The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1910-08-06
Proves by Impartial Investigation
That Conditions on Lake Car
riers' Association Boats Are
Even Worse Than Is Charged
by Striking Sailors.

We up here at the head of the
lakes know what the strike Of the
lake seamen has entailed upon the
members of the seamen's union in
loss of employment and the separa-
tion from their chosen calling.
1t has remained for the Cleveland
Press to tell us what hardship they
have missed by refusing to submit to
the 'hellfare" plan the shipping trust
would have imposed on them had
they not proved themselves men and
revolted.
The Cleveland Press put one of it's
reporters on the steamer A. G. Brewer,
a boat under the control of the Ves-
sci Owners association, and the fol-
lowing is the story he has told since
his return to the port he shipped
from:
They sent me out to investigate
conditions on the Lake Carriers as
sociation boats involved in the strike
of the Lake Seamen's union. While
I am not a seaman. l think l had
perception enough to see, so far as
the boat on which l daily peeled po-
tatoes, secured pans and did the thou
sand and one odd jobs falling to the
lot of second cook was concerned,
conditions are as bad as the strikers
for the past two years have repre-
sented them to be.
The seamen charge the boats are
manned by an assortment of mere
boys and saloon and wharf hangers
efn
They say when a man ships on these
boats, which. independent and all, are
dominated by the steel trust, he must
sign away his allegiance to all but his
religious belief and his citizenship. I
had to forswear all allegiance to
unions before l was admitted to the
Lake Carriers association.
Sleeping Conditions Bad.
The seamen charge sleeping con-
ditionS on board the boats are vile;
that stewards are so restricted in the
amount of money they can expend for
food per month that the food is often
poor in quality and scant in quantity,
and that hours are long, too long. I
found all these things to be true on
the Brewer.
Take for instance the room where
I slept, which is typical of the sleep
,inskssaaaa 1t theas tEikera are,
talking about:
In the rear are five grimy hunks,
piled three high on one side and
two on the other. The room is
dark, in-smelling. and poorly VEN
tilated. 1t is situated in the fan
tail of the ship. On one side there
is the constant clanking Of the steer
ing apparatus. From tn other come
oily fumes from the engine room. The
dead light
Fine Dream Shattered.
Three others, mere lads, shared the
room with me.
These boys are strike breakers. One
of them, like many others, was picked
up while playing on the docks by
shipping agents of the Lake Carriers
association. The prospect of $1.05
per day, with endless trips over the
bounding waves, was held as lure
to takeb oys from their homes to help
the companies carry down the noun
tains of ore from the mines about
Duluth to the furnaces at Cleveland.
The lads dream of pleasant voy-
ages, with nothing to do but sit and
watch the waves, was soon blasted
when two-inch hose was put in their
hands by a gruff mate and they were
ordered to scrub the decks, handle
heavy matches, drag hawsers and
cables until their limbs were near CIV
ing way from exhaustion, It was a.
12-hour day they were compelled to
work, in two watches" six hours on
and six hours off, day and night, with
no time for a good, wholesome sleep,
and no place Tor it if they had the
time.
Since the lake seamen struck in
1909 hundreds of them have been
shipped aboard the big freighters.
Many of them stayed, and these are
the ones I watched and studied.
l found them hardened and matur-
ed beyond their years by association
with the riffraff from the lodging
houses and jails. They, too, have
shipped on the lakes and their in
fuence has left it's mark in the hard
ened faces and coarse language of
boys.
WaJchman Boy of Sixteen.
The Brewer is owned by the United
States Transportation company, one
of the Independents forced into the
Lake Carriers association by the steel
trust. which is fast getting control
of lake shipping. Conditions on the
Brewer, I was told, were far above
the average.
The Brewer carried a crew of 21,
four of them minors. Three of the
boys, Walter West, Walter Davis and
Joe Sawdusky, were deck hands, or
"deckeroos," in the lakes lingo, and
the fourth, Ray McTavish, was a
watchman. He boasts sixteen years.
Deck hands hours were IL a day
on the lake. In port they might be
asked to work any number of hours.
A 20-hour shift while the vessel was
loading or unloading. was told, was
not unusual. A deck hand might
Just have turned into his bunk after
finishing his watch when, the vessel
came into port and the order came
stand by, all hands On deck g..-s. III >, 4 Z