Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 498, 16 January 1902 — PREPAYING SEAMEN IS ILLEGAL. [ARTICLE]

PREPAYING SEAMEN IS ILLEGAL.

i Frcm the Manila-American, The recent decision of a Delaware court on the illegality of prepaying ; seamen’s wages, is much to be commended. In this particular case a -■ailor had agreed to ship for “one shilling for the first twenty days and a month thereafter." the $2O that would naturally have come to him for the first twenty days being paid as commission to an agent who had secured the man’s services for , the British steamer Kcstor. By Am- • erican admiralty law the prepayment > of wages to any but the seaman himself is illegal, since it makes possible the perpetuation of fraud upon gnorant men. .The court h?ld in this ; < ase that the consideration of a shilling for the first twenty days was an t evident attempt to evade the law. and. as such, shonld be held void. Especiallv to be commended is that part of the decision which repudiates the defense offered that the complaint was a British citizen, and piainsnt was a British citizen, and hence not subject to American law If such a claim should be admitted. A wide door to fraudulent invasion of the statute would have been opened. The law was meant, not merely for American seamen on foreign vessels and f reign seamen on American vessels, but also for foreign seamen shipping on foreign vessels in American ports. Any other interpretation would have rendered this valuable piece of protective legislation practicably void. ‘ *** *