The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1913-11-20
one SAILOR
viii Be Able TO Tie Up a Life
Boat If LaFoHette Bill
Becomes a Law.

CHICAGO, Nov. l2O-To go before
the public and Congress with clean
hands and open books, and appeal
to common sense to obtain ex-
emption for the the Great Lakes
from the IJaFollette Seamen bill, Is
the purpose OF forty Great Lake
passenger and package freight lines.
AS drawn, this bill, now in the
marine and fisheries committee ties
any lake steamer to the dock should
one Of its life boat able seamen de-
sert, get sick, get drunk, or simply
obey the call OF wanderlust and fail
to go aboard in port where sub
stitutes could not be obtained.
! Neither does it make recognition
OF the difference between water
travel on any excursion from Chdca-
go pier to Lincoln Park, Detroit to
Belle Isle, or Cleveland to Buffalo;
and a trans-oceanie cruise around
the world. To retire lake boats that
have never lost passenger will
bankrupt the lines, owners say.
They also make the point that
compliance with the act is physical
ly impossible.
Take the excursion steamer,
Christopher Columbus, for instance.
Under the government allowance
at present it is allowed to carry g.
500 persons and a crew of 100. To
accommodate all these people in life
boats would require about 200
boats.
( Two hundred boats would make
a fair cargo for the big whaleback
without any passengers. If they pilei
them three deep on the decks they
might get them all on, but the addi-
tional two or three hundred tons
would make the ship so top heavy
that it wclld probably be unsea-
worthy.
Sails in Shallow Water.
As this boat never sails more than
Eve miles from shore and there are
five life-saying stations between
here and Milwaukee, and as at no
time is the boat more than fifteen
minutes from water so shallow that
even If 1t sank its top deck would
be above water, its owners naturally
feel that it is not reasonable to apply
ocean liner conditions to it.
And the same argument Is made
by the owners Of other lake craft.
AS practically all their passenger
traffic is in summer, there is nothing
like the freezing conditions of the
North Atlantic at the time of the
Titanic disaster or the burning OF
the Volturno, they insist that the
life preservers which the govern
ment inspects affords ample protec-
tion for the summer crowds.
On the financial side of the con-
troversy they point out that under
the proposed law they would have
to carry at least three times as large
crews as they now have, and the
cutting down of the number OF
passengers to the possible lifeboat
capacity would mean that a lake
trip that now costs $1.25 would
have to. bring the company IS, or it
could not afford to operate.
Will Halt Excursion Boats.
According to the reasoning of the
lake steamship companies, the pass
age of this bill means the absolute
cessation of the excursion steamship
business.
River steamships and those plying
on inland lakes and in harbors are
exempt from the provisions OF the
bill, but they apply to the Great
Lakes boats just as much as they do
to the ocean liners.
The effort is being made to have
the House of Representatives refuse
to pass the bill when it comes TO
them from the Senate.
The local steamship people make
the point that they are perfectly
willing to adopt any reasonable pre-
caution or regulation that the gov
eminent may direct, but insist that
the provisions of this bill are i'm
possible to put into effect.