Lake Carriers' Association records

It has been well over a century since the current form of the Lake Carriers' Association, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio came into being. The initial vitality with which problems were addressed has continued with the organization to the present. The association through its long established committee structure approaches resolution of shipping industry problems with a directness and an expertise that mark it as an organization whose study is essential to the understanding of the economic and political history of the Great Lakes basin.

By the opening of the 1880s, the Great Lakes had become a vital conduit for resources directed to the burgeoning industrial centers of the United States. Methods of regulating numerous aspects of the transportation industry to maintain stable costs and profits were discussed in a variety of business organizations. As traffic increased, safety concerns mounted among vessel owners and crews.

The Lake Carriers' Association developed as an important professional body concerned with the shipping trade. On September 1, 1880 the Cleveland Vessel Owners' Association (one predecessor of the L.C.A.) was founded as the initial organization of vessel owners attempting to regulate Great Lakes shipping activities. In February 1881 a meeting was held in Chicago by representatives from the Cleveland Association and other local organizations in order to discuss common interests. Resolutions were passed and lobbying delegations were sent to Washington, D.C. to voice concerns held by vessel owners. Systematic means of reporting navigational hazards were prepared to be shared by all local organizations.

The various local organizations worked in a loose alliance for several years. In 1885 the Lake Carriers' Association was founded by local vessel owners in Buffalo, New York. Duplication of lobbying efforts led to a series of meetings in 1891 to discuss creation of a single organization.

On April 28, 1892 the attendees at a meeting held in Detroit, Michigan agreed to merge the active Cleveland Vessel Owners' Association with less active local groups and the original Lake Carriers' Association from Buffalo. M.A. Bradley served as the first president. The L.C.A. of today dates from this 1892 merger.

During the years leading to World War I, the expansion of L.C.A. to include nearly all the major freight carriers helped stabilize economic conditions important to the success of Great Lakes shipping interests. Establishing a method for setting freight rates at levels acceptable to vessel owners and their customers occupied the L.C.A. for much of the pre-war era.

A marked thoroughness of analysis in forming position statements established L.C.A.'s reputation as an able representative of Great Lakes shipping interests and increased the L.C.A.'s political power. L.C.A. files document activities in numerous labor negotiations and political battles.

During periods of American involvement in twentieth-century foreign wars, the L.C.A. actively participated in planning the delivery of resources for the defense industry. World War I era files document the L.C.A.'s involvement in attempting to alleviate grain shortages by working with the Grain Clearance Corporation to improve shipping procedures. Correspondence with the Office of Defense Transportation from the 1940s illustrates L.C.A.'s role in improving the carrying capacity of ore freighters involved in supplying the steel industry with raw materials. Discussions regarding the impact of the selective service system on the availability of vessel crews reflect L.C.A.'s involvement in wartime planning in the 1950s.

In its early years the L.C.A. intended to find means to achieve "prompt and amicable" adjustments of issues of interest to the Great Lakes vessel owners. Today, the L.C.A. continues to pursue this goal in its relations with vessel owners, labor organizations, domestic and foreign political bodies, and other groups sharing interests in the economy and environment of the Great Lakes basin.