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Another Plan to Increase Costs | Marine Engineers’ Association Backs Bill to Enforce Eight Hour Day on American Ships—Two Sides to This Question N EFFORT is again being made A to induce congress to pass a law compelling afl American vessel owners to put enough men on their ships to give everyone an 8-hour day while at sea. The Marine Engineers Beneficial association has drafted a bill along these lines and hope to get it passed. This subject is extremely important and as it is the purpose of MARINE RE- view to maintain an open forum for the discussion of all points of view it is a pleasure to give space to a letter deal- ing ‘with this question received from William S. Brown, national president of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial associa- tion, although we do not find ourselves in agreement with Mr. Brown’s position or point of view. His letter follows: “Inasmuch as: we: subscribe to your val- uable marine journal we noted the item on page 67 of the February issue_con- cerning the request. which George Uhler made of the Lake Carriers association regarding wages many years ago. You say, ‘We don't know what was done about this.’ ae “Well, we do know: what was done with that request in 1901, and we know now that the 12-hour day for engineers prevails on lake ships, while the 8-hour day is observed on ocean and coastwise ships. Consequently, the wages per hour are less on the lakes than on the ocean. Look up your statistics, you are slipping. - However, if you will publish the enclosed . address of President Coolidge to the rep- resentatives of the fiftieth annual con- vention of the Marine Engineers Benefi- cial association in your next issue, we will overlook your inadvertence.” The remarks of President Coolidge to which Mr. Brown refers were as fol- lows: “T congratulate you on this fiftieth an- niversary of your organization. It gratifies me to hear of the excellent record you kave made in those years for loyalty, skill, and devotion to the service you perform. Your past has been singularly free from differences among yourselves and with those with whom you must co- operate. Men who so conduct themselves show not only a genuine pride in their calling but a high quality of American citizenship. “You have ever lived up to those traditions of the sea which you and other : Americans have helped to create. It must give you satisfaction to feel what an essential role you play in maintaining your country’s standing on the seven seas, and I know we can count on your continued loyalty as we work out the future of our shipping. “T understand that your organization makes a special point of building up and spreading among your membership this pride of ship, pride of country, and pride of service. This is the mark of good Americanism. It will please the whole country to be assured once more that the important work always allotted to you is in the hands of men with your record for accomplishment.” The President’s remarks ‘were justified and it is too bad, in view of the good work which the Marine Engineers’ Bene- ficial association has done that it should also engage in _ political lobbying. One of the few places where marine engineers can get good jobs easily at good pay is on the lakes under the jurisdiction cf the Lake Carriers association and in a territory where the influence of the Bene- ficial association is at a minimum. Fur- thermore everyone familiar with the facts knows that conditions of employment on the Great Lakes are better than any- where else in the world and that the pay is more generous, all owing to the fact that the Lake Carriers association has preserved the individual freedom of its members. Where else do men earn enough in eight or nine months work to live comfortably for a whole year, with three or four months vacation? This publication cannot consistently hold any brief for the 8-hour day at sea or on the lakes. Conditions afloat and on shore are entirely different. A man on shipboard cannot get off and he might as well do something useful as loaf around in idleness. This opinion is based on actual direct contact with sea- going conditions. An 8-hour day on ship- board would simply forge one more shackle on the already nearly moribund American shipping industry. If a_ bill which the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial association would like to have congress pass were ever enacted, there would be even less jobs for licensed marine engi- neers than at present. ! AN 2 | = § What's Doing Around Lake Michi : 2 hat s oing /iroun ake ichigan TOW iii munniikiTtTiih TLCS rt—Buffington—by the time navi- eeton opens in 1926. It _will _be just west of Gary, Ind. and is being constructed and will be utilized entirely | Pas MICHIGAN will have another by the Universal Portland Cement Co.,- which is a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corp. The Illinois quarries which have largely supplied the Universal company with limestone are playing out, and the new source will be the Michigan Limestone & Chemical Co., Calcite, Mich. According- ly, a harbor is to be dredged out, about a quarter of a mile from the Universal plant at Buffington, to accomodate the self-unloaders comprising the Great Lakes stone fleet. : A 2000-foot pile pier is to be projected into Lake Michigan, and at the outer end will be constructed, at an angle to it, a rubble mound 1200 feet long. Behind this protection will be constructed an 1800-foot concrete pier. The pier will be so laid out that a fill between it and shore will provide huge storage space. Between the pier and the breakwater the harbor will be dredged to 23 feet below datum. With limestone brought in by self- unloaders, dock equipment at the outset will be limited to a bridge for carry- ing cargoes back on. the storage space. Later coal may be brought from Lake Erie ports in the bottoms of the Pitts- burgh Steamship Co., also a Steel cor- poration subsidiary. There is some talk, too, of eventually shipping cement out by water. Receipt of coal would require unloading machinery. Contracts are now being let for the work. : eae ee HE Cowan of the Standard Oil Co. fleet probably will be the first bulk freighter to ply Lake Michigan this spring. She is scheduled to begin 104 taking gasoline and Sedied kerosene from the Oil refinery at Whiting to h until the middle of gine room to bridge signal installed on the Cowan and Ss are being the Renown. en oe ae was docked at South re go at the close of navigation last No changes are contem i the Personnel of the fleet, Te ee continuing as master of the Camas Leonard Thomson of the RENown, W. R. Leith of the barge, H. H. Hansen of the tug OUTAGAMIE and Flov. superintendent. oyd Banks as dock * 2k * B“Ast furnace interests in the Chi- cago district are running much short- a on their iron ore supply than the ike to, and consequently they are hontne