take ship out of New York for France (on return ex-coast) unless at least 75% of the following improvements and repairs are made: (1) Steampipe to be removed from showers aft; (2) separate lines for hot and cold water in showers aft; (3) drinking water fountain; (4) coffee percolator; (5) lockers with locks for forecastle; bunk lights; (5) another toaster; (6) quarters painted; (7) drinking water aft; (8) pan rack for galley; (9) table for cooks room; (10) table for recreation room; (11) radiator for boatswain's room; (12) larger messroom; (12) another messboy. Moved, seconded, and carried that a larger messroom and another messboy be secured in New York.

Discussion regarding dividing gangway watches on coastwise trip among all members of deck force so that everyone who desires may have a chance at overtime.

Moved, seconded, and carried that departmental meetings be held weekly and joint meetings be held twice each trip.

Discussion regarding cleaning and maintenance of crews quarters, which in general has been unsatisfactory.

Discussion and explanation of Social Security Act.

Moved, seconded, and carried that a letter, endorsing Social Security Act, and urging its extension to marine workers, be drawn up and offered to all members of crew for signature and then forwarded to N. M. U. headquarters. Moved, seconded and carried to adjourn at 9:10 p. m.

Signed: C. W. FAUST, Redg. Sect.

H. BAKER, Chairman.

(The copy of minutes referred to was marked "Exhibit 10.") Senator THOMAS of Utah. How large a crew is on that ship? Mr. RING. Twenty-six is about the unlicensed complement; 37,. including licensed officers and chief steward.

Mr. MANN. Here is a letter from a passenger [reading]:

A fellow passenger complained about his coffee being cold. The waiter patted him on the shoulder and said, "Pal, no use complaining about this coffee to the steward, the unions are running this ship."

There were some seasick passengers after leavingwashed for two days.

-and the decks were not.

It took us forty minutes to be served two bottles of gingerale we had ordered' one evening in the tropics and when it was served it was without ice. In fact, there was no service at all in spite of the fact that I tipped far more liberally than the average passenger.

I frequently saw members of the crew sitting and smoking in deck chairs of the passengers.

I could go on mentioning many instances showing lack of discipline, etc., on American ships and I thought you would be interested in knowing this. I am associated with metallurgical engineers and have nothing to do either directly or indirectly with the shipping industry. My sole interest is in acquainting the proper authorities with the situation existing today on the American ships, as a result of my own personal experience. Until there is a change in conditions I will never travel on an American ship if I can possibly avoid doing so.

(The letter referred to was marked "Exhibit 11.")

Senator VANDENBERG. These foreign lines are pretty generally unionized as much as ours. What is the reason for the difference in

union discipline?

Mr. RING. The whole story is the short-sighted policy, as I see it, by the shore management of our lines above their officers or their masters in their authority over crews. Second, a speedy redress, as far as foreign lines are concerned, for any breach of discipline complained of by masters or officers.

Senator VANDENBERG. In other words, you bring the responsibility back to shore and put it on the employer?

Mr. RING. Yes, sir. If you will notice, Senator, practically everything that has been said here will simmer right down to discipline and its maintenance. Discipline and its maintenance is the duty of the master, who is the government aboard ship. If the shore manage

ment is to permit a crew to sit down and tell the management that "we will accept certain officers to give us our orders and we will refuse to take them from other officers," and if that shore management says, "Yes; we give in," where has your discipline gone? It is out the window.

The crew sails and an officer gives an order. The crew says, "We don't think that is quite proper. We think that may be a wrong order."

"Oh, no," the officer will say. "Get out there and do that work."

Then the deck delegate or the engineroom delegate may very easily say to the officer, "Don't you remember what happened on the third of May to Charlie Jones when we voted him off the ship? You better move softly, or you will not have any job any more."

That officer, knowing what his duties are and desiring to perform them, says, "What backing up do I get? The operator says to run these ships under any conditions. I am afraid I will not get sufficient backing up on shore. I have instructions to keep these ships running, and I had better give in."

So, to save a few dollars, as far as the ship being tied up is concerned, there has been a permissive grant by shore management to lower the authority of government at sea. That is the result. Discipline has gone by the board. That is the answer, in my opinion. Maybe I am wrong about it, but that is the secret of our troubles right now. Senator WHITE. What is the operator going to do when we have cases that are in fact mutiny at sea, and the Government will not proceed to prosecute?

Mr. RING. The operator himself must initiate the prosecution, Senator. The operator himself in many instances is too timid and too afraid to get going on it because he is going to lose a little bit of "dough." That is your answer.

Senator WHITE. What has brought about that condition among the operators?

Mr. RING. It would take me some time to explain it. I would be very glad to go into it if you wish.

Senator WHITE. You would assume that the operators of these ships wanted them efficiently operated; that they wanted discipline; that they wanted to please the public. Now, if that is so, why do they not take steps to secure those results? There is some coercion of some kind, of course, being brought to bear on the operators, because they do not do the obvious thing. Now, why don't they?

Mr. RING. They do not do it because they feel that a crew at the present time has more power than they have, that they can tie the ship up.

Senator WHITE. Who is to blame for that?

Mr. RING. I think the blame should fall on the people who have failed to realize that the maintenance of authority at sea is the basic thing, rather than the extent to which an operator will go to fight such a threat at the maintenance of such authority.

Senator WHITE. Do you think it goes back to Congress because we have not defined offenses at sea as they should be defined, and provided penalties that are adequate to such offenses?

Mr. RING. No, sir.

Mr. TRUITT. Congress has defined offenses at sea. I figured up the other day that there are some hundred or more individual statutes that relate to seamen alone.

Senator WHITE. The statute books are full of provisions with respect to these situations, I suppose; but there is not any enforcement of the law. Where is the trouble?

Mr. RING. It is failure to utilize what has been given for enforcement.

Senator WHITE. Is it the fault of operators, or is it the fault of the responsible legal authorities of the Government?

Senator GIBSON. Probably both.

Senator WHITE. We are told that cases are brought to the attention of Departments here in Washington and that Departments in Washington, instead of acting, devote their time and their energies to finding excuses or apologies for what is going on.

Mr. RING. I have heard of exactly such instances as you speak of, sir.

Senator WHITE. Of course, if prosecuting officers will not move, the situation is hopeless.

Senator GIBSON. Is there any codification of the laws as to offenses at sea?

Mr. TRUITT. Yes, Senator. The Bureau has published a book, I should say, three-quarters of an inch thick, that has to do with that. Senator WHITE. You will find it all in that little red book of the Bureau of Navigation.

Mr. RING. There is a rather cumbersome way of enforcing or administering the law now. The certificate that a seaman has is a very precious right to him. It is his right to a livelihood. When a board of the Department of Commerce sits to see whether an offense is of sufficient gravity to cause a revocation of a man's certificate, final action is not then and there taken. They conduct a hearing, and after that hearing is conducted the man has an appeal, and it is required that it be sent on to Washington where the case can be reviewed by the Director of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. After that review is made, the man has still an appeal to the Secretary of Commerce. For quick action there is nothing provided. It may be 2 months before final action is taken.

The reason you take action is to show an example to other people as to what is actually, certainly, surely going to happen to them if they do wrong. But yet it drags along to such an extent that the effect of an immediate correction is lost.

Senator WHITE. For many years we have been issuing a certificate as an able seaman to anybody who had served 18 months on deck at There has been no inquiry as to the qualifications or character of that seaman. Are we lax in that respect?

sea.

Mr. RING. The 18 months is subject to some examination, sir. I think that whole subject of qualifying seamen and officers is subject to very careful study. We have been very lax in that.

Senator WHITE. And yet whenever there has been a suggestion that there should be any requirement of proof of qualifications before the issuance of an able seaman's certificate, we are met with an avalanche of protests that have up to now been persuasive. I have sailed a good deal, first and last, and I have seen hundreds of fellows. on board ship that do not know anything about their work. I could take a green man and take him up on the Maine coast and put him in a cat-boat, and in 3 weeks time I or anybody who has ever been at sea could teach him more than some of these fellows with able seaman's.

certificates know about ships. It is an utterly preposterous situation that we have. But we have never been able to do anything about it.

Mr. RING. That is why we feel that the Maritime Commission ought to insist on having competent men before they go on board a vessel.

Senator WHITE. There is a sharp distinction to be drawn between proof of mental and physical qualifications and the conduct of people who go on board ship and whose acts come pretty near to being mutiny and utterly subversive of all discipline. The situation as it is today is just utterly impossible. I think all of us know enough about the situation to know that we have either got to throw up our hands and quit absolutely in any effort to have a merchant marine, or this situation has got to be dealt with drastically and immediately.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator White and I have worked for a dozen years shoulder to shoulder on this matter, and I think perhaps I have borne the brunt and danger of physical attack more than he has. I am convinced that there is no use in the United States Government appropriating and spending money for the building and operation of ships unless this matter of labor can be adjusted, unless we can have good seamen. Old Andrew Furuseth always said that you can put a good crew on a bad ship and make it sail, but you cannot put a bad crew on a good ship and do anything with it. It all depends on the

crew.

Senator GIBSON. Is it not true that England handles the situation through the vigilance of its admiralty courts?

Mr. RING. Yes; and through a speedy and immediate and summary redress for infractions and through, most of all, the maintenance of the authority of her licensed personnel on ship. That goes right back to discipline at sea.

Senator WHITE. There is a serious question as to whether you are going to stand for a closed shop at sea.

Mr. TRUITT. I think practically all the operators would welcome that.

Senator GIBSON. The closed shop?

Mr. TRUITT. Yes, sir; the closed shop.

Senator WHITE. You have today, as a practical proposition, the closed shop at sea.

Mr. RING. It is with about 80 percent of the lines. There are some feeble efforts being made to maintain it otherwise.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you give our compliments to Mr. Kennedy and thank him for sending his able staff up here? And I venture to say that we will want you again. Thank you very much.

(Whereupon, at 12:05 p. m., the meeting adjourned subject to the call of the chairman.)

(Other exhibits brought by the Maritime Commission follows:)

EXHIBIT 12

QUOTATIONS FROM LETTER OF A SHIP'S MASTER ADDRESSED TO MR. KENNEDY, DATED OCTOBER 30, 1937.

For the past few months conditions aboard this vessel are such that neither the officers or myself as master can assert any authority or discipline the crews in any way. And since things are going from bad to worse with no remedy in sight, we feel that you should know of these conditions.

We have met with the most unreasonable demands from the men. We have had sit-down strikes, when docking the crew have refused to handle lines from

towboats assisting in docking, because crews of towboats were not connected with C. I. O. Instances where the ship has been delayed sailing while the men "had another drink before the ship pulled out." Numerous incidents where the officers have been humiliated by the disrespectful and insulting attitude of the men. Attempts to punish the men by logging are useless. In one instance where I logged the men, the log was called off after an interview with the union delegate, who informed me (very guardedly) that the ship would be held up unless I cancelled the logging. We have practically no authority to fire or hire a man and we have to take any man that is sent from the union hall.

Because my officers, all men with years of service in this company, are members of the United Licensed Officers Association, they are repeatedly being requested to join the Masters, Mates & Pilots and the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, organizations that are in sympathy with C. I. O. As all the deck and engineer officers are married men with families they are actually afraid of the men fearing that, as the men have often intimated, that they will make them join the M. M. P. and M. E. B. Association, or be put out of a job.

As a shipmaster for the past 14 years and on behalf of my officers we take this opportunity to acquaint you with existing conditions and earnestly hope that you be supported in endeavouring to remedy these conditions.

EXHIBIT 13

QUOTATIONS FROM LETTER OF LADY PASSENGER ADDRESSED TO MR. KENNEDY; DATED OCTOBER 25, 1937

I really think the lack of supervision by officers and crew on our return from Liverpool to the ship was scandalous, as well as lack of discipline and many other discomforts on the return to New York.

Then that fat deck steward should never have been on a ship. If one wanted him and called him, he would stand right by and not let on he heard. The day we were landing tea was served-two lines were formed, but he would only give the tea to the people on one line. I waited and waited, and learned that he would not serve only to one side-though at times there were no more than 4 to 6 people standing there. I heard a man say "I have been standing here for some time; I would like to have some tea"-and the steward's reply was "Get on the other side."

In 1928 my husband and I travelled on your line and I said then that I would never put my foot on a ship of the United States Line, but I did I am sorry to say, I did as I wished to return home sooner.

The service of your ships and conduct of your people, I mean officers as well who were around the tender, is most deplorable and a disgrace. I have travelled on many ships but never found anything so terrible as on your line.

EXHIBIT 14

(NOTE. Exhibit 14 (a consular report) is not printed as the identical document has been submitted by the State Department.)

EXHIBIT 15

QUOTATIONS FROM LETTER OF UNITED STATES NAVY OFFICER ADDRESSED TO MR. KENNEDY DATED JULY 16, 1937

During my last tour of duty in the Orient, I became very much interested in our merchant marine. There excellent opportunities presented themselves of comparing U. S. merchant vessels with their principal foreign competitors. In many cases, I am sorry to say, such comparisons did not redound to our credit either as to ships or attitude of personnel.

Officers' orders are flouted, frequently they are insulted, and sometimes they are struck, by belligerent members of the crew. Intoxication during working hours