The Washington times., 1935-04-18
OPEN WARFARE
BREAKS OUT ON
MARINE BILL
Labor, Patriotic Groups Hit
Lack of Restriction on
!. Foreign Stewards
BY JOHN SNURE, Jr.

ny JUN SCNO1GGJ Jks
Open warfare broke out on
Capitol Hill today against a So
called ecker" in the Administra-
ton measure to develop the Amer
lean Merchant Marine, as repre-
Gentatives Of labor and various
patriotic organizations protested
the bill would open the doors to
alien seamen on United States
vessels.
The protests are being directed
against Section Sol of the bill
introduced by Senator Royal S.
Copeland CD of New York,
which provides that all vessels
operated under the provisions of
the act shall be manned by native
born or completely naturalized
American citizens in all depart
mentS except the stewards.
Urge Substitute
According to representatives OF
labor and other organizations, this
provision in the Copeland bill does
not restrict aliens in the stewards
departments and consequently,
they say, under the terms of the
bill aliens struggled into the United
States, gangsterS and other Grim
apals would be eligible for en-
ployment.
An effort will be made to SUBJ
Stitute q provision Of the bill in.
troduced by Senator LaFollette
which provides that IS per cent of
the crews in all departments must
be naturalized or native-born
citizens while. the remaining Is
per cent would be aliens who were
in the United States legally and
were eligible for citizenship.
Training Academies
The opponents Of the Copeland
provision say that on some fleets
it will be necessary for a time
ct least to have aliens who can
act as Interpreters.
Under the LaFollette plan they
say they could be assured that
aliens that were employed would
have taken out their first citizen
ship papers and were in this
country legally.
These advocates Of the La
toilette provision would restrict
its application to a five-year
period in which time they say
that training academies could be
established to train American
citizens for all jobs.
Further, they say. that the
aliens would have an opportunity
to, become fully nautralized. In the
event they were not naturalized in
the five.year period they would be
forced off American vessels.
Laws Complicated
The. complications Of laws per-
tanning to American crews are
numerous, they say.
In the first place, the act OF
1918 which became almost inoper-
alive after the war, provided that
men having three-year certificates
were eligible for employment as
citizens. This act was followed by
the act Of 1928 which provided
that two-thirds of the crews should
he citizens while one-third might
be aliens. =,
Attorney General Mitchell
ruled, however, that as the 1918
act had not been repealed, men
having three-year certificates
were eligible under the two
thirds proviso.
The Bland bill in the House
would repeal the Act of 1918.
No Percentage Fixed
The Copeland bill does not fix
any percentage of aliens who
may work in the stewards de-
partments.
Proponents of the La Toilette
provision say that it is a decided
Improvement on the 1928 Act in
that it raises the percentages
from two-thirds to IS per cent
for all departments and places
the restriction that all aliens
must be eligible for citizenship.
Among those known to have
favored strict provisions pertain
ing to the employment Of alien
seamen are the American Legion,
the Department of Commerce, in
Guiding Secretary Roper perso-
nally; the Bureau Of Navigation,
the Military Order of Foreign
Wars Of the United States, the
American Federation of Labor,
the National Organization of Mas.
tiers, Mates and Pilots, and
numerous others. ,..