The sun., 1919-02-24
SHIPS FACE ROCKS
IN RACE FOR TRADE

In kACE FUk TRADE
Continued from First Page.
foreign trade. or because after reaching
various stages Of completion they have
been dismantled on the waye.
or such timber Is the nucleus oc the
Shipping Boards vast merchant feet,
designed to bring to the United States
the Commercial supremacy OF the seas"
witt costs Of construction complicated
by costs OF operation. the only certainty
In the increasingly tangled situation is
that all the American people will derive
from their war legacy will be a fire.
quently recurrent inheritance tax. And
It will be a heavy one II the Administra-
ton Is able to put its plans into effect.
Construction costs represent only the
preliminary expenses OF the Govern
ments proposed scheme. They indicate
no portion OF the sums certain to be lost
in the continued operation Of the Admin
istration tonnage under present condi-
tons. What they will amount to can
only be conjectured. That they will ap-
proach additional billions OF dollars an
nually II the scale OF operation is in
creased on the basis indicated Is well
within the bounds Of probability.
Hurley Talks OF Wages.
Mr.. Hurley. returned from his, three
months trip to Europe, Is still Hurley
the superoptimist.
! IT have learned a great deal about the
conditions of International shipping" he
| America cannot compete with the princi-
pal European countries The wage ques-
ton Is not a very serious one, as Eng
land pays seamen S72 a month, while
| we are only paying them SIS"
What Mr.. Hurley conveys by this
statement Is that the difference between
the pay In the American mercantile ma
rine and its chief competitor, the Brit
ish. Is SO slight that II is small ele-
ment In the matter OF competition. This
Is news indeed to American shipping
men. 1t is news also to representatives
OF British firms here.
Having camou1aged the ton by using
lightweight instead OF the customary
gross, with much resultant confusion.
TO say nothing Of magnifying output and
minimizing tonnage costs In COMPARE
son with the British the Shipping Board
now seems to have turned its attention
! to camoufagtng costs, in the effort to
prove that the new merchant marine
Gan be run profitably in competition
with England's.
British seamen's Wage $3.50.
Mr.. Hurley's statement that British
seamen receive practically as much as
American sailors Is true to-day. Indeed.
in few cases, applying the Hurley sys-
TEN of calculation. they receive more.
But It is true only at the present time
and II is true only OF some OF the minor
classes OF labor employed in operating
the ships.
The actual pay" OF the British able
seaman is $3.50 a month.
What AR. Hurley has done In striv-
ing to make his point is to add to that
wage the war bonus OF SIS month.
bringing the total up to $3.50. That
bonus is temporary measure. 1t no
longer figures in the case of the Ameri-
can merchant marine and It Is to be
dropped by Great Britain with the offi-
cial declaration OF peace.
MI Hurley does not refer 10 the still
more vital fact that even with the war
bonus Of SIS monthly for all ranks off,
all positions on British ships Is still we'll
under the American scale. And when
the bonus Is removed the disparity will
emphasize much more strongly the han
dcap under which the United States is
placed in regard to operating costs.
In the accompanying table are given
the official scales OF British and Ameri-
can pay.
Larger Crews on 4. 3. ships.
But this tells only part of the story
| American ship owners not only must pay
materially higher wages under normal
conditions but must carry larger crews
as well. on a $500 ton gross American
steamship, for instance, nearly one third
more men are required than ION a
similar sized ship OF any other nation
While the British regulations call for
two licensed engineers the American re-
quire four and in addition there must
be carried three oilers and three water
tenders. On foreign vessels ordinarily
the storekeeper donkeyman and a
greaser do the work OF the oilers and
no water tenders are employed.
A reimbursement by the Dollar Line
which operated from San Francisco
shows strikingly how vessels operating
under American registry are crippled in
competition with the shipping of other
nations In 1914 the line was running
three steamships, one American, one
British and the third Japanese. Their
tonnage was practically identical and
their indicated horsepower exactly so
The size OF the crews and the monthly
expenses. however. were as follows:
Americsn-47 men..,.,,...ts,72o a month
BritIsh-36 men.,..,.,.....tl,30 a month
| Japanese-S6 men. ......... &7TO a month
The American steamers expenses were
more than 175 per cent. more than the
British and more than S75 per cent
more than the Japanese.
Big Difference Ira Wages.
Figures furnished by the United States
Steel Corporation show the effect OF
transfer from British to American reg
istry. Nine vessels were so transferred
in the pre-war period They included
the steamers Bantu. Kentra. Santa
Rosalia, Buenaventura. San Francisco,
Howick Hall. Craster Hall, Crofton Hatl
and Charlton Hall. The crews increased
from 37S to 39S, only per cent. (this
was before the passage of the La Fol-
lette seamen's law). but the monthly
or more than 40 per cent
In 1915 the Pacific Mail Steamship
--S,ompany prepared tables showing a
comparison between the wages paid
Asiatic crews on seven ships operated
by the company In the trans-Pacihc SER
vice and the wages which would be pa Id
II the ships were manned by European
crews, The figures~sere: