The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1913-10-23


our flesh, yet they were bought and
sold as property. Their work in
VolVed the greatest hazard. 1t called
for spirit, and courage, and devotion.
Life and property were committed to
their skill and their fidelity Their
business required them to endure
every hardship and on the instant, at
the command of their masters, to
sacrifice themselves to save others,
or to preserve the property of their
owners.
They were American sailors. Their
calling was an ancient and honorable
one. But the greed of great steam
ship companies and great ship own
ers, and their power and influence
with Congress had wrought such
changes in our maritime laws that
no sailor could secure employment
unless he bound himself by contract
to service which made him the
property Of the ship in which he
sailed. He was compelled to sign
away part Of his wages in advance
before he was accepted by his master.
Once signed, the contract chained
him to the ship. No matter how i'm
posed upon, there was no escape dur
4LE Tie CGl Ill Ol LlIG COAlIdCI.
If he found that the vessel was
overloaded, Or that there was not
men enough to safely man the ship,
or that they were so unskilled as to
make destruction imminent every
hour after she put to sea, and he
failed to appear at the appointed
time, or, if he left her, even when
she was in a safe port, under the
rh To c4o 1
gross ready to do the behest of the
ship owners, he could be seized and
imprisoned on the orders Of the ships
master.
Thousands of these brave, high
spirited men, who loved the life,
turned their backs upon the sea, and
sought employment on land. Their
places were filled by men willing to
accept slavery, from the Medi-
terranean, from Arabia, India, South
Africa, China and Japan. They were
cheap men. The steamship compa-
MES wanted cheap men,-men who
would work for low wages and live
on cheap fare.
The ship owners secured from
willing Congress legislation limiting
their liability to passengers, and to
the owners Of freight and cargo.
With heavy insurance on the ship,
paid by the public in excessive and
unrestricted charges for the trcns-
pOrtatiOn of passengers and freight,
the loss Of a ship at sea became
matter Of less and less concern to
steamship COMPANIES and ship own
ers. What mattered it to them that
the sailors were Of an inferior breed?
What mattered it to them that there
were not half enough life boats to
provide for passengers and sailors?
What mattered it to them that the
crew were unskilled in handling life
boats or required even in an hour of
supreme peril the services of inter
prefers to make known the orders of
the captain? Their liability was
strictly limited by the laws Of Con-
gress.
Under these conditions is it to be
maryeled at that fifteen hundred and
seventeen souls were lost when the
Titanic" went down, two hours and
a half after she collided with the ice
berg, in a sea as smooth as glass?
1t followed a long list of shipWrecks
with great loss of life among which
were the General Slocum," the
"Elb, the ola Burgoyne," the "City
of Rio de Janeiro," the Norge" the
"VaIentia," the "Oceana," and many
others, each disaster in large meas
ure, if not entirely, the direct result
of bad equipment and low standard
of efficiency, and as these lines are