Excerpt from The Sailors' Union of the PacificThe seamen of the world today are for the most part unfree. Men ashore, possessing legal liberty, take for granted the rights of personal freedom which enable them to advance and make more secure their economic and social position. Under the laws of the United States alone, and that completely only since 1915, have sailors been fully accorded the rights of free men. Owing to the economic helplessness of seamen and to the assumed necessities Of navigation, the peculiar status of the sailor, bound to his vessel by law under penalty of imprison ment for desertion, remains the same today as it was centuries ago.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.