The San Francisco call., 1895-11-01
Why San Francisco Is Losing
the Trade of Central
America.
JAPAN TRADE IS ALSO GOING
Cheaper to Send Beer Round Three
Quarters of the Globe Than
Direct From Here.

Temporarily its hereditary enemy, the
Southern Pacific of Kentucky, is to be
dropped and the association will go into
the investigation of the Pacific Mail Steam
ship Company, which is charged with
preylng on the commerce of San Francisco
to devastating extent. 1t is not only the
plratlcal exactions in the way of excessive
freight rates, but certain arbitrary rules
that make ordinary commerce between
this City and the Central American and
South American States a perilous under
taking.
The matter comes before the local indus
trial body in the shape of letter from
Howard q De Cuenca, publishers of the
Spanish American Revista. AS the cham
pion of the interests of the citizens of the
southern republics they voice the general
complaint against the Pacific Mail.
This letter sets forth that the Central
and South American people desire to trade
with San Francisco; it is their natural
place of supply, geographically, and their
friendship to the United States predisposes
them to deal with an American city; but
the Pacific Mail regulations makes this
traffic difficult.
II planter in Guatemala wants plow
worth $3.50 from San Francisco hardware
dealer he cannot simply send $3.50 and get
his plow by return steamer. as he could
from almost any other civilized seaport.
The Pacific Mail will not let him pay his
freight when he receives his plow. He
must send to San Francisco first and learn
the amount of freight charges and then
send them to the shipper, who pays the
freight.
This, of course, is easier for the steam
ship company, and as it has monopoly
it does not care whether its customers are
exasperated by delays or not.
This is the basis of the letter now in the
hands of the Manufacturers and Pro-
ducers' Association. The letter has been
referred to the committee on transporta-
ton and water, and will be considered by
the committee at special session Mon
day.
The subject-matter of the letter is the
peg on which the investigation will hang,
but the whole tyranny of the Pacific Mail
is likely to be gone into before they are
through.
There are protests all along the line.
Japan, having suddenly sprung into the
arena as a fuli-hedged civilized nation, has
among other tokens of enlightenment de-
veloped a thirst for beer. The students of
Toxic and Yokohama drink it like Heidel-
berg folk. Japan does not make very
good beer yet, so the brewers of the world
are keen after the new market. Japan
likes California-brewed beer, and San
Francisco, being right across the ocean,
naturally expected to quench the new
thirst.
But there the Pacific Mail Company
came in. The Japanese saloon and cafe
men found they could get beer cheaper
from Milwaukee than from this City. The
Milwaukee product has to go by rail to
New York, thence by ship across the At
lantlc and the Mediterranean, through the
SueZ canal, down the Red Sea and over
the Indian Ocean and around the Indian
peninsula to get to Japan. But this Jour-
ney three-quarters of the way around the
world is cheaper than the straight passage
across the Pacific, and San Francisco is
losing the japanese beer trade. Naturally
the Pacific breweries are lifting their
voices in protest, but a monopoly does not
mind protests unless they take the form
of competing lines.
The principal complaint which comes up
from the south, and which was the direct
cause of the letter addressed to the Mer-
chants Association, lies in the fact that
the steamship company demands it freight
charges on goods shipped from this port
before the goods are received on board.
The claim is made that this practice is
driving away much of the trade that should
come from here for it adds the element of
delay to an already costly service.
On an order of goods from this port the
Central American buyer must send his or
der and the shipper must then ascertain
the freight to be paid and notify the re-
spective consignee. The freight charges
must then be forwarded and not until they
arrive and are paid to the Pacific Mail Com
pany can the goods leave for their destina-
ton. This practice has various influences.
1t drives much of the trade to ports where
no such obstacle to face commerce is pres
ent, and where there are none but unavoid-
able delays, and further than this it COM
pels most of the Central American traders
to do business through commission men
who advance the necessary freight and
thus avoid much of the delay. In this way
the Central American trade has been prac-
tlcally forced in the hands of few COM
mission men.
The object of the demand of the steam
snip company, it is claimed, is to insure
the payment of the freight in all cases. In
places where the company has no agent
the rule is justifable, but in the larger
ports along the middle coast there are
agents authorized by the company to
transact all necessary business except the
collection of freight tolls. 1t is also
claimed that in many of the ports the
steamship company never sees the con-
signee of the goods it carries. They are
turned over to lighter companies in many
OF the ports and by the lighter companies
they are given in charge of the customs
ofhclals, who In turn deal with the con.
slgnee. The lighter companies are under
the control of the steamship line in 8
great many instances. however, and in any
event they act as the agents of the steam
ers In the delivery OF the freight.