pational hazard in the different classes of shipping or under the varying conditions of navigation, whether on the high seas, coastwise, Great Lakes, or otherwise inland-on rivers, canals, harbors, or bays. The only fairly trustworthy data regarding the loss of life in the Gloucester fisheries have for many years been published by a private concern. The statistics indicate a very serious hazard, which has never attracted the proper attention of the Bureau of Fisheries, which might properly have been charged with the duty of determining whether measures and means could not be adopted for the more adequate safeguarding of life at sea. The number of men employed in our merchant marine is about 150,000, and about the same number is employed in the fisheries. Approximately, therefore, some 300,000 men are more or less interested in the provisions of the seamen's act, which aims indirectly, if not specifically, at improved conditions of labor and life and the ultimate reduction of occupational hazards, arising in part out of the employment of incompetent men. At the present time no government bureau or department is charged with the specific functions corresponding to those of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Bureau of Mines, to ascertain annually and with the required precision and completeness the occupational hazards of the men employed in the American merchant marine.

Mr. Furuseth has spoken of the public attitude of indifference, little short of contempt, regarding our sailors and 'longshoremen. The work which these men do is of the hardest possible kind. They are employed in an occupation which, under given conditions, is extremely dangerous and which imposes much stress and strain, due, among other causes, to trying weather conditions, occasional excessive physical exercise, and prolonged periods of involuntary idleness. That there is much drunkenness among sailors when on shore is probably true, but the drunken sailor is, as a rule, the only one who comes under observation or who gains notoriety. While at sea the vast majority of sailors and others employed on board ships lead exemplary, sober, industrious lives. There is no conclusive evidence that deaths from alcoholism are relatively much more common among sailors than among others. The finest type of manhood that America has produced is the old sea captains of New England, all of whom started as cabin-boys, worked as sailors, and ultimately became masters. Sea life and seamanship

Occupational Hazards in the American Merchant Marine 71

cannot, therefore, at least under American conditions, be so brutalizing as is often assumed to be the case. It is largely to our seamen that the nation owes its most conspicuous victories during the War of the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. Yet this important industry, this veritable school of American manhood, we have for more than forty years treated with indifference little short of contempt.

In our navigation laws is a provision which requires every captain or master, subject to certain limitations and restrictions, to report every death occurring on board of his vessel engaged in foreign or coastwise commerce. If that provision had been enforced and if the information obtained thereunder had been tabulated and subjected to critical analysis, we would not now be in complete ignorance of the true occupational hazards of our merchant marine, including the fisheries. Assuming, however, that the fatality rate is not less than 3 per 1,000 for the 300,000 men employed in the fisheries, inland, coastwise, and foreign navigation, it appears that there are annually probably not less than 900 deaths directly attributable to accidents at sea or on shore.

In the experience of the British merchant marine the fatality rate for recent years has been 4.8 per 1,000 employed. According to the British workmen's compensation experience, the fatality rate has been 1.82 and the serious injury rate has been 30.1 per 1,000. There are the strongest practical reasons why this nation should collect corresponding data, so that conclusions regarding occupational hazards at sea would be accurate and not perilously near to guesswork. In the experience of the Prudential the proportion of deaths from accidents among all classes of men employed in navigation has been 16.8 per cent. The fatality data derived from these sources are sufficient to emphasize the urgency of the suggestion that there should be an amendment to our navigation laws, making the reporting of all deaths on all vessels of the United States merchant marine compulsory and providing for the subsequent tabulation and analysis of the information, either under the direction of the Commissioner of Navigation or of the United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics. It may further be suggested that the Bureau of Steamboat Inspection, the Coast Guard Service

'This experience probably includes all persons employed in shipping, both on board and ashore.

and the Bureau of Fisheries should be required to give more extended attention to the occupational hazards in our merchant marine, so that the statistics published may be practically useful in connection with the future administration and improvement of the seamen's act.

Aside from the occupational hazard, the health problem also requires some consideration. There are the strongest reasons for believing that the sleeping accommodations of sailors are often inadequate, that the ventilation is insufficient, that the risk of infection is not guarded against, and that the food is of inferior quality. In proportion as the casualty risk is diminished and as health conditions are improved the attractions of the seamen's service will be correspondingly increased. Under existing conditions it is only too often the case that the accommodations provided are not in conformity with our American standard of life. In the final analysis, our seamen are an indispensable element of our national prosperity and security, and whatever tends to raise their status must in course of time benefit the nation at large.

In view of the foregoing very brief and inadequate outline of a labor problem of the first order of importance, I present the follow ing resolution:

RESOLUTION ON REPORTING OF ACCIDENTS TO SEAMEN

Whereas there are reasons for believing that the occupational hazards of employment in the American merchant marine are relatively as serious, if not more so, as in mining, railway transportation, and other hazardous employments; and

Whereas the existing information on maritime risks is largely limited to general information not precisely differentiating the fatalities and injuries to seamen and passengers, and the causes thereof; and the experience data of life insurance companies are also of general rather than specific value; and Whereas the published statistics regarding the loss of life at sea, and on the coasts, and on inland waters, and in connection with the fisheries, as published by the United States Life Saving Service, the Steamboat Inspection Service, the Bureau of Navigation, and the Division of Vital Statistics of the Bureau of the Census, and possibly other government departments, are insufficient for the purpose of determining the true occupational hazards in the American merchant marine; and

Whereas under Section 123 of the Navigation Laws, subsection 6, “Every case of death happening on board, with the cause thereof,” is required to be entered in the official logbook of every vessel making voyages from a port in the United States to any foreign port, or, being of the burden of

Occupational Hazards in the American Merchant Marine 73

seventy-five tons and upwards, from a port on the Atlantic to a port on the Pacific, or vice versa; and

Whereas said requirement being presumably complied with, the information obtained thereunder is not apparently made use of for the practical purposes of statistical tabulation and analysis in the furtherance of an effort to establish the true hazards of navigation in the American merchant marine; and

Whereas no reasons appear to exist why the said requirements should not also be made applicable to vessels of the United States, of the burden of seventy-five tons or upwards, making voyages from one port of the United States to another; and

Whereas the enforcement of the corresponding section in the British birth and death registration act of 1874, and the merchant shipping act of 1894, has provided a complete and satisfactory statistical return regarding the loss of life in the British merchant marine; Therefore be it

Resolved, That the American Association for Labor Legislation respectfully urge upon Congress and the Bureau of Navigation the annual tabulation and analysis of statistical data obtained in conformity to the section referred to for the purpose of establishing with accuracy and completeness, and with a due regard to the class of vessels concerned and the regional distribution of shipping, the precise hazard of employment in the American merchant marine; and be it further

Resolved, That Congress be requested to amend the navigation laws so as to provide for the making of official returns regarding deaths at sea in connection with voyages of all vessels of seventy-five tons burden or over engaged in coastwise or foreign commerce; and be it further

Resolved, That Congress be requested to impose a corresponding statutory requirement upon all vessels employed in the American fisheries on the high seas, on the Great Lakes, and on inland waters over which the federal government may have jurisdiction, such vessels to be of a minimum tonnage, or a minimum number of the crew, to be determined by Congress; and be it further

Resolved, That for the purpose of facilitating the tabulation and technical analysis of the returns, a transcript of each and every fatality reported by captains and masters of vessels under the jurisdiction of the federal government in conformity to Section 123 of the Navigation Laws, or such amendment thereof, or such new legislation as may be enacted, should be made to the Chief of the Division of Vital Statistics of the United States Census for separate presentation in the annual report on the mortality of the United States registration area.

[The resolution was unanimously referred to the Executive Committee for such further action as might be necessary to secure the results aimed at.]

GENERAL DISCUSSION

QUESTION: I would like to ask Mr. Hoffman whether his resolution contains anything with regard to age data?

MR. HOFFMAN: No, that would not be necessary. If the resolution were to be followed by legislative enactment, the standard death certificate which would unquestionably be made the basis of the reports would require the age.

QUESTION: How complete are the statistics on maritime wages? MR. HOFFMAN: I have not concerned myself with the wage question further than what is in the reports. Wages are reported in detail for every class of voyage. When you hear so much about wages, desertions, and the like, you must remember that the average able-bodied seaman is lucky if he gets from $27 to at most, say, $40 a month-what we pay our ordinary servant girls with no knowledge of cooking.

QUESTION: How far does Mr. Furuseth feel that the present law gives adequate safeguard to the stokers? I suppose many of us have had our attention called to the frequent suicides and the bad conditions among stokers. I happened to speak of the matter with the president of a chamber of commerce and others, and they said, "Oh yes-I have seen men jump overboard on a steamer on which I was a passenger." How far is this condition covered by the new law, or is additional legislation along this line looked forward to? How far are liquid fuel and mechanical stoking going to free the man who stands in front of the furnace?

MR. FURUSETH: The law helps the stoker only in that it gives him shorter hours of labor than in the past. It gives him what we know as the three-watch system-four hours on duty and eight off— in all classes of vessels. The living conditions are also improved. We have not been dealing with the question of the sick or the wounded. Now we are ready, with the assistance of anybody who is willing, to give some consideration to the sick and the wounded.

MR. HOFFMAN: To show the practical value of the British data, which we also would obtain if such an amendment to the navigation