The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-22
MORGAN SHIP TRUST.
Manager Lee Declares the Combine a Move to- Grasp the Worlds
 Traffic

New York Journal
 The scope and ultimate purpose of the giant steamship trust to control Nortt Atlantic traffic under one head began Tor the first time yesterday to dawn on the minds of vessel owners and agents on thi: side of the Atlantic.
 It had not occurred to these men that the absorption of four or five of the larg. lines in the transatlantic service would mean ultimately the control, absolutely, or the entire traffic between American Atlantic ports and those of Great Britain.
 They had not discerned that the small CT and weaker owners of freight and pas nger.carrying craft would be forced to enter the trust, or be forced by the com petition to suspend business.
 Least of all, did 1t dawn on those who had daily heard of the rumored combi- nation of lines, that the control of these lines would mean the control of the traf- fic of the globe, the entering wedge that would give to American capital entry to the markets of the whole world.
 One man only saw this-John Lee, Gen. eral Manager of the White Star Line in this port, who had watched every report concerning the movements of the trust which has J. Pierpont Morgan as its re- puted head.
 MT. Lee saw the %ogic of the situation. He realized that the move might mean an effort of American capital to control the commercial supremacy of the seas of sAiC 6fcOOs " OPOii thc oOoE VI CNCiy ropean market; to penetrate to the Orient and Occtdent; to lay the riches of the worlds commerce at the feet of the men who planned and are quietly and secret ly carrying out this daring and gigantic project
 Said Mir. Lee yesterday:
 T can talk to you only in the abstract. In detail know nothing of the purchase of the White Star or of any other line more than what l read in the papers or may hear talked on the street. But the coming here of a party of gentlemen rep- resenting the various steamship interests In England must mean something.
 Tt is not hard to see what the control of the five big lines you mention would mean to the men who controlled them. The White Star, Cunard, American and Red Star, the Leyland and the Atlantic Transport lines carry an enormous traffic. You place the combined tonnage at one million. That is about right.
 NOW, the control of these lines and of the Dominion line would, in my opinion, mean the entering wedge of vast enter prise which had for its ultimate aim the control. not of the markets of Great Britain. or even of Europe. but the con- trol of the whole worlds traffic.
 What is to hinder at the end of a year. when this great fleet would be doing its work smoothly. it's vessels sailing with the same systematic regard for schedules as now. what is to hinder the syndicate from going to Washington and demanding what they WISH dS tO SuDSluleS! Iney can agree to double the tonnage and build all the ships on this side and, in my opin- ion, they would do it.
 The Dominion Liue should be in the original combine, but what of the others thaNeaker lines? Why, they would sim ply be forced in CT forced to lay up their ships. There would be no other alterna- tive. The open door of England would be the open door of Europe. More, it would be the open door of the Far East and of Australia.
 You say truly that the British lines to the East and South would have to take up and forward the freight of the trusts vessels. You might have added that the trust itself could easily send on its own vessels to the East. to the Med iterranean, around the Cape of Good Hope and to every port now covered by British merchant vessels.
 Such gigantic American combination will mean d vast fleet of American ships. If the tonnage is doubled, as 1t might De in American ship yards, the vessels would have to take up the Eastern and South- ern traffic. as well as that of England and the Continent. -..g
 The edull season, as 1t is, with the number of vessels now in the lines (spok- en of as about to be combined), would compel the laying up of some of the ves- sels or of sending them on the routes I have referred to- There would be noth- ing to hinder it.
 The whole subject Is a very interesting one from the commercial point of view, involving as 1t does such vast commu- nifty of interests. That American Steel is back of it there seems every indication" "