Speech #630327277

That convention is In direct conflict with the purposes of the seamens hill. It does not provide adequate safety regulations: It legalizes some of the very worst of existing practices in the matter of equipment. It permits of the employment of the cheapest and least effective men. it makes no )rovlsion whatsoever for skilled seamen In the deck crews. it makes loobtful the right of the United States to abrogate that part of existing. treaties under which seamen on our shores are now treated as slave... it permits of overcrowding In Immigrant vessels. because It interferes with the passenger act of 1882. It Is a concession to foreign shipowning interests. in that It gives up. In a large measure. the control which our Government now has a right to exercise over vessels of all nations when in American waters. and it will cede to foreign iations a commercial advantage which will prevent the United States froni building up a merchant marine that can compete with the vessels of olhe- nations for the oversea trade of the world.