I think. is not sustained either by the experience of those who have traveled. or by the experience of those who have observed the practice with regard to men following the sea in the ports of this country. It was said the other day by the Senator from aine that it was absurd to talk about having a portion of the crew composed of American sailors. or American citizens paid at a certain rate. while the other portion. not Americans. were paid t a less rate. Before the session had closed that evening we were furnished with a statement by the master of a vessel engaged in the trade between California and Asiatic ports to the effect that about twothirds of the employees. the men on the line with which he was connected. were Asiatics. and that they were dawing pay considerably less than that paid to Americans sailing on the same vessels from the same port. The Commissioner of Navigation has furnished us with page after page of statistical figures showing the rates of wages which prevail in the United States and in Europe. and he would have us draw the inference that because wages in certain ports of the United States are quoted in certain years at an advance over what they were in European ports for the same period necessarily the sailor or the employee on a ship who is an American receives greater wages than the employee on the ship of one of the foreign nations. But anyone who has lived for any length of time in a seaport. or who has had an opportunity of studying this question. knows at once that this is fallaciousknows at once that the wages on the ordinary ship. whether it be a British tramp or a Norwegian sailing ship or an American schoonerthe wages of the men employed on those ships are dependent upon the rate of wages which is given at the ports at the time they are employed.
Keywords matched
Asiatics Asiatic