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Show Heavy Burden For American Ships j I BBBLVL rA R. P. Schwerin H On tho Seamen's Bill ; I H The American plowmon are interested in sea com- ' j : IH merce. It is expensive and likewise humiliating to have j H to salute a foreign fag every time a farmer wants to Bblp I ' H a bushel of wheat, a balo of cotton or a pound of farm j H products acrosB the ocean. The American farmer is en- i H titled to the protection of his. nag in sending his products H across tho sea, and Congress should give such encourage- LH ment to shipping interests as is necessary to meet foreign competition in ocean commerce. A recent bill known as LH the Seaman's Bill became a law under the President's ' H signature" and Mr. R. P. Schwerin, vice-president of the H Pacific Mail Steamship Company, when asked to define ' jH this law and outline Its effect upon American steamship IH lines, said in part: t IbbbI "The bill provides that no Bhlp of any nationality 'shall be permitted to H depart from any port of the United States unless she has on board a crew H not less than seventy-five per centum of which, In each department thereof, j H is able to understand any order given by the officers of such vessel, nor j H unless forty per centum in the first year, forty-five per centum in the second year, fifty per centum in tho third year, fifty-five per centum in the fourth H year after the passage of this Act, and, thereafter sixty-five per centum of her deck crew, exclusive of licensed officers and apprentices, are of a rating not less than ablo Beamen.' H "The oversea trade of the world is competitive,' therefore the original cost of the ship and the operation of the Bhlp havo to be reckoned with in H the keen competition of these rival nations with one another. Tho Oriental iH sailor is obedient and competent and is the cheapest sailor in the world. j H It is therefore manifestly clear that if this law applied to all nationalities H in tho transpacific traffic, all would be on the same economic basis, but It iH works a single hardship to all tho ships of tho world, except the Japanese H and American ships, and with tho latter It works two hardships. With tho ! H European, tho coBt of constructing a ship is no higher than the cost of con- H Btructlng a Japanese Bhlp, but if thoy had to provide European crews, while H the Japanese operated with Japanese crews, tho condition of competition jH would be such that they could not overcome tho handicap and thoy would be H driven off. But the American ship would have to contend not only with the IH tremendous increase of cost of wage in tho substitution of tho European crow' jH for the Chinese crew, but alBO the greater initial cost of the ship. As the pH Japanese have now dono away "with their European officers and Japanese M crews, all of whom speak a common language, there Is no difilculty for them IH to comply with all the conditions of the bill and continue their Japaneso jH crews, with Oriental wages. H "The law, therefore, Instead of assisting the American ship, adds another : H heavy burden, while it places none whatever upon the Japanese ship, but, on H tho contrary, turns over to the Japanese the traffic of the Pacific Ocean, H which the American ship Is forced to forego byact of Congress of tho H I United States." H |