The Washington herald., 1921-11-06
AMERICAN YOUTHS
TOO FOND OF FUN
TO SAIL THE SEAS
Foreign Born More Will.
ing to. Be Sailors, Says
Reporter.

Why Is 1t that so few American
boys want to be sailors on the big
ships of the American merchant
marine?
And why is It that almost 30 per
cant of the crews Of American ships
have heretofore been foreigners
mostly Scandinavians. Spaniards,
Englishmen, Dutch, Germans ana
Austrians?
The answer In very simple The
average American. we are sorry to
say, does not want to put up with
the hardships and inconveniences OF
. sailors life. OF course there are
some exceptions. but We are con-
sidsring the average In this story.
Some time ago . Herald reporter
took several long sea trips on board
ships belonging to the American
merchant feet. and had many op-
portunities to closely observe con-
ditions. Here are some of the real
reasons the average American youth
does not want to be a deep-sea
sailor for very long at a time:
In the hrst place there are no
bright lights, brass bands, motion
picture shows, pretty girls pool
rooms or other forms Of amuse-
ment on the high seas.
Secondly. the American boy Is
rather cranky about his food. al
though when you take into consid-
eration some of the kinds of luncn
rooms he eats in on shore you
would wonder why this Is. The
American will put up with poor
food on shore but he won't stand
IL aboard ship. He has nothing to
do when. his work is done except to
ind fault, and he does II aplenty.
Thirdly. the American boy wants
to get to the top of the ladder
right away. He is not patient like
the foreigner, twho can wait years
and stand all sorts of hardships to
become an ablebodied seaman and
then a navigating officer. The
American does not like the two
years of rough and dirty work he
must put in to become an able
bodied sailor.
Fourth, the pay Is too low. being
now less than $50 a month for an
ordinary seaman. As a rule ships
officers are inclined to be "bossy,
and this does not suit the Ameri-
can. whereas the foreigner has been
used to 1t all his life.
Fifth, the American does not
want to stay away from home or
the bright lights for six months or
a year at a time. even though when
the ship is in port he has plenty
of time to "gallivant" around and
see the sights. The foreigner does
not seem to mind long trips at all;
in fact he prefers long trips to
short ones because at the end OF
the voyage he has more money in
his pocket
Sixth, how can you expect an in
teIIigent American youth with am
bitions to spend two years working
for less than $50 a month and do
the toughest kind of work in order
to get a job that pays less than
s75-the pay OF an ablebodied sea-
man. The American would rather
work in a shop or factory or an
office where he believes he has a
chance to advance quicker.
of course there are plenty OF
Americans on American ships. but
the number of sailors is few COM
pared to the number OF foreign
seamen. For the most part Ameri-
can members of crews on American
ships are engineers or mechanics
and not ordinarv or ablebodied sea-
men. The job of an ordinary sea-
man is about as elevated job as
a bootblack and pays less. But
that cannot be helped. Ship own
ers cannot AFFORD to pay green"
men any more money. We have
never been a seafaring race. Until
some of us will bring our standard
Of living down to that of the for
oh .
the American youth will never be
p1uch in evidence on the seas. You
will rarely ever md a real Ameri-
can youth who begins service as an
ordinary seaman who does not
want right away to, Tive" as well
on board ship as do the officers
The object of this story Is not to
knock" American seamanship. 1t
is simply to set forth facts as they
have been observed by a newspaper
man who has travelled more than
$4,000 miles on American ships.
Recently the Shipping Board be-
san to fire" a lot of the foreign
ers. This was done at a time when
many Americans were out of jobs
and naturally IL was a very easy
matter to obtain all-Amertcan
crews for American ships. But
wait until business Is on the boom
again and We will see Americans
desert ships by the wholesale for
better-paid jobs on shore. That
sort of thing has always happened.
The foreigner Is usually content to
pIod along and take what he can
and make the best Of ii. The
American is too impatient. He
wants everything right away. That
failing, IL you can call IL one, has
fts advantages as well as Its disad-
vzntages. Wanting things right
away has made this country what
IL is. Look around and see how
much grass Is growing under the
feet of successful and prominent
: Americans. They plunged in and
ara things on a big scale. but they
were careful just the same. Some
day American boys may take to
ships just as they now take to the
noolrO0m-Wh0 knOws2