The morning news., 1892-03-14
Frve,s Pilotape Bill.

DondVOr rTyo, OF MAINE, mas DeLOre One
Senate committee on commerce a bill that
deserves to be steered against tho legislative
rocks and wrecked beyond salvage. Il is a
bill TO reorganize the pilotage system of this
| country by abolishing compulsory pllotage
for coastwise vessels, and one of its objects
is TO strike blow at the south. Frye makes
a point in his arguments in favor of the bill
that only the ports OF eleven southern states
would be injured, and that northern ports
would not be affected.
AS matter of fact. the efficiency of the
pilotage service of the United States would
be adversely affected by the passage of the
bill. because It proposes TO take away the
power of competent state board to exam
inc and license persons for that service. At
present the state boards are composed OF
merchants and old sea captains. thorough
sailors, who serve without pay. There is
no taint Of political wire-pulling about their
appointments, and candidates for pilots
licenses must be efficient. or they cannot
obtain their 'papers."
The Frye bill would change this order,
by mixing politics with pilotage. The func-
tions of the harbor commissioners would be
| devolved upon the inspectors of hulls and
| boilers-men who hold Office through polit-
ical preferment. Any incompetent person,
provided he have sufficiently strong polit-
ical PULL" would, under such conditions,
be more likely TO be licensed as pilot than
the most experienced and careful old
mariner at any port from Maine to Texas.
The bill provides that any captain or
mate Of vessel In the coasting trade may,
after passing satisfactory examination in
regard to any harhor along the coast
have license to pilot his vessel in and out
Of said harbor. This examination is to be
before the United States inspector of bulls
and the United States inspector of boilers,
! officials who may never have seen the ocean
or ship until the shifting tide of politics
| hoated them into office.
There are probably 200 pilots in the
service along the coast Of the United States.
They have invested in pilotage plants over
100000 which would be rendered value
less by the passage Of Frye's bill, besides
depriving them and their five OF six
thousand dependents of means of
livelihood. The seven years of hard ap-
premiership, which pilots are required to
serve, would count for naught. and they
would be forced out Of a life's work for
which they had fitted themselves by the
most arduous training required in any
trade or profession.
| The need-absoute need-of thorough ly
trained pilots on even ooasting vessels, is
emphasized by the frequent accidents to
naval ships and revenue cutters reported
recently. If the officers of these vessels are
not competent to keep their ships off the
rocks and sand bars which they have failed
to do, it is hardly to be expected that cap
| tains and mates of coasters can do it,
Frye's argument in his effort to slap the
south through his bill is mo good" II
lacks even the merit of ingenuity. He says
IAN the states north of NJ aryland have re-
pealed the compulsory pilotage law for YES
sells engaged In the coastwise trade, leaving
eleven southern states that discriminate
against yankee vessels" Can anybody sug-
gest who is benefited by this alleged
discrimination? All vessels built and
owned in the United States
whether in Maine or Georgia, and
fiying the stars and stripes, are yankee"
vessels. and no others are permitted to en-.
gage in the coastwise traffic. Foreign ships
are shut out from competition in this line
of carrying, and may only take cargoes
from United States ports to ports in other
countries.
The second inference Senator Frye would
have drawn from the statement quoted ia
that the cost Of pilotage comes out of the
pockets Of the shipowner. OF course that
is not so. any more than it is true that
the importer Of English cheviots pays
ont OF his pocket the duty levied by
the tariff law on the goods he brings over
for sale. The shipper is indirectly taxed in
his freight bill to pay the pilotage. just as
the wearer Of the oheviot is indirectly taxed
by the merchant 10 pay the import duty.
But the parallel in the simile does not run
much further; the pilot is the means OF pro-
tecting shipper insurance underwater.
shipowner andthe lives of the men aboard,
while the tariff protects only the manu-
factureT. who is continually seeking where
he may cut wages and put more OF the pro
lection In his own pocket
The pilotage laws, as they now stand. are
q protection 20 life as well as to commerce
and should be lot alone.