Frostburg mining journal., 1880-08-21
THE BOATMAN'S SIDE OF TIE
CASE.

l.
of the boatmen have not been brought
plainly before the public we here
with present the following statement
with our complaint and ask the peo-
pie to judge our cause. The state
ment is as follows:
The earnings of the Boatnaen for the
past three gears on the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal.
The amount of trips during three
years was AZ; or an average of IA per
season Of eight months in each year.
Each boat on an average, carries liz
tons, or 1858 tons during the season.
The average freight during that time
was 81 cents per ton, making the
earnings for one year 81, ,254.44.
The expenses attendant upon the
same were as follows:
Hands per month, $32, or $256 per
season; board for same, $86 per
month, or $288 per season; way-bills
and trimming, 1852 per season;
trippage on boats, $25 per trip, or
$3.50 per season shoeing, harness and
repairing lines and incidentals, $l4o.-
r. Making the expenses $l,4l4.o4.
or $l59.60 more than the earnings.
To those unacquainted with the
boating business the foregoing would
seem altogether out of reason, but
this is easily accounted for by the fact
that nearly all Of the boatmen have
lost all they ever earned while
freights were at a higher figure, and
are more or less in debt to day. This
fact the merchants with whom they
deal can fully attest. Go from Gum
berland to Georgetown, and with a
majority Of boats you meet you will
either find the captains wife at the
tiller, with her babe tied on deck with
a rope, or her little boy on the tow
path dragging himself after the mules,
and in many cases you will find lit
tie girls of 10 and l2 years of age
driving the team and the mother
steering, while the husband and faith
er is lying upon the hard deck "snap-
ping" as they term it, an hours nap
after being up all night. And yet
when these oppressed and toiling
boatmen ask for little advance in
the way of freight or undertake to
resist a reduction, or ask the boat
builders to lower their trippage, (not-
wfthstanding these latter have ac-
cumu'ated large fortunes,) they say
they cannot come down one cent,
from the fact that it is not a necessity
with them. If they ask the canal
company to lower the toll they can
not do so because they have large
corps of politicians to support, having
to pay men for their influence 800
per month, and the work they do
could as easily be performed by
school boys at $40 per month. And
yet these very mon will talk about
the advancement Of civilization and
advocate the necessity Of public
schools in order that the poorer class
es may educate their children. All
this they do to curry favor with the
populace and hide their cruel tyrrany
while they will not allow the poor
boatmen enough to keep bread and
meat in his house, let alone send his
children to school. And if the boat
men "strike." as they term it, or ask
for Just remuneration for their toll
and refuse to do as they are bid to do
by them, be is ordered of his boat,
and in case of refusal to go the sher-
iff is sent for and he is thrown off and
the owner replevins. Other men are
then put on the boats, who are ig-
norant of these facts and are made
slaves of until they like those before
them through necessity are driven
off. 1t seems that the whole object
of these men is to trample poor hu-
manity in the dust. We ask fair
minded public to Judge our cause up
on its merits and tell us if we are to
be oppressed and crushed by such in
human conduct on the part of those
who have the power to give us a rem
edy? BoATMEN.
CUMBERLAND, AUG. IA.
L I