Evening star., 1902-01-09
WOES OF OYSTER DREDGERs
SECRETARY OF CFAAITY RGsNIZA-
TION ANSWERS SOME QUERIES.
Baltimore Society Investigates
Charges Made BY Three Boys
Lately I'm 4Nds City.


Mr.. George 8. Wilson. secretary of the
District board of charities, recently wrote
to the Charity Organization Society of Bal
timore with regard to the cases of three
boys claiming Baltimore as their home,
who had reached here after severe expert
ences on an oyster dredging boat in the
Chesapeake bay. The boys claimed they
had not been paid their wages and said
they had shipped with a man named Will
liam Hill, who had an Office in Baltimore.
The letter of inquiry has ELECTED an inter-
esting reply from Miss Mary Wilcox
Brown, general secretary of the Baltimore
society, of which Mr.. Daniel c. Gilman is
president. In her letter Miss Brown says:
The William Hill, who has an agency
on Light street, receives 81 for every per-
son procured and cannot be held responsible
for the payment of the men. He was seen
by our agent and said that he remembered
the three boys that you mention in your
letter, and that they had gone with him
before magistrate and had sworn that
they had no homes and, therefore, no one
was responsible for them. No agreement
was MADE with them and the only person
that could be held responsible would be the
captain OF the boat on which they shipped
He said he did not remember the name of
me captain but 1t was Virginia boat and
that ne mad had a great deal of trouble
lately with the Virginia captains with
whom men engaged by him had shipped,
but that he was powerless to give redress.
Says Conditions Are Improved.
This question of the dredgers has come
TO us several times, and I was directed by
the executive committee to whom your let
ter was shown, to speak to one or two per-
sons who have had experience in trying
cases of oyster dredgers against the oyster
boat captains. I called today to see a law
Yer In reference to the matter. He is a
fIA ,,.f
heard number of cases of men who have
complained of being harshly treated by
captains of the oyster boats, and has done
a great zeal to better the condition of men
employed as dredgers. He considers that
here in Baltimore the conditions are very
much improved, that the captains of Balti-
more boats do not treat their men unfairly
ana that any claim preferred against the
captain OF Baltimore boat could be made
good, provided the charge was a lust one.
his feeling is that the only way to protect
the oyster dredgers as class, is by hav-
ing the matter taken up by the United
states government, either the revenue cut
Ter department or some other department
oelng empowered to patrol the waters of
chesapeake bay. He says that MANY of
the virginia captains are most cruel and
uhJust TO thelr men, but he does not think
that we from Baltimore can reach them.
United States sCommfssioner's Views:
Il also consulted the United States COM
AS'Aoioi' Ani. n. Lyon Rogers. He SAYS
he constantly has these men coming before
him, and that there is no difficulty if the
claim Is just one to have it adjusted pro-
v1ded the vessel against whose captain the
charge is made is in the harbor It is very
dlhcuit however, to get any redress if the
boat is IN Virginia waters His advice is
that no man should be sent to Baltimore
unless the person interviewing him were
certain, from his presentation of the case,
that his claim was a legitimate one Mr.
rogers experience Is that as the captains
OF these oyster boats have got. "a very bad
name a great many men prefer claims that
cannot be substantiated, simply because
they feel it will be easy to get redress His
experience also has been that the class of
men that ship on these boats is ve-y
rough one, and thatsa great many OF them
are low order of Foreigners. He corrob-
GRATED what 1 have already written you
that such agents as s'the Mr. Hill you men
toned are not responsible and that they
bers from New York, Rhiladelphia and
other places for the purpose Of putting
them on the boats.
IndOrses Previous Statement,
Il also consulted the assistant United
States district attorney, who seconded
what Mr.. Rogers said asst to the difficulty
of getting hold of men who have worked
on boats that are no longer in Maryland
waters, and he feels it would be ill advised
to have a man sent here to prefer his
claim unless the person sending him were
assured that the boat were anchored here
that the important thing is to
have a department of the United States
given authority to patrol Chesapeake bay
SO as to regulate the methods of the oyster