Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-01-20

handiest and cheapest kind of vessel
TO land and unload.
90 PER CENT NEGROES.
Vessels of all descriptions were
at work there the last time 1 visited
these municipal wharves. These YES
seis Included Leyland liner that took
out $4,000 bales of cotton. A few
white men were seen. but 90 per cent
of those engaged on the docks were ne
groes using the most modern methods
of handling.
"a comparison with conditions in
Europe will soon satisfy an unbiased
student that the main advantage there
are the facilities offered by the NUM-
cipalities in the way of good docks
and wharves, for use by the water
transportation companys at very mod
crate terms.
There has been very little trouble
in getting boats loaded and unIoaded
at cities like st. Louis, Cincinnati,
Memphis and New Orleans. There
boats have not been delayed for want
of stevedores, but rather for want OF
a crew of roustabouts TO ship out and
make the round trip-to deliver the
original load at many small landing
places and pick up a return cargo at
the farms and plantations.
Good, clean substantial food and
plenty of it, competent mates who can
and do keep things moving with ev-
any unnecessary or brutal abuse, are
the drawing cards that will get a
crew.
WANT NO SHOWER BATHS.
1--WE will all be glad to encourage
any improvement in boats. or their
operation, that j. l.. Mathews, secre-
tary of the Mississippi Valley Trans
portation company, of ST. Louis, may
show successful in actual demorfstra-
ton, but l feel safe in writing that OS-
termoOr mattresses and shower baths
will never attract a crew that handles
cotton bales $500 pounds each), cot
ton seed. baled hay. bran. ship stuff,
machinery and levee outfits up and
down the muddy, steep banks of the
lower Mississippi river-or catch, and
then carry on board. native hogs of
Arkansas or Louisiana.
Some weeks ago went into New
Orleans as a passenger on the fine
steamer America, of which L. V. Cool
ey is captain. She was drawing Il
feet forward and seven feet aft. Her
cargo of 900 tons consisted OF cotton
Cpl bales), cotton seed (6,632
sacks), rice (739 sacks and a lot of
sundries that were taken on at planta-
ton landings. At these landings there
were no modern facilities provided
just the natural bank, which is some
places was caving rapidly.
This cargo was discharged on the
New Orleans wharf all assorted and
checked in seven hours by colored
stevedores. After seeing this hand
some trip, during which big cargo
was taken on and discharged without
a hitch, or delay, l am anxious to
find the man who can beat the per-
Torrance, in either time or method,
to show us. We are not much NOV
ed by talk about what can, or should
be, done.
REGARDING BARGES.
Recent articles in some of our pa
pers suggest barges are the solution
of water transportation problems.
Well, this is scarcely an original
proposition.
From Friday, Dec. so, 1910, to Mon
day, Jan. 9, 1911, there were shipped
from Pittsburg in barges 1S,000,000
bushels of coal and $4,000 tons of steel
products. All of this has reached, or
passed through, Cincinnati, and the ad
vance of the fleet has passed down the
Ohio, into the Mississippi and on to
Memphis On its way to New Orleans.
'eThe largest, finest towboats in the
world are used on the Ohio and lower
Mississippi rivers and one company
alone has 2.0G0 barges. So the barge
idea, suggested by Mathews and 9th
ers, is not a real new one
WANTS WHITE UNION MEN.
Captain Blair penned the above af-
ter perusing comment by a st. Louis
newspaper on Mathews plan TO re-
place the negro foustabout with white
men. Mathews had expressed the
idea of employing union men, mem .
bers of the stevedoTes' union. Inter
national Seamen's union, Lake Sea
mems union and such organizations.
A conference was held between Sec
rotary Mathews and representatives of
seamen's unions, during the conYen-
ton of the American Federation of
Labor in ST. Louis.
According to the statement made
by these men. If the proper accomo-
dations are provided, as near regular
hours as can be offered, with whole
some food, they will take it upon them
selves to furnish all the white labor
necessary The. Mississippi Valley
company will soon
have in service its new steamers and
steel barges.