The daily morning Alaskan., 1901-05-09

There tS Qccp Scdtcu icclnlB lldN the present rate war is going to be a protracted struggle among those who have been watching developments here closely. The idea was strengthened yesterday when the Victorian came in and did not bring any news of the ad' iustment of the differences and when it was semi-officially given out that the State of California was taking pass engers at S a piece.
 The situation here is unchanged. The agents have not received instructions as Co what is liable to be done and they are making booking at S first class for passage down, but will mol sell round trips at proportionate rate The lowest figure at which a round trip has been offered is SIS, it 10 be good for 30 days
 Second-class passage is held as high Or higher than first-class-in fact 10th mg is being offered in that line.
 A gentleman who is indirectly asso- ciated with one of the companies now al war and who consequently does not desire his name made public in con nection wiih the giving out oi his ideas. thus summarizes the situation and forecasts the outcome:
 "The war will be a long one and a hot one. It will be to the knife and the knife to the hilt. One of the llrg- est companies-I will use no names. 70 has fully determined that one oi he other companies which has been cut ting into it's business must be hmnil lated ii not actually put out of busi- ness This is the real cause of the trouble The matter of keeping uuf of Vancouver alone would not alone have precipitated the conflict The company attacked has been in the same fix before and came out of it all right and. mark my word. it will not be scr- lousy affected this time, much less be driven from tthe field lt has abund- ant resources. able and gritty manage ment. popular boats and it will stay. The other companies have no; been concerned in this particular trouble, but of course had to enter the general fight So it has come on.
 Now. as to it's outcome. When the ] thing has run its course. bitterness will give way to reason. and get-to- gether movement will be started. !, will be successful. A new association will be formed and a new schedule agreed upon. It will not be a repro duction of the old one, either The people will eventually have a Jay for this scrap as they have had to for all others. You will see that when tn. new rates are fixed they will be higher by considerable than the old ones They will be at least S5s hrst-class and S2s second-class. and l would not be sur prised ii they were more.
 People. however. need lOt be alarmed. They can travel from Skag- way at very cheap rates for the major part of this summer You will see after awhile that some of the u,ore ltx- uriously fitted up and expensive l~- ats now on the run will be taken of to ie- duce losses and the more economical ones although less sumptous will be kept in the service and the companies will settle down to the struggle in car nest. This will inevitably bs the e. | suit. The pretext for taking he boa.s of may be to fix them up or it may be something else. but they will be taken of just the same"
 Time alone will demonstrate whsther this mans opinion is correct IT not but the proposition to take nff ome of the higher class boats las be. .r mentioned in other quarters There 7: a belief shared by many and by some of the steamship agents that here i: not business enough in the summer foi more than two or possibly .h-ec ilsl boats used practically for passeugeri and perishable freight and that in th' winter one would be ample Tho boats would carry the class of peopl' who are willing to pay For superior ac commodations and the price could b, advanced The other boats would b' sufficient to accommodate the grea bulk of those coming. who do SO foi business and are made ID largely O operators in the interior.
 Freight could also be handled fol time would not be so great factor.