The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-13
WIRELESS OPERATOR
 HAS MANY HARDSHlPS

From the New York Press.
 When Jack Binns stood at the Key or
 his instrument on the rammed and sink
 ing liner Republic and sent out the call for aid that clicked it's way around the world through the press the first great romance of the wireless was porn. Through the long arm of coincidence the
 operator who first received that message and brought relief to the Republic and its human freight was the leading figure In
 still greater romance of the wireless
 last week when the first call for help
 from a dirigible balloon at sea was sent
 to a liner blowing through the western
 ocean.
 The responsibility that came to Jack
 Bnns and to Jack K Irwin on the Re- public and the dirigible America Is likely
 to come to any wireless operator at any
 moment when his ship is at sea. When danger threatens or disaster oc- CUTS at sea the wireless operators posi- ton becomes one of great responsibility He Is no longer just 'an ordinary tele- grapher-an automaton who sends mes sages that sound like the scratching of
 matches as they eraokle over the aerials but a man on whom the safety of the ship and the passengers may depend al- most as much as upon the captain him. self. Yet the majority Of the American wireless operators on the coasting steam CTS are paid the same wages as the coal passers-$30 & month and 'found'-and are on the same social scale, according to the ships etiquette. They are com
 pelled to eat with the men who toll in the stokehold, and are treated with quite
 as little consideration by the officers of
 the vessel. Further than that, many of
 them are mere boys with only smatter-
 ing of the knowledge necessary to send
 and receive messages promptly. When
 trouble comes in any of the many ways it does unexpectedly on the sea it is only
 a kind Providence or their individual
 force of character which enables them to
 meet it. Of those who fall short in a
 crisis the public hears nothing; those
 who by good luck and courage pull them
 selves and the ship out of difficulties
 sometimes get their names into the
 newspapers and are more or less heroic figures for day.
 When the wireless was a. new thing and the demand for operators was great CT than the supply the men were we'll treated and well paid. Those in the trans atlantic service and at most of the land stations are now, although they grumble more or less as a matter of course As more and more ships were equipped with wireless apparatus and it became matter of getting cheap rather than highly skilled help, there crept into the coastwise service especially a lot of "frisky heads" as the older operators called them. They were neglectful of their duties and insubordinate. Most of them were mere youths. These started the profession of wireless operator on the down grade. Later on the wireless company that made speciality of equip ping coasting vessels is said to have started a school for the training of their operators. It is said they would take a. boy who knew nothing of telegraphy, teach him the Morse code and the mech anism of the wireless apparatus and put him at work on a boat-all inside of month. OF course a youngster of this sort could be hired for coal passer's wages They were, and are, esteemed accordingly. These are the ones who now are most bitter In their complaints of wages and treatment
 Another reason that the wireless opera tor is unhappy Is that the average cap tain, except on big transatlantic liner is apt to look on him as a nuisance and to hullv him around and make life disa- ereeabie for him. The wireless opera. tor stands between the captain and the owners when the ship Is near enough to the shore to be in reach of them. In the old days before tho wireless the cap tain of a steamer loafed along as he saw fit and brought his boat in when 1t pleased him. Nowadays the owners are
 in constant communication with him, through the wireless operator. giving him orders and suggestions. All of this nettles the average skipper, and he is apt to take 1t out on his wireless man. As the operator on shipboard Is like a strangers interpreter in foreign land, the captain is suspicious of him because he cannot himself understand what is the purport of the messages that go to and fro. If the captain has been getting little private rake-off at some port or other on the coal or supplies he becomes fearful that the wireless operator may have discovered it and may be revenging himself for past sights by telling the agents about 1t as the boat hears its home port. Although the operator may be quite innocent of anything of the sort he has to spend good many uncom-