The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-11-19
ALLOWS ONE SAILOR TO
Tie UP ANY LAKE BOAT
UNFAIR PROVISIONS OF THE Ia.
TOILETTE SEAMAN BILL
POINTED OUT

TO 90 before the public and Con-
gress with clean hands and open
To obtain exemption for the Grea:
! Lakes from the Lat'ollette Seaman
Bill, is the purpose of forty Great
Lake passenger and packet freight
| lines.
AS drawn. this bill. now in the Ma
rine ana Fisheries committee. ties any
lake steamsr to the dock should onc
of it's life-b able seamen desert,
the call of wanderlust and fail to go
.aboard in port where substitutes
could not be obtained.
Neither does II make recognition
Of the difference between water trav-
cl on any excursion from Chicago pier
To Lincoln Park. Detroit To Belle Isle.
or Cleveland to Buffalo; and trans
oceanic cruise around the world. To
retire lake boats that have never lost
q passenger will bankrupt the lines.
owners say.
They also make the point that
compliance with the act is physically
impossible.
Take the excursion steamer Chris
TOPPER Columbus, for instance.
Under the government allowance IT
present. it is allowed to carry $500
passengers and a crew of 100. To ac-
tommodate all of these people i'm life.
boats would require about POO boats.
Two hundred boats would make n
TAI" cargo for the big whaleback with
out any passengers. If they piled them
three deep on the decks they might
get them all on. but the additional two
or three hundred tons would make
the ship So topheavy that she would
probably be unseaworthy
Sails in Shallow Water
As this boat never sails mere thar
five miles from ashore and there arc
five life saving stations between here
and Milwaukee, and rs at no time is
the boat more than fifteen minutes
from water go shallow that even
If she sank her top deck would be
above The water. her owners natur-
ally fee! that il is not reasonable To
apply ocean liner conditions to her.
Ana the same argument is made by
the owners Of other lake craft.
As practically all their passenger
traffic is i'm summer. there is nothing
IKE tho freezing conditions of tho
North Atlantic at the time of the III.
~ - OF or. I, h.,
Nolturno. They insist that the life
preservcrs which the government in
spects, afford ample protection for the
summer crowds.
ON the financial side of the con-
troVersy they point cut that under
the proposed law thev would hayc Ia
carry at least three times as large
crews as they now have and the cut
ting down of the number of passep-
gers to the possible lifc-boat capacitv
would mean that a lake trip that now
costs H.25 would have to bring the
company So, or il could not afford Ia
operate
According to the reasoning of the
lake steamship companies the passag GO
VI 'h'S OH means the absolute ceSSa-
ton of the excursion steamship bus
mess.
River steamships and those plying
on inland lakes and i'm harbors are
exempt from the provisions of the
DIE but they apply to the Great Lakes
boats lust as much as they do to the
ocean liners
The effort is being made To have
the House of Representatives refuse tt
pass the bill when il comes to them
from the Senate.
The steamship people make
the point that they are perfectly will
ing To ADOPT any reasonable prccau-
ton or regulation that the govern
ment may direct but insist that the
provisions of this bill are impossible
to put into effect