The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-05
|DESTITUTION
 AMONG SEAMEN
seafaring Is Chief Among Seasonal Employments Irregular Work Leads Often to Begging Ill Health Due to Lack of Air Space.

GEORGE MCPHERSON HUNTER Secretary American. seamen's Friend
 Society
 (Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau
 E The water front of any large sea port is the section to which the idlers, Wasters, units, misfits, adventurers, and butt-ends of humanity gravitate. Tt is the last stand of the casual la borer. The soiled clerk. the broken mechanic and the newly arrived i'm migrant jostle the longshor eman in competition for few hours w..rk
 Tn the cosmopolitan crowd of work CTS and idlers it is not difficult to distinguish the real seamen They have bearing and certain singu larity which set them apart from all unsavory invaders of their realm. Sailors have a. standard reputation for bravery, endurance and galiantry but for prudence economy, or thrift, none Consequently the subject of destitu- tion among seamen is usually dismiss ed with the assertion that sailors are an improvldent, careless so-t anyhow and their periodical distress is to be expected M
 The life of seamen AnIes the best conditions IS abnormal. This accounts for much of the periodical destitution which answers for the existence of hospitals and sanatoria, seamen' 5 friend societies and kindred associa- tions to help sick and indigent sail ors.
 All sea-faring men below the rank of petty officers except those in the navy, fishermen, yachtsmen and those engaged in harbor traffic and in some classes of coastwise trade are dis charked4 at the end of the voyage, even if they are going on the next trip Even on ships where employ ment is for the whole year the sailors are dismissed and join the ranks of unemployed seau1en when the vessel is dry docked for her compulsory an nual overhauling. If a seaman sails steadily in the same ship, behaves himself is on hand when required and always in a, fit condition to work, at the end of the year he would never theless have been unemployed from forty to eighty-five days according to the class of trade.
 Should a. sailor, fireman, or ships steward sail out of a port from which tramp freighterS regularly sail, his work will naturally be on these ships. He will be subject to uncertainty of employment, longer voyages than the coast or regular liners and the chance of being paid off att the end of the voyage in a strange port several hun dreds miles from home.
 Commercial depression ashore when factories are closed and mechanics and laborers idle always decreases the unemployed seaman's chance of work. sea voyage offers to the artisan or laborer escape from idleness, the Aop- portunity to see other countries and to widen his horizon. He seeks the docks in hope of employment. The unemployed seaman in America is moreover handicapped by the methods of engaging men through shipping masters, crimps and boarding masters who have sometimes monopoly of certain lines of steamers. There is little chance of employment unless @ man pass through their hands.
 There is another factor contributing to this problem of unemployment. Sea-faring is chief among seasonal enploymerts. This is not due to eco- homie causes nor to whims of popu- lar demand Nature locks up about one-haIf of the sailors territory and forbids him to sail his ships and ply his trade for six months in the year. By no social adjustment, art or sci ence can this condition of his life be avoided.
 Seamen desert their ships for many reasons that cannot be called economic or moral There are psychological, reasons and also req sons that should lie on the conscience of the ships cook. For sailors to de- sert voluntarily well-found ship. is a rare thing Desertion from American vessels is relatively small and has ceased to be an important factor in Restitution. But Seamen from Eur ope have been deserting their ships in American ports since the time when regular traffic between Europe and America began. The call of the West will find an answer in seamen's hearts as long as America continues to be synonym for opportunity. These assertions in the United States result in the employment of American sea men for the return voyage of foreign ships, nomihalIy at the standard American wage rate. but actually un- der such conditions that persons so