: PORT ECONOMICS
An important accompaniment of this proposal is the
formation of a fund, called “ Maintenance,” for the
subsistence of those on the register who are not fortunate
enough to obtain employment. This fund, as advocated
by the men’s leaders, would be mainly supported from a
levy on the employed men, and, it is suggested, by contributions
 from the State, or from the port, to be raised by
additional imposts on goods—a proposition of doubtful
public economy. The maintenance part of the proposal
has not, up to the time of writing, taken definite shape,
and it contains much scope for debate, but the registration
of dock labourers at ports is proceeding with encouraging
speed.
A certain number of ports have had a register in force
for some time. At the port of London, under the Port of
London Authority, the men available are classified under
these heads : Permanent men, B men and C men. Both
B and C men are intermittently employed, and the only
difference between the two classes is that B men have the
preference for engagement over C men, which, in view of the
conditions, means that the chance of employment of C
men, dependent as it is on the exhaustion of the list of B
men, is exceedingly remote, except during times of great
pressure of work.
As a rule, dock labourers are engaged by a process
known as “calling on.” Whenever a ship arrives at its
berth, or at ports where that is a regular and frequent
occurrence, then each day, first thing in the morning and
at noon, the men present themselves at an assigned place
in crowded, and even tumultuous, formation round the
foremen, who engage the labour they require by a process
of individual selection, calling by name those whom they
know and indicating others after inspection to complete
their lists. There are, in such cases, numerous allegations
of favouritism, and even of bribery, which may, or may not,
be well founded, but it is undoubtedly a system which can
lead to abuse.

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