Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1919 — PUTS THE CRIMP OUT OF BUSINESS [ARTICLE]

PUTS THE CRIMP OUT OF BUSINESS

Land Shark Who Preyed on Sailors Is Given His • Death Blow. UNCLE SAM TAKES A HAND Shipping Board Establishes Government Agency to Find Berths for Seamen —Evils of Old System Are Swept Away. New York —The crimp, one of the ugliest figures in the predatory forces, collectively known as “land sharks." that once preyed unchecked on the merchant sailor ashore, must give up his grip on Jack when he is in American ports. --- : - Recent establishment by the United States shipping board of a government shipping agency of national scope to place seamen in positions afloat will put the crimp out of business. The shipping board agency, known as the sea service bureau, aims not only to protect seaman and ship owner against extortion, but to stabilize the supply of mariners at various ports -by shipping men to ports wherS most needed, prepaying their fares.and looking after their subsistence in transit. This service will be performed at cost, and a nominal fee of so much a man will be charged the ship operator calling for men. The passing of the crimp is the most recent in a number of changes In conditions affecting American sailors when ashore that taken together constitute a complete departure from old time standards of what was considered good enough for Jack. Into the discard which now receives the crimp went some years ago the sailors’ dance hall, and its attendant sisterhood, who Jacß'ashore. entertained him until his money was gone, and turned him over to the crimp, who in jiine cases out of ten was a boarding house keeper. Passing of Boarding House. The sailor's boarding house itself, as it was known in earlier days, has suffered eclipse by the welfare center, where in a great clean building a sailor may get a neat bed for 30 cents a night, and meals at proportionate cost, and where he can play games, attend lectures and movie shows and mingle socially with sober and selfrespecting companions. Next on the list to go will be the sailor’s grog shop, which now is on

its last legs. With that gone, the props of the old system for debauching Jack and plucking him will have been sent to Davy .lunes’ locker. Eew will mourn the event, for a new’ style of sailor is coming into the merchant marine —a sailor to whom old-time excesses ashore would not appeal and on whom the “land shark” would not get fat. The crimp will not go out of business willingly. He has too recent memory of days when to be a crimp was to conduct a business of profit. There are many crimps in business today who recall with professional pride the days of strong arm methods in the merchant marine. In those times the captain, whose dignity and ethics did not prevent him from accepting a crew that had been shipped by deception or force, turned to the crimp as to ft specialist to be engaged for difficult cases. The crimp responded with the alacrity of one who expects a good fee. It was In such cases that he shone, and his methods were those of an artist in guile. The fact that he was an outlaw and that severe penalties were provided for any one aiding or abetting him, as well as for himself, did not ba file him. Liquor, drugged or otherwise, was his chief ally. He befuddled Jack

and worked his will with him. One classic method -of the old time crimp was to tap the drunken sailor over the head with a blackjack, tumble him <nto a boat, row him alongside the ship on which he was slated to make a long voyage and have him hoisted over the side. Doom of the System. The crimp knows where the worst kind of men are, to a certainty. He makes it his business to go aboard ships as they come in—sometimes getting aboard in the guise of a dock laborer—to solicit trade for his boarding house, offering inducements that would not appeal to the newer type of American sailor, who In these times lodges ashore under the protecting roof of some friendly society. One stroke of business brings another, with the crimp. He promises Jack a job if he will stay on awhile at the boarding house. When Jack’s money is gone, and the crimp’s financial stake in the sailor must be made good. Jack is sold to the captain or operator in need of men who is willing to pay the board bill as well as a fee. This practice received a hard blow~h few-years ago,-when the forbade assignments of wages by sailors, but it has been staggering along since. It is expected to die when the shipping board's feeless shipping agency gets into full play. The sea service bureau has met with the hearty approval of the merchant sailors, who flock to its offices and lose no opportunity to inform their mates arriving from voyages that there is now a central government agency for signing on men.