The last takes
charge only when the ship is at sea. . . On leaving the wharf,
the river pilot is in charge until the bar of the Mississippi is
reached--the narrows or jetties where the river empties into the
Gulf some 90 miles below New Orleans. . . The "bar pilot" steers
the ship through the narrows and out into the Gulf. It is then
that the ship's regular pilot takes charge.
It is these bar pilots who have a unique organization, virtually
a family affair. To become a bar pilot you must either be born
into the family or marry into it. Talk about your tight little
corporations and monopolies! Bricklayers and other trade unions
are accused of limiting memberships and daily numbers of bricks
to be laid in order to hike wages. This "union" does the same
thing by means of a sort of birth control feature. It's a honey
of a trust. These bar pilots, I hear from pretty reliable source,
get from twelve to fifteen thousand per year and work about six
months of the year.
Last Tuesday morning, the Director of Commerce of the Board of
Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans called to invite us on a
tour of the harbor, along with some eight or 10 shippers. . . New
Orleans shipping is tremendous, second only to New York.
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