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the flax bill of lading be adopted. This limits the shortage to %4 bu. in 1,000 bu. tion recognized tthe justice of the plea The' Lake Carriers' Associa- and will send a delegation to meet with the Dominion Marine Associa- tion at its annual meeting in Ottawa, Feb. 11. A vote of thanks was also tendered to the Canadian representatives wpon motion of Mr. Tomlinson. As will be noted further along, the welfare plan of the association occu- pied a fain measure of President Liv- ingstone's annual report. At the after- noon session, Harvey D. Goulder, counsel for the association; outlined and explained its provisions to the members. He said that it: was not a new plan but had been in the tsual method of operating the ship from the beginning. It was, however, set aside in 1902, in order to give the unions an opportunity to see what they could do. The general purpose of the plan is merely to get the general dis- cipline of the ship back to where it belongs. When Mr. Goulder had finished talk- ing, Harry Coulby, president and gen- eral manager of the Pittsburgh Steam- ship Co., took the floor. What Mr. Coulby said is given word for word herewith, because the association later endorsed it and adopted it as its own policy. Certainly there was no equivo- catton about Mr. Coulby's remarks. It was quite simple and direct. He said: MR. COULBY'S REMARKS. "The 'time is short and 1° 'want to say just a few words on this, welfare iplan. It thas been elaborated in the president's report, been discussed quite fully in detail with the directors and executive committee, and the newspa- pers have made mention of it, so that you are all of you more or less famil- jar with it. I am not going to go into the discussion of the detail of the plan, but I do want to say a few words about it because the welfare plan is being attacked, as we had a right to expect, by the unions. The labor unions have made the statement that the vesselman is not a 'philanthropist and is not doing this except as a means to get the sailors. back to the conditions before we dealt with the untons. Of course, any man can say anything he wants to--if he is the big- gest man--but it is quite hand to prove it, and it takes events to prove a statement. I am not going to stand here and claim that we are, any of us, over-burdened with philanthropy, but I think from a business standpoint it is the best thing to do, the most eco- "THE Marine. REVIEW nomical thing to do, from an operating standpoint. "I think we. all realize that we get the best results from the men that are We get the largest measure of loyalty from the men that are being treated fairly, treated with the most consideration. It must re- sult in greater economy of teamwork, would get the men working together with the manager. When they were pulling apart it was not very satisfac- tory. We have. 'seen the results of pulling together, and it is the 'best. The whole proposition could be sum- med up in a nutshell. We 'believe that by treating the men right, treating them as men, making the best work- able conditions that we can, will in- spire in the men loyalty, enthusiasm, and out of these two will come eff- ciency. If we find there are any men that do not respond to that kind of treatment we will have to try tand get along without them. STRAIGHT TALK TO THE ENGINEERS. "T notice there are some engineers here. I want to touch on that prop- osition, The Lake Carriers' Associa- tion last spring made their declara- tion of open shop, and reiterated it so that anybody connected with the Lake Carriers' Association to get wp and say: anything on the open shop policy of this association will-be lke thresh- ing over old straw. We have said all there is-to be said. The association is committed absolutely to the open shop policy and, so far as I know, and: I think I can speak for them because they have gone on record, 'they are going to continue. In sending out this year contracts for the engineers, these contracts, in my judgment, and I think in the judgment of all the members, were open shop contracts. There: was not anything in our con- tract that said anything about the M. E. B. A: We did not exact anything from him, the engineer, that. we did not exact from the captain or any other employe on the ship. The con- tract did not stipulate that he should not belong to the M. E, B. A. or should belong to the M. E. .B. A., or that he should not belong to any other organization. The contract did stipu- late that as we made no restrictions as to what he considered 'this individ- ual right to belong to any organiza- best satisfied. tion he pleased, so long as he did his work satisfactorily to the company he had-no right and would not be per mitted to question the right of any other man so long as he did his work to the satisfaction of the. men at the head of that department. You know 23 the result--about where it stands to- day. Some of the engineers thave signed up, Some have withdrawn from the M. E. B. A., 'because of the action taken by the M. E. B. A. in the miatter .of the men making contract, and there is some feeling, as there naturally would be, as to where these men are going to stand in their relation to the vessel owner--the men who have signed contracts and have either with- drawn from the union, been expelled or fined or contemplate withdrawing from the union. The position of the Lake Carriers' Association, in my judg- ment, ought to be sufficiently clear to every man... It ds, embraced in the doctrine of open shop. There has been a little hot air blowing around that probably the cooks' union will see that the engineer that does not belong to the M. E. B. A. will have dysentery. Probably the firemen's union will not furnish any firemen, and possibly the owner, when he finds the engineer has dysentery and cannot get any firemen, will throw him on the dock. I think, gentlemen, we are away beyond that stage. If the engi- neer cannot get firemen, the Lake Carriers' Association will get them for. him. If the M. E. B. A. won't furnish men, we will get them, and as far as the cooks are concerned, why make him. take the dysentery, too. "Now I am going to speak for my- self, personally, or the Pittsburgh Steamship Co., because we seem to be pretty well up to the firing line, and as there are a good many engineers here I just want to say a word to them, so that they can spread it around, and I do not care if you news- paper men put it on the wires, either. The man that signed our contract, I don't care whether he belongs to the organization or not just so long, as the lives wp to the contract, and af neces- sary we will furnish the fireman and the cook, too, and we will stand by him until there is good skating in the warm place if he does his work; and if the M. E. B. A. should come out wth a declaration that they re op- posed to the open shop policy of the 'Lake Carriers' Association, which I understand they are now contemplat- ing, I will say to you men right now that there won't be an M. E. B. A man on our ships, because I shall re- gard that as an unfriendly act, as they say in official communications between nations. I know very well that if the M. E. B. A. comes out and makes a declaration against the open shop, that no union man in their organization can be loyal to the Pittsburgh Steamship