The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-19

will have to go to the shipping
shark for a job.
"Shipowners gave these shipping
agents power to dictate who gets
what job for the very simple reason
that the agents are willing tools of
the bosses. 1t is they who enforce
the blacklist. They follow it reli-
giously, discriminating against all
men marked for militancy, some
times for union activity, sometimes
for simply voicing an individual
protest against intolerable condi-
tionS.
THE crimpS get a fat rake-off
from the shipowners, but naturally
that doesn't satisfy them, so they
take more out of the seamen, with
the approval of the bosses. Most of
the finks have rooming houses
where they charge the seamen first
class prices for third class service,
such as three to five dollars a week
to sleep three to six in a room.
Many of them take an outright
tribute for job. When the seaman
doesn't have to slip the Shark
money he has to buy the shipping
agents rotten gin or his lousy food
at prices including the graft
against which the seaman dare not
complain because it means his Job. 4"
Baltimore had it's full quota of
such shipping agents until last Jan
uary There was Standard Oil
Pete" who ran restaurant, bar
and lodging house, and recruited
for that anti-union giant corpora
ton. The Young Mems Christian
Associations Anchorage" Mission
House did its share of shipping
particularly by providing crews to
scab, and sometimes made this a
requirement of the seaman's receiv-
ing unemployment relief, which was
being paid for by the federal gov
eminent. There were dozens of
smaller agents.
In January, Baltimore seamen,
united in a powerful campaign for
unemployment relief, won worker
control of the distribution of fed
eral relief Their drive for this
through relentless exposure of
grating YM.C.A. control and thru
complete worker organization on the
waterfront was victorious.
Very soon after this they set up
the Centralized Shipping Bureau.
In mass meeting they elected a
committee of ten seamen off the
f1oor-seamen belonging to the
M.WIU., the International Sea-
mems Union CA. F. of IL, the Wob-
blies, and the unorganized This
committee was placed in charge of
the Centralized Shipping Bureau. 1t
opened in seamen's recreation
hall which was provided by the
government and run by the sea-
mems relief organization on the
waterfront.
Any seaman "on the beach" could
register at the Centralized Shipping
Bureau. He must register for a
specific job however, and must show
discharges establishing his previous
performance of that job. He re-
ceived registration number ac-
cording to the order in which he
registered. This figure was marked
in the Bureau records and on the
registration cards. When ships came
in, they called the Centralized
Shipping Bureau and listed jobs
open in their crews. The Bureau
listed these jobs on a bulletin board
and, after waiting for the seamen
to gather in the hall, called off
the jobs and the low numbers reg
, istered for them. The seaman with
the low-number registration got the
job.
No Discrimination
This, the rotary system, automati-
cally ruled out discrimination. The
blacklist no longer existed. The
low number got the job whether its
holder had participated in union or
strike activity, whether he was