The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-11
COTTON LOADING BEGUN.
Work Begun on the Luigi Yesterday.
With Six Gangs.


Work began yesterday in loading the
first vessel that will sail from Savannah
this season with a cargo of cotton to a
foreign port. This is the steamship Luigi,
Italian, which is now receiving a cargo
at the old press wharf of the Central
railroad. The cotton is being stored in
the vessels hold by longshoremen, who
are not in sympathy with the strikers.
There are six gangs of them at work,
making thirty men. Each gang consists
of header, with four men under his direc-
ton. Railroad iron is also being stored
aboard the Luigi The vessel has four
hatches and three of them are now being
loaded with the iron. The fourth, the
one which Is now having cotton put into
it, has already received it's share of the
iron. AS fast as the loading of the iron
is completed the gangs will begin to put
in cotton.
There are now seven vessels in port in
Guiding the Luigi, that are to be loaded
with cotton. They are all steamships
and will sail for foreign ports. The ma
jority of them are British vessels, those
flying the British flag being the Murcia,
Conningsby. Coniscliffe, Endeavour and
Aymestry. These will all be loaded by
the colored longshoremen, but the Span
ish steamship Miguel NJ. Pinillos will be
loaded by the white longshoremen under
the direction of Stevedore Ybanez.
The longshoremens union continues to
hold aloof from work on the wharves.
The members insist that they win not
stick a hook into bale of cotton unless
they are paid the wages they ask. Their
attention, they say, will be turned from
the wharves TO other work if the pay they
ask is not granted them. A committee
from the strikers had a conference yester-
day with some of the brokers' but no
agreement was reached. The strikers thus
far have been very peaceable and seem
to show no desire to interfere in anyway
with those whom the stevedores may en-
gage to do the loading. They do not in
tend, they say, to go near the wharves I'M
less they are told to go to work at the
scale of prices for which they are asking.
There has been only one instance reported
thus far of any violence at all. An account
of this was given by one of the headers
that proposes to stick by the stevedores.
He reported at the office of Col Harmon
that he mad been set upon one night lately
and beaten by a gang of the strikers, whom
his assertions that he intended to work for
the old wages had incensed. This header
came off pretty badly in the ARRAY.
1t is stated that there are as many as
seventy-five of the headers that have not
entered into the agreement of the striking
longshoremen. They are ready to work
for the same money they received last
year. Their labor viii be employed just
at present and it is said that it will sui
flee for the loading of all the vessels that
are 10 be in port for some time yet. BY
the time the busiest season has arrived, it
is thought that some arrangement will
have been made with the strikers. The
labor OF the entire force OF iongshoremen
only becomes necessary when there are
many vessels waiting to receive their car
goes. The header receives 80 cents an
nour for his work, while those in his gang
get Is cents. If they had an opportunity
to work full time at this rate there would
be not the slightest cause for complaint
There are times, however. when there is
not enough work for all of the men to do