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WEEKLY. ] MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. LESTABLISHED, 1878. Eastern Office, Vol. XXVIII 1023 Maritime Blidg., New York City, Chicago Office, 373 Dearborn St. CLEVELAND, O., OCT. 1, 1903. Published every Thursday at 39-41 Wade Bldg. by the Marine Review Pub. Co. r Foreign Subscription $3.00 year. , $4.50 year. Io cents. No. 14 Single Copy [Entered at Cleveland Post Office as second-class matter.] THE LAKE CAPTAIN--ORGANIZED LABOR. Of course it is no longer news that the Pittsburg Steamship Co., the lake vessel branch of the Steel Corporation, has settled its controversy with the Masters & Pilots' association and that the vessels which were laid up have returned to active service; but there is sufficient left to chew upon. The abrupt settlement of the difficulty merely illustrates the surprising changes which, during recent times, have marked the business of lake commerce. Two years ago the Steel Corporation was formed and swept into its capacious fold 112 of the best vessels on the great lakes, constituting by all odds the most splendid fleet in existence fly- ing the American flag. A year before the Steel Corporation was formed the most venturesome mind, the closest student of lake traffic, could not have predicted such a condition and could not by any process of reasoning have supported it. But the Steel Corporation was planned and executed with remarkable rapidity and a number of independent and competing fleets became a unit under one management. The small owner began to wonder what was in store for him. The operation of a fleet so large as this involved certain radical changes in system. Instead of being owned by individuals whose temperament and habits, whose strength and frailties, were intimately known by those who sailed the vessels they became owned by an indeterminate num- ber of persons, scattered from Maine to Mexico, and known under the general classification of stockholders in the United States Steel Corporation. In other words the evolution was from the personal to the impersonal; and impersonal things must be managed in an impersonal manner. The human element is lack- ing. It was no longer Capt. John or Capt. Ed, but The Com- pany. Such a widely scattered and far-flung thing as the Stee! Corporation must have system in all its departments. Every- thing must conform to an accepted order and blanks innumerable must be filled out. Probably at times these blanks border on red tape; probably they order things done which any reasonable man may be expected to anticipate and to do for himself; but system is impersonal and falls like the dew of heaven alike upon the just and unjust. There is no doubt whatever but that the Steel Corporation trod on the toes of a great many cap- tains when it extended its system of operation to the vessels. While there has been a tendency of late on the part of a number of owners to limit the authority of the master, the Steel Cor- poration took a long step in that direction and left him practic- ally shorn. And it must be admitted that members of other un- ions on board ship did not temper the wind to the shorn lamb. In past years the captain employed' the entire crew from engineer to deck hand. The Steel Corporation deprived him of the privi- lege of employing either the engineers, the mates or the stewards. The office rule increased with curtailment of power aboard the ship and each new general order was a source of additional dis- satisfaction, But to return to the thought of the swiftness with which things are done on the lakes. The men partake of the alacrity of' the automatic machinery with which they work. A year ago the masters were not a well-organized body, if indeed they might at that time have been said to have been organized at all. The owner had some views on the subject of a union of captains and a word of disapproval from him had been sufficient to make the most resolute of them abandon all thought of a union in the accepted meaning of the word. The owner desired his captain to be his representative on board ship, a position which was ab- solutely incompatible with membership in a union, for no man can serve two masters. The Ship Masters' association was not in the reckoning, for that was purely a social and benevo- lent body. Forces, however, were at work to bring the masters into a compact union, These forces were the mates, who are, of course, licensed pilots, as much so as the masters, and while a year ago they worked in rather sterile soil the latter-day griev- ances of the masters, especially those on Steel Corporation ships, had fertilized it somewhat. The master felt keenly the force of the argument that his authority is not what it once was and undoubtedly the hope that he might be restored to his former glory was a powerful slogan. Like the clans of the MacGregors they were called together by it. In an incredibly short space of time there was gathered into the fold of the Masters & Pi- lots' association every deck officer on the lakes save one; at least such must be the conclusion from the contention regarding one man in the recent trouble. This one was Capt. Frank Rae, mas- ter of the steamer Clemson, owned by the Provident Steamship Co., which is managed by Mr. A. B. Wolvin. : Capt. Rae was not sailing last season and took no part in any of the affairs of the masters during the past winter. He is a Splendid type of man, highly capable as a vessel master, and 'his ability was-known to Mr. Wolvin, in whose employ he had been for years. He decided before the opening of navigation this spring to return to the lakes and made application to Mr. Wolvin for a place. Mr. Wolvin undoubtedly would have liked to em- ploy him on a Steel Corporation vessel but there is a system of Promotion in vogue on Steel Corporation vessels and Capt. Rae could not have been given a ship without displacing someone, who, in the natural order of promotion, had a prior lien. There was no question of union involved because the Steel Corporation, as Mr. Wolvin claimed, and still claims, had no agreement with the Masters and Pilots' association as to whom it should employ. The agreement related to wages and to a promise to treat with the masters and pilots next winter. The Clemson was about to go into commission. She was not of the Steel Corporation fleet but was managed by Mr. Wolvin and he gave her to Capt. Rae to sail. Mr. Wolvin says he had no thought of the union when giving a place to Capt. Rae. It was optional with Capt. Rae whether he joined the union or not, though Rae knew that Wol- vin believed, like other owners, that the master should be the owner's representative on board. All this detail from Mr. Wol- vin's standpoint is given for the reason that he denies the charge that Capt. Rae was employed for the purpose of opposing the organization of masters and pilots or that he had made any aceon with the organization as to whom he should em- ploy. Capt. Rae did not join the union. His father, who is also not of the union, was with him as mate. He could get no mates from the unionized ranks. As the season advanced and the strength of the pilots' organization was demonstrated the Clemson case was taken up in meetings. The masters, and especially the older men in the big vessels, are said to have counseled postponement of action until the winter conference that had been agreed upon. Even Capt. Charles Maytham, who was generally held to have precipitated the present fight, is now credited with having ad- vised caution until the winter conference. But the mates insist- ed upon summary action, and as they are overwhelmingly in the majority, they, of course, carried their point. It was expected that the winter conference would deal mainly with the restoration of the captain' to his former position of authority aboard ship, but in the Clemson case a new cause for immediate action was put forth. Capt. Rae was ordered to discharge his father and employ, as mate, a member of the Masters & Pilots' association. He de- clined to do so. The mates of Steel Corporation ships therefore began leaving as soon as the vessels reached Lake Erie docks. It will,-of course, be a very great mystery to the layman as to why the mates of Steel Corporation vessels should quit because the master of a vessel of an entirely different fleet declined to dis- charge a non-union mate; and it must therefore be borne in mind by the aforesaid layman that Mr. Wolvin is also the general man- ager of the Steel Corporation's fleet of vessels. As to the morality of this action there was evidently some question within the or- ganization, as evidenced by the disposition of some mempers to hold the matter in abeyance until the winter conference. Although Mr. Wolvin gave out no information as to his plans at any time during the trouble, and did not treat directly with the men, it is quite certain that his first intention, seeing that the fight was made on his ships and not on the lake fleet as a whole, was to make terms with the pilots for the balance of the season and leave the general question of differences to be fought out for another season. But it is a fact that repre- sentatives of other large vessel interests pleaded with him for the struggle at this time, placing stress upon the unsatisfactory outlook in lake freights for the balance of the season and re- ferring to the condition of ore supplies, which, it may be said truthfully, are probably sufficient for a very long time to come, especially in the case of the Steel Corporation. It was this as- surance of support from the vessel owners generally that caused vessels of the Corporation to be sent to the dock for winter moorings when the mates left them. It was evidently Mr. Wol- vin's intention to continue tying up his fleet if he had the sup- port he expected from all the other vessel owners, but if the truth must be told there were those among the so-called inde- pendent vessel owners, who, while heaping encomiums: upon Mr. Wolvin's head and pledging eternal devotion to his cause, were also smelling the burning incense of dollar ore in event of the Steel Corporation fleet being removed from the lake trade. The loyalty of these interests was tested when the plans of the Steel Corporation representatives were changed and some of the tow barges again put into operation. There was excellent ground for believing that this could be done. The barges could be manned irrespective of the Masters & Pilots' association and towed behind steamers other than those of the Steel Corpora- tion. An independent owner in towing a barge was actually doing no more than taking a contract to carry Steel Corporation ore--and a great many of them are now carrying Steel Corpora- tion ore under season contracts. Mr. Wolvin accordingly asked the independent owners to tow his barges and a few of them slipped out of port before the Masters & Pilots' association was aware of the new turn affairs had taken. For a day or two the union made no move. Then its business agent made a request 'upon the independent owners not to tow the barges. A few members of the union predicted that there would be trouble if they persisted in towing the barges. Some of the owners began