The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

26 THE Marine REVIEW DEVOTED TO EVERYTHING AND EVERY INTEREST CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED WITH MARINE MATTERS . ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Published every Thursday by The Penton Publishing Company CLEVELAND. CHICAGO: MONADNOCK BUILDING. PITTSBURG: PARK BUILDING. NEW YORK: 150 NASSAU STREET. Correspondence on Marine Engineering, Ship Building and Shipping Subjects Solicited. Subscription, $3.00 perannum. To Foreign Countries, $4.50. Subscribers can have addresses changed at will. Change of advertising copy must reach this office on Thursday preced- ing date of publication. The Cleveland News Co. willsupply the trade with the MARINE REVIEW through the regular channels of the American News Co. European Agents, The International News Company, Breams Building, . Chancery Lane, London, E. C. England. - Entered at the Post Office at Cleveland, Ohio, as . Second Class Matter. MAy 3, 1906. THE STRIKE ON THE LAKES. There is no class of labor in the world so well treated as that which is associated with the commerce. of the great lakes. Not alone is it well treated in re- spect to wages, but also in that which makes for com- fort and convenience in work. Naturally this condi- tion was not brought about in a day. It has been the gradual growth of nearly half a century, but is notably the development of the past decade. The captains of industry along the chain of great lakes are in no sense labor crushers. In nearly every instance they are men who have come up from the ranks. They have been intimately associated with labor all their lives. In- deed, the betterment of conditions all along the line is their handiwork, for they learned through personal experience the ills to be remedied. There isn't any nicer work of a physical kind to be had than that aboard the average lake freighter. The pay is good; the food excellent and abundant; the privileges many ; and as for personal comfort, the average hotel cer- tainly does not afford as much. Commodious rooms and shower baths are provided for all. Stoking may be hot and killing work on an ocean liner, but the fire-room of a modern lake freighter is about the coolest and best ventilated room on the boat. As an evidence of this, deck hands have already signified their willingness in certain instances to take the places of the firemen that have been called off in the present strike of the longshoremen. The bulk freight business of the great lakes has en- joyed during the past few years a fair state of pros- perity. This is not saying that dividends have been large, because they have not, but the volume of freight moved has been enormous and employment has been steady. Labor has had its share. The scale of wages has been a steadily ascending one. Wages have been paid regularly and everyone in the great lakes region has enjoyed the blessings that come from continued employment. It does seem a pity that this state of - things should be halted for no sound reason and a strike declared which has paralyzed industry along a thousand miles of waterway, compelling an extended and varied equipment of ships, railways and terminals. to cease operating and throwing thousands of men out of employment. The ships, railways and docks can stand it, because the trade must eventually come back © to them. The ore is there and the railways, ships and docks will sooner or later handle it. But can the workmen stand it? The wages that they lose are lost forever. President Keefe of the longshoremen's a;- sociation, projected this strike because he would not make an agreement with the dock managers for un- loading cargoes until the Lake Carriers' Association had recognized the mates' union. The dock managers have nothing whatever to do with labor aboard ship, and felt that they were powerless in the premises. Moreover, it should be understood that the mates had already signed with the masters for the season and that practically all the mates in active service were mem- bers of no union whatever. It is doubtful if any mates' union exists at all. This move appears to have been projected to force the mates into a union. It is meeting with little success, however, as practically all the mates are standing by their ships. During the first day a few mates, probably eight, quit along the whole chain of lakes, but by the second morning five of them asked to be reinstated. Frankly speaking, President Keefe, hitherto extremely conservative and a conspicuous success as a labor leader, appears to have made a serious blunder. The present strike de- serves to fail on moral grounds. Rothwell & Co. have organized a company known as the Venice of America Land Co., with offices at 501 and 502 Chamber of Commerce, Detroit, for the purpose of developing some of the land in the St. Clair flats. This stretch of territory on Lake St. Clair is really. a Venice of America in a natural sense. The lots all have water frontage and are desirable for purposes of summer resi- dence. They have been sold at a low price. ; Capt. Harry Gunderson, of the steamer Henry Stein- brenner, reports that the slight earthquake at Hancock, Mich., recently, threw Lake Superior into great fury for a few moments, suddenly swinging his ship, which was pointing a little south of west, directly north in spite of all the' efforts of the wheelsman to control her.