The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-27
LOADING The GLENLOIC.
LOngShOTemel Don't Like the En-
pIOymelt Of NOl-UliOl Labor.


Central Railroad Wharf-A Claim
That A. F. Churchill Took Men to
Brunswick From Savannah at Less
Than Union Rates Denied-The
Shippers and Agents Wearied of the
Association RuIes-What the Long
shoremen Say.
The fight between the shipping agents
and the longshoremen as to what rules
shall govern the working of men slowing
cotton aboard ships, is now on. The ship
ping agents made the first move yester-
day morning. when they began the load
ing of the steamship Glenloig, at the
Central press, with non-union labor.
Non-union labor was not employed, how
ever, until the union men had been en-
treated to take the work at the union
prices, the only condition imposed by the
shipping men being that the longshore-
men should give a full days labor, and
not eight and half hours, or less, a day.
A last effort was made by the shippers
to bring the workmen TO agree to the
proposition offered them, namely, a full
days work for a full days pay. Several
days ago the agents held a conference
with the boss stevedores and laid the
case before them, telling them thatit was
necessary that the change demanded by
the agents should be made and that they
were determined to bring it about, even
at some expense to themselves.
THEY HELD A CONFERENCE.
They asked the good Offices of the en-
ploying stevedores to confer with the
men and lay the case before them, and
urge the acceptance of the condition
named by the agents. This the steve
dores agreed TO do.
Feb. 10 q communication was received
from the stevedores addressed to Messrs.
Wilder < Coz Richardson X Barnard,
Strachan & Co, and A. Minis Sons, ana
signed by the employing stevedores.
The communication stated that the
latter had conferred with the
longshoremen, and that the result was
that the unions positively refused to
make any change in their rules regarding
the loa ling of VS. es. This brought
matters 10 a crisis, ana it was understood
by both sides that il was only a matter of
few days before the question as 10 the
difference between the longshoremen and
the shipping agents would be brought to
q test.
FOUND PLENTY OF OTHER LABOR.
The regular stevedores declined to
take the loading Of the GlenIoig with
non-uniOn labor and the services of Mr..
K. +. Harmon were secured. Mr. Har-
mon had no trouble in securing all the
labor he wanted. Very little of it was
experienced labor. however. though many
Of the men had worked on the Ocean
Steamship Company's wharves. In fact,
he had more labor than be
could use. He engaged the services
of sixty men, but turned away as many
more. There appeared to be plenty of
labor along the wharves MIR Harmon
had more men than he could profitably
use, and the men were actually IN each
others way aboard the ship
The laborers secured were all negroes,
and were engaged at the rates paid its
labor by the Ocean Steamship
Company, namely, headers % cents
an hour, gangmen 20 cents, and
wharf men ~ cents, or 81 80, 90 and
81 IS for day of ten hours. This is about
one-third the wages received by the regu-
lar longshoremen.
ONLY 800 BALES To LOAD.
Only 300 bales of cotton were ready for
the ship when Mr.. Harmon set his gangs
to work, at 10 o'clock. These were stored
gangs were compelled to knock of for
lack of cotton.
All the cotton for the Glenloig is being
repressed at the Central railroad com
press, except that which as compressed in
Savannah. This is for the double purpose
of saving room aboard the ship and en-
abling the green men to put it
away in better shape. The recompress-
ing saves screwiDg, which is an i'm
portant feature of the work in which the
skilled longshOremen excels. The bales
being tightly packed require only to be
laid away in the bottom of the
ship like rows of sardines The
bales must, of course, be pressed in
as tightly as possible to prevent
shifting Of the cargo, but the recompress-
ing is great aid in accomplishing this.
The charge for recompressing is 30
cents bale. AS the cost of slowing
the cotton is only about 10 cents a bale
the ship agents will get their cargo
slowed at 40 cents bale, which is 5
less than they have been paying the
longshoremen.
CLAIM THE AGENTS WILL LOSE.
The latter claim, however. that the
agents are certain of a large loss on the
vessel because of the inability TO
stow the same amount of cotton
aboard as the skilled labor The Glen
loig is good bale ship The longshore-
men assert that Col. Harmon wi h
his green labor will get less
than 5000 bales aboard. Conse-
quently the loss 10 the agents on this
score they say viii be greater than the
gain in cheap labor.
The recompressing is intended. how
ever, TO onset the greeness
of the labor, and il is
even claimed that the vessel will be en-
abled 10 carry more cotton by this means
than if she had been loaded with cotton
compressed in the interior, by the skilled
labor.
The COMPRISING is bound to play an
important part in this fight. The presses
at Savannah are more powerful than
those Of the interior, and bales compressed
in the interior are reduced one-third in
size by the Savannah presses.
ADVANTAGE OF ACCOMPLISHING.
The shipping men are viewing this fea-
ture with interest. and whatever NAV be
the terminus of the fight, hard compress.
ing is certain to play an important part
in cotton shipping in future.
Tightly compressed bales can be loaded
with greater ease. more can be placed
aboard snip, are in less DANGER Of fire and
can be handled with less loss in transpor-
tation, all Of which are important items.
The shipping agents are standing firmly
together in the fight. The vessel is be.
ing loaded by Wilder * Co. but was
visited yesterday by representatives OF
all the other firms, who gave their coun-