The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-03-28
NEEDING MEN.

That men are needed now for the 1 United States navy is an offlclal statement. Men are also needed for the army although so far no such intimation has been made. Both ot which facts to a labor paper are significant.
 The American sailor has been for half a century a gradually vahlsh- ing quantity. While economists may dispute over the reasons why the American ships became fewer than those of other nationalities during that time, there is no difficulty eA- p)aining why the American left the sea.
 II was the blood ship and the bucko and the infamous laws, the crimn and the shanghaier that cleared the decks of the American crew; then when laws became somewhat improved, the resort upon inc part of the ship owners to Orl- ental crews did the rest-capital knows no country
 For over quarter or century, sailors organizations have manfully fought to establish living conditions al sea that might be tolerable tor the seamen. Every effort to achle'e rneults was ncgatived by both par tses alike. The interests of the snip owners were against reforms, ana even today the laws make seaman sti11 much chattel slave when on deep water.
 The deep water American ships on the Pacific, that proudly hoaleo inc Stars and Stripes: such ships as Minnesota. such ships as the fleet or inc Pacific Mail, all of these were manned by Chinese crews. when +ba Minnesota came over from New London and rounded the Straits or Magellan. her arrival was hailed Tn Seattle as an event worth celebrat- my Here was an American ship :, very leviathan of the deep' 'he largest shin on the Pacific and one of the largest in the world Amer ican seamen brought her around the Horn. American seamen docked her m Seattle and then. after an inspec- lion. she proceeded to BrluSh So' )umbia where she took on crew of six hundred orientals while the American sailors were left to rot Ill the dens of the Pacific Coast ports ,o he victimized by crimp and by boarding boss and to be chased by every fleecing agency from pillar to post.
 Now when the country wants sailors. there are none. But whose fault? What has the country ever done for the citizens who would go down to the sea in ships? The courts and the consuls, the police ;nd the attorneys have been as one hack of the blood ship and the bucko. On the bark Gatherer when rounding the Horn the men com Dlained of the infamy of their treat mcnt and their food. Moldy worm infested mush was served alone TOT breakfast without any sugar, bread or coffee They asked for molasses and the cook was invited 10 take the request of the sailors to the captain. The mate compelled the cook who was a negro to strip ana laying him athwart the capstan on the forecastle deck plastered his bndv with molasSes and with sheer brutal tyranny compelled every man al the point of the gun to llcK II of. Those who refused were beaten m and outrageously nfanhandled. Men were slain on the ship, ana the law could not be invoked. Up until very few years ago every seaman the world over summed the American deep water ship as they would the broth of hell And to reform this condition of things the law makers and the courts handed down decrees in admiralty that make the heart sick to read them.
 No wonder white men summed the sea until the hardy few along the Pacific Coast by organization compelled change; forced from unwilling masters decent treatment, compelled rich and powerful and arrogant shipping companies to yield and along the coast so reformed conditions that seamen manned