Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-01-12
.REVIVES OLD TIMES.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER PILOTS Asso
CATION DIsRANDED.

The disbandonment recently of the
organization made famous by Mark
Twain as the Mississippi River Pilots
association, brings to those who were
familiar with the Mississippi and its
great traffic twenty-five years ago,
many memories of the olden times and
is especially interesting just at this
time when the isthmian canal seems
an assured fact. The opening of this
great isthmian communication will
once more cause enormous streams of
traffic and commerce to go down the
Mississippi as the cheapest means of
transportation to the west shore of
the American continent.
The Mississippi River Pilots assoc
citation was at one time the strongest
and most complete labor organization
that ever existed. Mark Twain in
his Life on the Mississippi" devotes
two or three chapters to the organize
ton and makes it intensely dramatic
as is his usual custom Mark Twain
was at the time Of the organization Of
this association pilot on the lower
river and writes apparently from per-
sonal experience
In the early river days every pilot
had one or two Cubs" who did all the
ordinary work of steering, leaving the
running of difficult passes to their mas
tiers. In time this clubbing business
produced a lot of first-class pilots who
who began to take the places of the
old men. As result the supply of
pilots became greater than the demand
wages began to fall, and the veteran
wheelmen soon found themselves
shorn of all their glory. From mon
archs of all they surveyed they be-
came the creatures of the steamboat
bosses.
How It Started.
Things were going from bad to
worse when dozen of the best pilots
took matters into their own hands and
organized the association which has
just been abandoned. They procured
a charter, elected officers, raised cash
capital and put association" wages up
to $3.50 month. They had number
of bylaws in their regulations which
helped develop strength in the organi-
zation later on. One was that mem
bers out of work were paid pension
of SIS week. This captured all the
idle pilots, but those who had work
remained out of the association. AS a
result, the association had within its
membership all the ordinary pilots to-
gether with a few of the first.class
ones, while the good ones were mostly
all on the outside. and laughing at the
association.
But the leaders Of the movement
kept still and waited their time. 1t
came when the busy season caused
wages to go up and made pilots scarce.
One day an owner came to the secre-
tary of the association and said: well
guess I will have to come to it. I
need pilot and will have to pay your
outrageous price,"
Hum" said the secretary, what
pilot have you here" The law COMPEL
ing the hiring Of two pilots by every
steamboat captain.
20, I've got K; one OF the best,
you know"
"I' sorry" replied the secretary,
* He's not an association man,
you know" The captain argued, then
he begged, then he stormed, but all to
no purpose and the outcome of it was
that he had to discharge his no-asso-
citation pilot and hire two association
men, and in addition had to pay the
wages of the man he had discharged
for the trip.
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