Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-30
GIVE REBATES TO
FOREIGN SHIPPERS
SHIP TRUST DlSCRIMlNATES
AGAINST AMERICANS
President viii Present Startling Facts
About European Monopoly Which
controlc Export Commerce
of United States

Special Correspondence of the Herald.
WASHINGTON, d. c.. Dec. 2s.-
Friends of the shipping bill predict
that the special message which Presi-
dent Roosevelt viii send to congress
on the subject of legislation for the
encourag cement of the American mer-
chant marine will have much effect
on the members of congress from the
middle west whose opposition to ship
subsidy legislation, coupled as it has
been with that of the members from
the south, has hitherto prevented
favorable consideration for shipping
measures.
1t is understood the message will
deal with the effect which foreign
steamship combinations have had on
our trade, especially between the At
lantic coasts of South America and the
United States. and between the Pa
cific coast and Europe. Data has been
laid before the president, dealing with
these two combinations.
One of them has headquarters in
Liverpool and controls our business
with Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.
The other, composed of British, French
and German steamship owners, with
headquarters in London, controls the
carrying of grain from Washington,
Horn to Great Britain and Europe.
The president has been supplied with
a copy of the rules of this combination,
dated from Leadenhall buildings, Lon
don, which shows that the inflated
rates of freight are made to apply only
on American cargoes going to Europe,
European goods shipped outward to
the Pacific coast being exempted by
the rules.
No Americans in Combination
The other combination, which mo-
nopolizes the steamship traffic between
New York and South America, is also
of an international character, being
composed principally of German and
British ship owners. There is not an
American ship in either combination.
Reports of our ministers and consuls
in South America and statements of
merchants and travellers show that this
combination employs all the familiar
machinery of rebates and discrimina-
tions, and that they deliberately keep
rates high on American goods, while
lowering them on European goods in
order to fo,or our competitors in
Europe at our expense.
According to the commercial press of
Brazil it is largely due to the malice
and extortion of this European steam
ship ring that our exports of bread
SJuuS, ndCnlnery ana PROVISIONS TO
Brazil decreased from 5000, 900 in 1895
to $11, 900, 900 in 1904.
The Vaccinations of this European
combine" are also responsible for the
fact that Secretary Root saw the stars
and stripes only once in his entire
journey around South America.
Not a single American steamer and
only a few small sail vessels flying
the American flag appeared in our
trade with Argentina and Brazil in the
first six months of 1906
when these facts are made known"
said a member of the house of repre-
sentatives who is prominently identi-
fled with the shipping bill, 81 shall be
greatly interested in seeing whether
those western men on the committee
and in the house who have hesitated
about encouraging American steam
ship lines will not change their atti-
tude.
'It is largely through extorting high
freight rates on product raised and ex-
ported by western farmers that these
foreign monopolies thrive. The honor
of our flag as we'll as the commercial
progress of the nation is involved in
the efforts of these European combina-
tions to throttle American trade"