Evening star., 1921-08-18
American WorkHef, for
American Navy Yards,
Says Cant. Robson

American navy yards operated by
Americans only Was the policy ten
tatively laid down today at the hear
ings on wage adjustments in the
yaroa before the general wage board
BY Capt. James. K. Robson, chair
man. He made it plain that he was
absolutely and positively against any
one but Americans being employed
~ thv yards. and particularly a> this
time. when there was a dearth of
real Americans employed
Capt. Robson laid down his opin-
ion when ]. n. Murray. representing
the dremen and oilers. told of the
navy yards In several languages. In
particular. he said. notices are posted
in the Philadelphia navy yard in
twenty-five languages
Orders In English Only.
There is dsarth Of employment
Of Americans in this country today.
Employment today in this country is
an advantage. ( think II ought to be
case or Americans first. ! am of
at navy yard should be in English
and In no other language. every no.
tice posted should be In English and
mo other language. l would require
every enploye of a navy yard to take
the oath of allegiance. If there is
any one in any navy yard today who
! is not an American L personally want
TO lose him. II any one is going to
get hungry this winter 1 would rath-
er that it not be an American"
, MIR. Murray suggested that if the
government would pay a decent liv-
Ing wage at the navy yards that II
would be An easy matter to get rid Of
the large number of foreigners noW
employed In them. Unless this was
done. he continued. IL would be im-
possible. as the Americans could no,
continue to work for the government
at lower wage scales than prevail on
the outside. g.
E1zen Receive 70 Cents.
Hs charged: that the local wage
board of the Washington yard, when
h made itA recommendations to the
hEurss ebtaInable on the outside.
He cited ten fir1ns in this city pay
ing 70 centa An hour for fremen and
oilers. while the local board recon-
mended only 81 cents an hour.
The work Of oilers in the Washing
ton yard. he said. is particularly
hazardous because of the age of the
several of the shops where the oiler
was required to put a ladder against
revolving shaftin8. climb it AMI oil.
Why that is against the law" re-
marked Capt. Robson, who im-
mediately gave instructions to get In
touch with the comn,andant Of the
Washington yard and have that
practice stopped.
Oilers in the Washington yard we're
given the lower rating Of helpers
when the recent retrenohment came.
be said, but are still performing the
duty Of oilers. This. he pointed out.
was a dfreeA violation Of civil service
rules which required men to perform
the duty In which they were classified.
Employer Lives Endangered
Lives Of employees At the Washing
ton navy yard are endangered and
pFop>fty valued 1t thousands Of dol
lars also endangered by the practice
Of employing supervisors to do the
work Of riRgers. was the complaint Of
T. A. Wood Of the Warrington yard
This practice also causes daily loss of
money, because of delays in waiting
for the supervisor to inspect rigging
before the weights can be moved
F. J. Bucks, Washington yard, gave
. number Of detailed instances where
rigging work requiring expert knowl-
edge was done by laborers.
+. A. Johnston, also representing
the riggers from all yards, entered .
vigorous protest against the employ
ment Of . large number Of F'ilipinos
in the Mare Island. Calf, navy yard.
Many Of them. he said. cannot even
speak the English language. He said
that the riggers ware not asking for
an increase In wages at this time, but
they did vigorously protest against q
d0CF6aRA IN UaHAa