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Show MANY VESSELS STILL ARE IDLE Recent Visitor to Important Ports Found That Only Tankers Are in Demand. RIGID ECONOMY IS NECESSARY Prospects of Revival In Trade Are Reasonably Favorable Crews on American Freighters and Oil Tank Are Well Fed. New York. Worldwide retrenchment retrench-ment has affected no class of the Industrial In-dustrial community more than the men (nnd women) who "ko down to the sea In ships." Ships have been laid up In cery Important port I have Visited, from Uultcd States of America Amer-ica to Britain, Holland, Belgium, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia ami eeu Smith Africa, where the Du.-ban whalers seemed to he compelJ to take a rest. "Business as usual" bus only appeared to bo available to the oil tanks, nnd nt Tainplco quite re cently I have known a vessel to wait tuueh over a week before being able to take oil aboard. It Is quite clear that those who direct di-rect the destinies of the world's exchange ex-change of commodities have realized the ptcsslng need for "pence, retrenchment retrench-ment and refoim," and the curtailment of the wages of seamen, masters nt-ni nt-ni mi, quartermasters, engineers, oilers, oil-ers, water tenders, wipers, trimmers, stewards, cooks, ami assistant stewards stew-ards Is only ti symptom of worldwide necessity. When war broke out S'JO a month for an able seaman uml AIT a month for nn assistant steward would be culisldeied acceptable. Hefote the war terminated, with tlie signing of the armistice, stewards had in ISrltaln a most netlvo lender In Joe (Jotter, anil his efforts on their behalf led to the assistant stew aids I etching 11 per mouth lroin the shipping companies compa-nies and .'! us a bonus fruui the Hilt-Isb Hilt-Isb government, roughl) ?."0 per month, while In the United Suites messmeu obtained $70 per month, added add-ed to which they vvero paid SLfK) a day while In port. In tlie shape of overtlun. that Is, on days oilier than those associated with arrival and delimit! de-limit! re. Held Up for Days. At that time every available vessel was In requisition, and barges were tnoro valuable than battleships. 1 have known ships held up for days because they could not obtain barges fur their curgoes. lij 1U10 Great Britain Brit-ain owned 8,075 vessels -of 10,233,703 tons, and hnd In 1020 so far reenveretl from her stupendous war losses to possess vessels of 18,111,000 tons. In 101 1 she employed 205,05:) seamen of various grades, thousands of them being be-ing Lascars and various Asiatics, O'er-ninns, O'er-ninns, Swedes, Norwegians and Itus-shins. Itus-shins. What they total today nntie, can compute. In addition to the actua'. monetary reward general conditions have Improved Im-proved to a surprising degree, In conformity con-formity with recognition of the bravery brav-ery dlsphiK'tl by all seamen working on allied vessels during the war. Some ' years ago I traveled to South Afrl'-a on a boat belonging to the Union Company of llrltnln, and during tlie greater part of the trip we were compelled to drink condensed sea water, while fresh bread twice per week was regarded ns a litxurj. Sailors Sail-ors fared ns best they could on salt beef or poik ami hard biscuit. The Intioductlon of refrigerating plants hns altered that, and, sympathizing with the seamen, the British board of trade evolved a compulsorj scbeil-u'e scbeil-u'e of foods. This wns In operation for some time after war had been declared. de-clared. Americans Liberal. The shipping 'boiiul iir.d American shipowners generally have been ex tronielj llberul In their tr.vi.ment of their sailors, and I hlive seen, on an oil tank of the United States, petty ullkers, seamen. Ilieinen nnd wipers sit down to dishes of us good quolll.v nnd as well cooked (If not so well served) as tould be obtained In a Hint ch.s-, hotel In New York. Subordinate hands on American freighters and oil tanks nre bettei fed, In the main, thnn those on liners crossing the Atlantic nml going from Britain to distant ports, while In mui cases accommodation Is much supe rlor on tho former classes of vessels It Is satisfactory to know that pro poets of n revlvnl are reasonably fa vorablo. But whatever the outlook It Is clearly recogul.ed that to In pvolltablj engllieeied the shipping ol the world must be ruu on u basis ol rigid eeoiiouiv and superlative etll Clency. Geurge livnl Chesterton it New York Herald. |