The Holbrook news., 1911-09-22

isfaction among men in all
 parts of the world over pay
 hours, accommodations aboard ship and food, which. they say. has been steadily growing worse for the last ten years. While the cost of liv- ing and the necessities of life have gone up and the wages of laborers ashore have risen, the big steamship companies have done nothing to bet. ter the conditions of their crews. it is asserted
 Officers, engineers and fremen at sea have four hours on duty and eight hours of, while the men who have to stand the hrunt of the elements on deck have four hours on deck and four below throughout the voyage. except in port, when they work from a. m- till p. m., with half an hour for breakfast and an hour for dinner.
 The food served, the men say. is cooked generally by an assistant scul= leryman, who does not know enough to boil salt water. and the biggest At lantic liners are little better in this respect than the 2,OOO ton tramps. ac- cOruluB 10 tue sldlemSHNS SA ~ crews
 Eight years ago the British board of trade investigated the system of pre- pairing meals for seamen and fouad that when a man was unfit to do any thing else he was shipped as "cook' for the seamen-
 Cook for the Sailors. A
 As a result of this investigation ths board of trade passed law compeIL ing all vessels sailing under the Brit ish flag to carry a cook who had passed an examination before an in- spector appointed by the board and re- ceived its certificate. The wages of a ships cook. s20 to $50 a month, did not attract a rush of promising aDph- cants for examination. and cnse- quently there were not enough to go round, those possessing certificates demanding higher pay.
 To get around this law the steam ship lines signed a certificate cook on each vessel and then transferred him to the incoming ship just before sail Ing time. replacing him on the out wardbound vessel with a man selected by the chief cook as the most useless assistant in the potato peeling. dish securing department
 With the advent of the big liners, whose decks are kept wet by spray throughout the winter months, the mortality and sickness among seamen has increased greatly. the chief ail- ments being rheumatism, pneumonia. lumbago and pulmonary diseases, which have filled the warehouses of Liverpool. London. Hull. Shields. New castle. Bristol. Southampton and oth- CT European ports with brokendown seamen. Many of these men get sick through lying in damp hunks under leaky decks.
 How a Great Charity Is Dispensed.
 It is asserted and with apparently good grounds that the thousands of dollars collected on the big ocean liners to aid the orphans and aged seamen benefit only very small per centage of those in need. The sal aries of some officials of these chart- ties in Liverpool are $10.0o0 year. 1t is said. To get an orphan taken in re- quires the backing of the local clergy man or magistrate to testify as to the responsibility of the parents. and only sailors who have led pious lives afioat and ashore can hope for pecuniary aid. There are few pious sailors. ac- cording to custom house officials, and the majority, who love their rum and tobacco. are left high and dry on a lee shore in their declining days.
 The wages paid to sailors, even on mail boats like the Mauretania, do not allow of much room for saving. They only amount to S22.5O month. out of which s3 must be paid for uni form. cap, jumper and trousers when thev need renewing. which is often at sea. Bremen do not have to buy a uniform and get $27.50 a month. Lin CTS not in the mail service pay only s2O a month, with an extra S1.25 to ouartermasters and lookout men. This applies to Liverpool, Southampton and London, but in some British ports Cardif is one-the wages for able sea men are only SIS a month. The day a ship arrives in the home port wages cease and the seamen are of pay until they sign on another ship. To keep the fremen satisfied a limited number arc kept working on the ship all the time she is at home, unless the vessol