Evening star., 1937-01-13
SEAMEN PREDICT
PROTEST PARADE
Several Thousand to March
Here Monday, Organizers
Assert.

A protest march on Washington
Monday Of Several thousand" strik-
ing seamen was predicted by organ
izers following an informal hearing
before Senator Copeland of New York
yesterday afternoon on alleged anti
labor provisions of his safety at sea
act now in effect.
Joe Curran of New York City, chair
man of the Joint Maritime Strike
Committee on the East Coast, and
leader of the so-called left wing. said
after the hearing that plans would
go forward to bring demonstrators
here from Baltimore, Philadelphia,
New York City and Boston.
Curran clashed frequently at yester-
days hearing with Paul Scharrenberg.
legislative representative of the Inter-
national Seamen's Union of America,
an organization affiliated with the
A. F. of L., which has not approved
the strike.
Discharge Book Argued.
Curran denounced, and Scharren-
berg defended, the controversial clause
in the new act requiring seamen to
carry continuous discharge books con-
tanning records of previous service
and ratings.
Curran told Senator Copeland,
chairman of the Senate's Commerce
Committee, that he represented 10000
organized seamen on the East Coast,
and that Scharrenberg was a "re-
dictionary" with no knowledge of ac-
tual working conditions.
He insisted the discharge books
would aid employers to blacklist sea-
men who had participated in strikes
or otherwise tried to improve their
working conditions. On the other
hand, Scharrenberg was equally as
positive that the new system would
put down the blacklist system alIegedly
| practiced by private employers.
After the hearing Senator Cope
land said he got the impression that
the seamen objected more to the
administration of the new law than
to the provisions of the act itself.
Curran admitted this in part when
he said most of the objections to the
new book would be removed if the
seamen could have more protection
| from the blacklist practice.
Curran Gains Support.
Curran was backed in his stand
against the discharge book by r. M.
Jones of New York. representing the
Masters. Mates and Pilots Association;
D. r. MacQuirey of the Joint Com
nittee of Seamen for Service; Ralph
Emerson of New York, representing
the Marine Cooks and Stewards, and
Hoyt Haddock. representing the
American Radio Telegraphers' Asso-
citation.
Senator Copeland was told that
10000 seamen on the East Coast had
signed pledges not to use the books
and were violently opposed to them
because they could see no reason for
their existence.
Scharrenberg, however, declared
that opposition to the book had been
manufactured" by radical agitators
and communistic publications and
the men who objected had never read
the law. He said the book had been
indorsed by the seamen's union he
represented and approved by the
| A. F. of L.
Meanwhile. several striking sailors
from Baltimore continued to picket
the Department of Commerce Build
ing. Curran announced that 1000
striking seamen in Baltimore had
voted to march on Washington Mon
day and that they would be rein-
forced by others from New York, Bos-
ton and Philadelphia. He refused to
estimate. however, how many men
would be in the march.