humbly yet earnestly submit this our petition, that we be made free men, and that the blighting disgrace of bondage be removed from our labor, which once was considered honorable, which is yet needed

in the world of commerce, and which has been held to be of great importance to nations with seacoasts to defend.

"Existing maritime law makes of seamen, excepting in the domestic trade of the United States, the property of the vessel on which we sail. We cannot work as seamen without signing a contract which brings us under the law. This contract is fixed by law or authorized by governments. We have nothing to do with its terms. We either sign it and sail, or we sign it not and remain landsmen. "When signing this contract, we surrender our working power to the will of another man at all times while the contract runs. We may not, on pain of penal punishment, fail to join the vessel. We may not leave the vessel, though she is in perfect safety. We may not, without our master's permission, go to a mother's sick bed or funeral, or attend to any other duties of a son, a brother, a Christian, or a citizen, excepting in the domestic trade of the United States.

"If the owner thinks he has reason to fear that we desire to escape, he may, without judicial investigation, cause us to be imprisoned for safe-keeping until he shall think proper to take us out. If we have escaped, he may publish our personal appearance along with a reward for our apprehension and return. He may, through contracts between nations, cause the peace officers and police to aid him in recovering his property. The captain may change, the owner may change we are sold with the vessel-but so long as the flag does not change, there is nothing except serious illness or our master's pleasure that will release us from the vessel.

"The master, acting for the vessel, may release himself and the vessel by paying a few dollars, with no alternative.

"He that owns another man's labor power owns his body, since the two cannot be separated.

"We stand in the same relation to the vessel as the serf did to the estate, as the slave to his master. When serfdom was abolished in western Europe we were forgotten by the liberators and our status remained. When the slaves of the United States and Brazil were emancipated our status continued. When serfdom was abolished in Russia no change came to us.

"We now raise our manacled hands in humble supplication and pray that the nations issue a decree of emancipation and restore to us our right as brother men; to our labor that honor which belonged to it until your power, expressing itself through your law, set upon it the brand of bondage in the interest of cheap transportation by water.

"We respectfully submit that the serfdom of the men in our calling is of comparatively modern origin. Earlier maritime law bound, while in strange countries and climes, the seaman to his shipmates and the ship, and the ship to him, on the principle of common hazard. In his own country he was free-the freest of men. We further humbly submit that, as the consciousness of the seaman's status penetrates through the population, it will be impossible to get freemen to send their sons into bondage or to induce freemen's sons to accept it, and we, in all candor, remind you that you, when you travel by water, expect usthe serfs-to exhibit in danger the highest qualities of freemen by giving our lives for your safety.

"At sea the law of common hazard remains. There must be discipline and selfsacrifice, but in any harbor the vessel and you are safe, and we beseech you give to us that freedom which you claim for yourself and which you have bestowed on others, to the end that we may be relieved of that bitterness of soul that is the heavy burden of him who knows and feels that his body is not his own."

(b) Memorial to Congress based upon the thirteenth amendment and the Supreme Court decision in the Baily v. Alabama case. Seamen are held on vessels in a high-wage foreign port for the purpose of compelling their service on the return voyage. It seems to be very difficult, indeed, to argue that the general decisions by the Court including "all persons under the flag" have no application

to seamen.

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: On behalf of the seamen your petitioners respectfully represent that— While the existing discrimination against the seamen is permitted to continue the United States cannot become a sea power; that native Americans will not become seamen; and that the differential in wage cost of operation will prevent American vessels from competing on the ocean.

First. "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into any other, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered upon claim of the