The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-07-16
WILL AVOID THE
GOLDEN GATE.
The New Japanese Line OF
Steamers for
America.
A VERY HEAVY SUBSIDY
Danger That 1t Will Not Touch
in San Francisco
Bay.
LOCKING FOR a TERMINAL.
Local Railroad Conditions Likely to
Outweigh Natural Advan.
tages.
LOCKING FOR a TERMINAL.

Japan is reaching out for recognition
upon the seas as a mercantile as well as
naval power. She is going to span the
Pacific with q line of her own steamships,
and she is going to com pete in the ports OF
North America for the trade of the island
nation.
That there will be line of steamers has
been decided, but to what port it will run
is an unsettled question. This is being
investigated, however, and before long
directors from the new company will be
over here looking up docking facilities,
depths of water, railroad service, etc. This
last item of railroad service will cut an i'm
portant figure in the selection of the ter
minal point, and for the same reason San
Francisco is not likely to be heard of when
the selection taxes place.
The new company formed is called the
Togo Risen Kaisha or, in English, the
Occidental Steamship Company. 1t was
formed upon the ideas and suggestions of
the Government, and the Government will
insure tremendous subsidy to make GER
tain its success. The amount of this sub
sidY is not actually known, but 1t is large
enough to enable the ships to travel empty
to and from the FlowerY Kingdom, and
still not lose cent.
The line to America will not be the only
one operated by the new company. There
will be pumber of steamers put on the
route through the Indian Ocean and the
SueZ Canal to London, but the principal
object is first to have the little island con-
nected by line of its own with the Amer
lean shore. Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who
will act as interpreter for the president of
the company when he comes here, arrived
here on the steamer Doric when last IL
fOuchod at this mort Since cominC n this
City Kobayash: has been collecting such
data as will be of use to him when he ar
rives. He was before the Harbor Com
mission on Tuesday asking for informa-
ton regarding harbor rates, and he has
been quietly collecting all information
possible regarding railroad connections.
San Francisco does not stand mucn of a
chance. She has no communication with
the East except through the Southern Pa
cific lines, and the Southern Pacific has
not given the new line any encouragement.
Six months ago negotiations were opened
with the Southern Pacific, but the repre-
sentatives of the new line were given 10
understand that no particular concessions
would be allowed. As overland freights
will be one of the big sources of revenue
for the new line this would leave the steam
ship company entirely in tie hands OF the
Southern Pacific, and this position the
japanese decline to take.
Portland, with its Columbia River bar
and its winding river channel; Seattle, far
to the northward; Victoria, a British
Columbian city; San Diego, with its shall
low fairway and its beds of kelp, and even
Tehuantepec in Mexico, with m ost meager
but untrammeled communication with
the Eastern markets, all afford superior
advantages to San Francisco the metropo-
lis of the West, the finest port on the
shores of the Pacific. The steamers may
stop here incidentally. but the line of
trade between Japan and America will go
north or south-anyw but through the
Golden Gate.
Flour is the principal import to Japan.
1t comes now over Pacific Mail steamers,
but the japanese will patronize their own
line. The Pacific Mail can ship through
the Southern Pacific overland cheaper
than the new line, so the line will touch
at that port where discrimination is the
exception and not the rule. The Japanese
will export an immense amount of goods.
Her factories are but in their infancy, but
already they are affecting the worlds mar
kets. The new line is for the purpose of
bringing them to these markets, but it is
not going to court discrimination by TAX
ing them through this port
When the cotton factories of Japan
were consuming thousands of bales of
cotton year an envoy was sent to this
country to find the cheapest route for cot
ton from the Eastern States to Japan.
The Southern Pacific and the Pacific Mail
formed the natural route, but it was found
cheaper to ship to Galveston, then by sea
TO New York, then by the Canadian Pa
ciic to Vancouver, and then across the
ocean to Japan, than to accept the rate
offered by the Southern Pacific. AS the
cotton trade was made TO circle around
San Francisco, but not to touch it. so is
the great bulk of the Japanese trade in
danger of going north or going south, to
leave San Francisco and its people to COM
plain Of hard times.