The morning call., 1892-03-16
PACIFIC MAIL AND PANAMA.


question why the people who were trying
to start line of freight steamers to New
York by the Straits of Magellan did not
run them 10 Panama, transport the goods to
Colon by rail. and carry them thence to
New York by steamer. To this question
the answer was made that the Pacific Mail
Company bad a contract with the Panama
Railroad which practically prevented COM
petition by another line OF steamers be-
tween San Francisco and New York. The
Vice-President of the Pacific Mail said:
Our company has the perpetual privilege OF
running steamers up the west coast. When
put our steamers on there we made a perpetual
agreement that the railroad company should not
run steamers in opposition under penalty OF
$4,000 for each steamer. Any rival line which
might be put on between Colon and New York
would not pay We have the Government mail
carrying contracts, and contracts with the South
American republics.
The public do not quite understand how
the Pacific Mail can have perpetual con-
tracts" with any one for use of the high
seas 1t may and il probably has contracts
with the Panama Canal Company, which
owns the Panama Railroad. by which the
Pacihc Mail pays one rate of freight over
THAT rad and all other persons higher
rate; but as the canal company is bank
rupt, and its property is all in the hands Of
| assigneeS, such contracts are not worth
much. if it can be shown that the owners
Of the railroad would gain by breaking
them. The Secretary and Treasurer Of the
railroad says that his company knows of no
such contract as the one 10 which the Vice
President Of the Pacific Mail refers. But
even if it did exist, asFrench court would
very quickly authorize the assiEnees of the
mi IL Ia4n -
ground that it is in restraint of trade and
Likewise because it is not to the interest of
the shareholders in the insolyent company
to continue it.
On The face Of the matter it would seem
that no obstacle stands in the way of an
arrangement between new steamship CON-
rany and the Panama Railroad owners By
which the new company would obtain from
the road uniform rates with those paid by
the Pacific Mail. The more freight the road
gets the more money there will be for the
asSigneeS to divide among the stockholders.
They have no possible interest in maint aim
ing the Pacific Mail monopoly. They ought
to welcome every new carrier who proposes
TO use their line as part of his system. If
the promoters of the new freight steamship
line between New York and San Francisco
are in concert they should lose no time in
dlspatching an agent to Paris TO see what
bargain can be made with the defunct canal
enterprise.
The Vice President of the Pacific Mail IS
confident that a new line wonld not paw
That is as ii may be. Perhaps the Pacific
Mail would not have paid so well without the
million year which it has received from
the transeontnental roads as a subsidy Tor
maintaining the freight rates they made.
But when Mr.. Houston implies that new
line would not pay because il would not get
the mail subsidies which the Pacific Mail
enjoys he presumeS on the public ignorance.
| Under the act of last session the Pacific Mail
Will receive from the United States gradu-
aied subsidy which in the aggregate will
amount TO a very triiling sum. From tie
States of Central America and from Mexico
il receives. all told, just S101, geo year, to
wit: $4,000 from Mexico, S24. 900 from
Guatemala. $4,000 from Salvador, $1,000
from Nicaragua, 5000 from Honduras and
Sl2, 000 from Costa Rca. If this revenue is
all that stands between the Pacific Mail and
bankruptcy it is in a bad way.
There is every reason to believe that an
Independent line of freight steamers. run
cheaply and managed with intelligence.
would earn a good living on the route from
New 0rk to Colon aud from Panama to
San Francisco. The Pacific Mail has in
CURED the i'll will Of every inhabitant of
Central America and Of every dweier on
the west coast OF Mexico by its exorbitant
charges and its illibeTal treatment of ship
perS and travellers. They are exasperated
at having TO pay as much to be carried from
San Francisco to Punta Arenas as Sey
would have to pay for being carried to New
York. They believe that their coffee might
be carried for far less than 50 cents sack
from Salvador to this port, and they very
Justly rage at the discovery that the Pacific
Mail has two rates-0ne for its friends and
one for all others; so that the latter have
to compete with the former under great dis
advantage. These people would willingly
pay money TO build up rival line, and if
they could feel sure that the line was going
to last they would make contracts running
away ahead. and would extend their pro-
ductive acreage. As ii is, few Central
Americans care to work for the benefit of
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.