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gested they get someone up here or else file a statement setting forth their views so that the committee could go ahead and either vote this matter up or down, one.

Mr. PESSEL. I think that is a fair statement, Mr. Chairman. They should certainly be heard. I think without putting words in their mouth, they are mainly concerned with the extension of radiotelephone all over the country intercoastal and deep sea which would throw an operator out of work probably.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. Do you think their interest goes toward the situation that we were talking about a minute ago of the overall coastal?

Mr. PESSEL. That is right.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. I can see where there would be quite a bit of difficulty in moving into that area generally.

Mr. PESSEL. That would be a long process like it was with the longshoremen. We finally made on the Pacific coast, that is all steamship operators, jointly with the ILWU on a longshore basis, we made a fund. As a matter of fact, Senator Clark of Pennsylvania heard Paul St. Sure, the head of Pacific Maritime Association, and Harry Bridges, the head of ILWU, testify here in Washington just 3 months ago about the effectiveness of this agreement, automated agreement shoreside. And one of the interesting things was that it is not all sweetness and light, but it is one of the prime examples of how labor and management can progress and have progressed, and it has been proven out and this, of course, will happen offshore, too, some day, but that is a question of negotiation and will take some time. So as you said, Mr. Chairman, all we are talking about is this one vessel restricted in Hawaiian waters. That is all.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. Thank you very much.

Mr. PESSEL. Thank you.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. Any further questions?

And without objection the letter from the Pacific American Steamship Association filed by Mr. John N. Thurman will be included in the record immediately following the testimony which has just been received.

(The letter referred to follows:)

Subject: H.R. 8508.

Hon OREN HARRIS,

PACIFIC AMERICAN STEAMSHIP ASSOCIATION,
Washington, D.C., February 18, 1964.

Chairman, Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee,
House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Pacific American Steamship Association, composed of the major American-flag steamship operators engaged in the foreign and domestic commerce of the United States from the Pacific coast, wishes to take this opportunity to express our support for H.R. 8508, a bill to amend section 356 of the Communications Act of 1934, to permit cargo ships on voyages between Hawaiian ports to carry radiotelephone in lieu of radiotelegraph installations. Twenty-five years ago at the time of enactment of the Communications Act of 1934, in order to guarantee accurate ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications, it was necessary to employ the exclusive use of radiotelegraph. However, in the ensuing years radiotelephone has become vastly improved, to the point that today in many areas of confined waters such as the Hawaiian Islands, the use of radiotelephone will add not only greater efficiency in navigation, but will promote the safety of vessels and their crews. This has been amply proven in that the use of radiotelephone in lieu of radiotelegraph on vessels operating in 32-442-64——5

close proximity has been an invaluable safety feature on the often stormy Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River since its adoption in 1954.

In the interest of safety and as strong advocates for the development of a modern, efficient U.S.-flag merchant marine, we urge favorable consideration be given to H.R. 8508.

It is respectfully requested that this letter be included in the record of the hearings on the subject bill, to be held on February 19, 1964, before the Comunications and Power Subcommittee of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee.

Sincerely yours,

JOHN N. THURMAN, Vice President.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. If there is no further business to come before the subcommittee, the subcommittee will stand adjourned subject to the call of the Chair.

(Whereupon, at 11:20 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned subject to the call of the Chair.)

RADIOTELEPHONES ON CERTAIN CARGO VESSELS IN

HAWAIIAN WATERS

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1964

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND POWER OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a.m., room 1334 Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Walter Rogers (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. The Subcommittee on Communications and Power will come to order for the further consideration of H.R. 8508 and similar measures.

Our previous hearing did not include the testimony of those parties who will be testifying this morning, and we had to put it off in order to work it out on a time schedule because the folks here this morning were experts in another field and had to testify. We are glad to have you this morning.

TESTIMONY OF HOYT S. HADDOCK, WASHINGTON REPRESENTATIVE, AFL-CIO MARITIME COMMITTEE, AND MORRIS HARVEY STRICHARTZ, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, AMERICAN RADIO ASSOCIATION, AFL-CIO

Mr. HADDOCK. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Strichartz will make the statement on this and I will simply be with him to answer any questions that he happens not to be familiar with. He is the technical man and will give the principal statement.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. This statement that I have before me, Mr. Strichartz, would you desire to have that entire document included in the record, together with the appendixes?

Mr. STRICHARTZ. The statement itself is 12 pages long. The appendixes are data and evidentiary material which we would like to include in the record. We have no intention of attempting to read the appendixes into the record. We simply want to place them in the record and to comment very briefly on 10 of the 11 appendixes and a little more in depth on 1 of them.

Mr. ROGERS of Texas. Without objection, the entire document will be included in the record and you may proceed, Mr. Strichartz, to give us your statement.

31

(The statement mentioned follows:)

STATEMENT OF MORRIS HARVEY STRICHARTZ, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, AMERICAN RADIO ASSOCIATION, AFL-CIO ON ITS OWN BEHALF AND IN BEHALF OF RADIO OFFICERS UNION, AFL-CIO, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MASTERS, MATES. & PILOTS, AFL-CIO AND OF THE AFL-CIO MARITIME COMMITTEE, CONSISTING OF AMERICAN RADIO ASSOCIATION, AFL-CIO, NATIONAL MARITIME UNION, AFLCIO, BROTHERHOOD OF MARINE OFFICERS (NMU), AFL-CIO, UNITED MARITIME DIVISION (NMU), AFL-CIO, UNITED STEEL WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFLCIO, AND INDUSTRIAL UNION OF MARINE & SHIPBUILDING WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO

My name is Morris Harvey Strichartz. I am technical director of the American Radio Association, AFL-CIO, and am a member of its national council. This statement is submitted by the American Radio Association (ARA), for the Radio Officers Union (ROU), the International Organization of Masters, Mates, & Pilots (MMP), both affiliates of the AFL-CIO, as well as the AFLCIO Maritime Committee, which includes the American Radio Association (ARA), the National Maritime Union (NMU), the Brotherhood of Marine Officers (BMO), the United Maritime Division (UMD), the marine locals of the United Steel Workers of America (USWA), and the Industrial Union of Marine & Shipbuilding Workers (IUMSWA).

ARA and ROU, composed of ship radio officers, hold collective bargaining agreements with steamship companies owning and operating over 90 percent of the oceangoing merchant ships flying the U.S. flag, including among them the Matson Navigation Co.

MMP members are the masters and licensed deck officers (mates) on over 90 percent of the U.S.-flag oceangoing ships.

The total membership of all these maritime unions is approximately 60,000 seamen, who are officers and unlicensed crew members aboard about 90 percent of the U.S. merchant marine-passenger ships, freighters, tankers, colliers. steam schooners, and other type vessels carrying every type of cargo in the coastwise, intercoastal, and world trade of the United States.

We are likewise informed that your subcommittee has received a separate communication from the AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department, composed of other AFL-CIO maritime affiliates not mentioned above.

All of our organizations are of one mind on H.R. 8508-we are opposed to its passage, in the public interest as well as in the interest of our men on the ships. It is significant that, despite serious disagreements in other areas, all of the maritime unions are united in opposition to this bill. Why?

To answer that question, we must described the present safety situation. On all the oceans of the earth, ships of 1,600 gross tons or larger are presently knit together in a worldwide lifesaving network.

They are equipped with ship radiotelegraph equipment, complying with standards set by international treaty and domestic law. At sea, this equipment is manned by radiotelegraph operators, who are licensed ship radio officers by act of Congress in 1947. These radio officers stand safety radio watch for at least 8 hours a day on cargo vessels carrying only one radio officer, and continuous round-the-clock watches on passenger vessels which are manned by three or more radio officers.

During these watches each radio officer listens continuously to radiotelegraph signals on 500 kilocycles, the worldwide calling and distress frequency. Ships of all nations initiate routine calls to other ships or to coast radio stations by calling on 500 kilocycles. Upon making contact they immediately shift to another frequency known as a working frequency to send and receive messages. As soon as the message handling is finished, the listening on 500 kilocycles is immediately resumed, without delay.

In any event, there are two periods during each hour when the ship radio officer must cease doing anything else and listen, in complete radio silence, on 500 kilocycles, known as the silent periods, because their silence may only be broken to transmit or retransmit distress messages that were sent during the preceding period.

When a ship is in distress, it is on 500 kilocycles that the call for assistance, the SOS is sent, and all communications between the stricken vessel and ships that may proceed to its side are handled. Other ships must maintain com plete silence on 500 kilocycles during such distress traffic, until the all-clear is transmitted.

When distress signals are sent, it is of crucial importance that they be heard, recognized as such, and that the precise details given be received by the maximum number of ships able to render aid. The position of the ship is given precisely, in latitude and longitude, and the error of a single digit, for example, can be extremely important-that is why a reliable and accurate system is employed. When distress situations exist, all hands turn to, to perform their necessary duties. The radio officers and radio operators aboard the deepsea vessels that have been in distress during the 65 years that this radio sea-safety network was developing and being perfected, have acquitted themselves in exemplary fashion, usually being the last to leave the ship, along with the master, often going down at his post of duty.

The system that I have described has the genius of simplicity and the record of having been used, successfully, in literally thousands of sea casualties. Literally tens of thousands of men mave been plucked from the clutches of a cruel sea by the assistance that this worldwide radiotelegraph sea-safety network summoned, in the present, living generation of seamen. One simple fact will give insight into the scope of this splendid, and effiecient system: the annual report of the FCC for fiscal year 1962, on page 86, notes:

"During the fiscal year, the radiotelegraph distress signal S O S was used in behalf of 275 vessels and aircraft. There were 181 reports of autoalarms being actuated to alert offduty radiotelegraph operators to distress calls. Radiotelegraph functioned effectively for such distress calls."

Multiply this one single year in the limited purview of a single nation's regulatory agency by the many years and countries involved, and you will understand why the seaman of the world and of this Nation looks upon the radiotelegraph station and the ship radio officer who mans it as his "lifeline"-his best assurance of reaching land alive and able to ship out again.

Seamen know they follow a calling that is of its very nature a hazardous one. They simply want the best chance available of surviving, and they know from their very own experience that radiotelegraph provisions give them that chance. We have set forth below the manner in which this system developed, the legislative history of the compulsory requirements for this system, both domestically and international treaty. Now, what would be the effect of the bill that is being considered on that system?

First, it should be noted that the wording of the bill is not confined to a provision to exempt a single, experimental craft from the radiotelegraph requirements of the Communications Act. As it now reads, H.R. 8508 (and the companion measures before the subcommittee) would amend the Communications Act to permit cargo vessels, of any tonnage up to and including the largest in the world, to navigate between Hawaiian Islands ports without having to comply with the radiotelegraph requirements of title III, part II of the act. Thus, not just a single Matson craft, but all vessels in the Hawaiian interisland trade would be allowed to withdraw from taking part in that sea-safety network.

If this bill is passed, it would result in decreased sea safety. Seamen and passengers sailing aboard ships on coastwise, intercoastal, and international voyages, along sealanes that converge, cross, and are contiguous to Hawaiian waters, would face greater danger, in at least three ways:

(1) The affected vessel would itself be substandard, in that it would not possess an efficient and reliable radio safety system in common with other deep-sea vessels. It would thus be without the direct means to summon the great majority of these vessels to its aid in emergency.

(2) Other vessels plying these waters would be deprived of the direct participation of the affected ship in the radio sea-safety system in which each vessel is considered a potential lifeboat for all others. Thus, the entire sea-safety network, which is knitted together by the safety watches stood on all vessels of 1,600 gross tons and over, would be weakened.

Insofar as this particular legislation might lead to other and more general weakening of the provisions which now require that vessels participate in this mutual assistance network, all vessels everywhere might be rendered less safe, and the lives of passengers traveling on the ships and the men who earn their living by following the sea would be that much more expendable.

To lower safety standards is to take callous and calculated risks. Men who go down to sea in ships cannot win in such a gamble-a gamble in which their lives are unnecessarily risked to save expenses for the owners, who sit safely at their desks ashore, secure in their property behind vessel insurance coverage. It should be noted that the collective-bargaining agreements of all maritime unions presuppose a safe place to work, and do not require seamen to work under unsafe conditions.

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