Imperial Valley press., 1913-10-31
Andrew Furuseth
Ending Struggle

BY Congressman Clyde H. Tavenner
Washington, Oct 31,-The long
fight made by Andrew Furuseth, the
genius of the Seamen's union, to end
involuntary servitude at sea, is almost
at an end. Nothing but success could
be the outcome of fight which for
patient persistence is without parallel
in the legislative history of the United
States. The senate has put the La
Toilette bill-it deserves to be called
the Furuseth bill-well on the way to
the statute books. 1t is almost the
same bill that the house passed during
the last congress, and there is little
doubt that the house will pass it again.
the peonage in which the seafaring
profession has been held for century
and more is at end. Emancipation has
come, and the sailors of the world
can thank Andrew Furuseth.
As has been stated before in these
letters, involuntary servitude at sea is
relic, queer survival of the medic
val days of serfdom Originally the
laws of the high seas were progressive
in comparison with working conditions
in industries ashore. They offered 10
serfs the means of escape from their
bondage. They were highly advan-
tageouS then to the sailors, for they
insured steady employment at set
wages and imposed upon the masters
of vessels the duty of protecting their
employees in many ways.
But as is usual in matters of this
kind, the masters, who had power with
congresses and parliaments, mana ged
to throw off these responsibilities
leaving the chains on the sailors. The
result is today that if a sailor, escap-
ing intolerable conditions on board
ship, leaves the vessel while she is i'll
an American port or any other port,
here in the United States the civil au-
thorities must arrest the deserter as
a common criminal and throw him
back aboard his ship He is bound
until the end of the voyage for which
he signed. The economic result, leav-
ing aside injustices to individual sail
ors, has been to reduce the standard
of wages on ships until Japs, Chinese,
Malays and other Orientals are dis
placing white men on the decks of
merchant vessels. Knowing that sail
ors cannot desert, the vessel owners
recruit their crews where wages are
cheapest, and they are cheapest in the
Oriental ports.
But all these medieval practices are
to be thrown aside, to follow flogging
and other forms of corporal punish
ment at sea, which practices were
abolished only a few years ago The
LaFollette bill ends them by num-
ber of important regulations:
Arrest for desertion is abolished.
Masters are henceforth forbidden to
withhold wages until the end of voy-
ages and are also forbidden to advance
wages at the start of voyages. This
latter provision will free the sailors
from the clutches of usurious boarding
house keepers who throng every prin-
cipal port. The LaFollette bill also
prescribes important sanitary changes
in the space allotted to forecastles for
crews, and in general improves the
conditions of labor aboard ship.
One of the chief provisions of the
bill is that it requires every ship leav-
ing an American port to carry a crew
so per cent of which is composed OF
men having the rating of able seamen.
The bill provides that an able seaman
must have had at least three years.
experience on the deck of vessel at
sea. This provision will have a DOW
erful effect in increasing wages of
sailors. For if all the sailors having
the rating of able seamen strike for
higher wages it will be impossible for
the vessel owners to secure strike