The New York herald., 1921-05-04
WAGE CUT BARRIER
TOENDING STRIKE
Continued from First Page.

of the Shipping Board. to recede from
hts stand for the Is per cent. reduction.
Spokesman OF the Marine Engineers
Union said, after talking with the Sec
retary, that pressure by Government
officials would force Benson to listen TO
reason Mr.. Davis is understood 10
Lave said at a Cabinet meeting yester-
day that the situation looked hopeful.
The engineers spcNesmen said that
the proposed use OF naval reservists on
Shipping Board vessels would be highly
satisfactory to them. as most OF the 6 n
gineers are In the reserve Thomas b.
Healey chairman of the Atlantic anf
Gulf Council of tbs engineers union,
said:
III the men who now decline to sign
I'D at a reduced wage can so TO sea
under Naval Reserve compensation.
which is higher than the pay offered by
, Admiral Benson and the ship owners to
civilian employees. our Unemployment
problem for marine workers will be
solved"
Rear Admiral Harry Mel. P. Huse,
Commandant OF the Third Naval Dis
trict. New York, declined yesterday to
assign naval reservists to man the ships
tied up by strikers unless ordered to do
80 by the Navy Department
II Is regarded as certain In Washing
are willing to go into further conference.
The mediation efforts now seemed TO be
aimed at the Steamship Owners Asso-
citation, who on Monday rejected the
suggestion of an arbitration commission
made by Mr.. Hoover
Trouble Aboard Old North state.
In New York the centre of interest
was the big steamship Old North State,
owned by the Shipping Board and
operated by the United States Mail
Steamship Company. She lay at her
pier, at the foot Of West Thirty-fourth
street, with steam UP, her smoke black
ening the river q full load OF passengers
and freight aboard and 5000 sacks OF
malone of the largest collection Of
mail bags ever Gathered under the
American flag She was scheduled to
sail for London and Boulogne at p.
NJ, daylight saving time.
But there was trouble aboard. On
Saturday the day before the strike was
called, the line had signed crew of lis
men, including 35 stewards, at the old
wage scale for the round trip. A little
before l o'clock the stewards and cooks
abruptly quit work, grabbed their kits
and went ashore. Chickens, lamb and
beef were roasting In the ovens. There
they were l9ft, with the fires of the
galley going full blast. Later Francis
II. Mayer, chairman Of the board Of the
United States Mail Steamship Company.
who had gone to the pier to see his son,
Juan Mayer. off on his honeymoon trip,
took newspaper men to the galley. They
saw roasts that were burned and
blackened beyond all eating, potato peel
fngs on the usually neat floor and the
place generally mussy. Capt. Mayer
set his own valet and butler to work
preparing food for passengers who had
gone aboard early and were waiting for
luncheon. He estimated the damage in
the way Of burned food (and possibly
70 the feelings of the passengers) at
$1,000. He said: "How do you expect
capital to treat labor fairly when labor
does things like this Officers Of the
Old North State said the stewards and
cooks. upon quitting acknowledged that
they were satisfied with their wages and
wanted to make the voyage but were
ordered out by walking delegates and
had to obey.
Pfcketing In Active.
Half block from the pier, up Thirty
fourth street, a group Of forty pickets
stopped every person who looked as II
ne might be looking for a job on the Old
North State, or on the Potomac of the
same line. which lay at the other side
of the pier. Their question was. "Are
you looking for work." II the person
accosted told them he was the pickets