Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-20
WORKMEN SAVE
THEIR EARNINGS
NO LACK OF EMPLOYMENT AT
SAN PEDRO
Noticeable DulIness Thought to Be
Due to Laborers Hoarding Their
Money-strike Situation Re-
mains Unchanged
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
SAN PEDRO, July 19-The strike
situation among the sailors of steam
schooners practically is without change.
Notwithstanding the almost daily re-
ports that the sailing vessels are also
to be tied up.
There Is no question that the strike
has affected business at this port, but
Just why is difficult to under .tand. The
shipments of lumber for June, which
was the first month of the strike. ex-
ceeded those of May by nearly 1000, 900
teet The secretary of the Longshore-
mems union states now that everyone
of his men either Is at work or can get
work. The secretary of the Sailors
union states that there is q lack of
sailors before the mast, the same as
there has been all the time, bat that
there are a very few idle engineers.
There are also one or two cooks not
employed, but in most instances it is
because of the fact that they do not
care to work.
But still the remark is often heard
that the town is dull and that it is be-
cause of the strike One business man
of considerable standing said that IL
was not because of lack of work but
because the laborers are boarding up
their money instead Of spending 1t as
tHOy are WOIll IO 40 III lluSn Il11leS.
From the secretary of the Sailors
union 1t is learned th..t twenty-four of
the steam schooners of the coast are at
work with union crews. A few are try
ing to run without union crews, but the
great majority of all this class of
vessels are tied up to wharves at
northern ports.
From him it is also learned that many
OF the men who struck are at work at
something else. He expresses the belief
that of all of the men who went out at
least two-thirds have gone to work at
other labor and that half of them will
never go back to the hard work of
sailors life. He says that all kinds of
labor in the north is in great demand
and that the men prefer other work
he states that 2 sailors life on board
these vessels is scuh a hard one that,
according to the best statistics avail
able, the average life of men at that
work is short or briefer than at any
other work.
On the other hand the men say, while
they are at work at something else and
making their living, not being a drag
to the union or their friends, the steam
schooners which are tied up are very
great money losers to their owners.
The steamer Nome City, one of the
largest on the coast, but now tied up at
a northern port, is capable of making
her owners a net sum of $500 per day,
or in other words the owners lose
enough in one day to pay the additional
wages demanded by the crew for five
months. Other and smaller vessels 90
not clear so much but they always have
g nice income, especially since the raise
IN freight rates which the vessel owners
put into operation two months ago.
y The amount of lumber for this port in
July probably will fall short of the
previous month, but there is an i'm
mense amount of it on hand in the
yards and a famine along that line is
not likely for some time, even should
the lumber carrying vessels all stop
coming here, which is not probable.