The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-05-03
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WOULD SELL OCEANIC.

| The following article in the Examiner
| of April II throws some light on the
| recent Withdrawal of the Sonoma from
| the Australian run:
That the Oceanic Steamship Com
pany will go OUT of business that the
last steamships flying the American
flag in the southern hemisphere will
be sold TO Japan if Congress defeats
| the subsidy bill. was corroborated yes
terday by Frederick S. .Samuels, man
ager of the foreign shipping depart
ment for John d. Spreckels. When
Eugene F. Loud made this declarat ton
Friday at Washington before the
House Committee on Merchant Marine
he announced the exact intentions of
the Spreckels. 1t is the contention If
the company that it is impossible to
operate between this port and Aus
tralia without the government increase
the subsidy to the corporation To
$4,000
1t is freely admitted by those repre-
senting the steamship people that the
loss OF the trade between the United
Safes and Australia viii be a great
blow 10 transcontfnental railroads.
This trade, amounting to s30,000,000
year. must be carried on by way of
Canada providing the pay received
from the government is not raised from
the present figures of $3.50, 900 annually.
The cost of operating, it is urged by
Manager Samuels, is too high to COM
rete with the conditions arising in the
Orient. The wage scale for labor the
price of coal for operating and the
great stretch of ocean with but one
stopping place. are advanced as some
of the many reasons compelling the
retirement of the Oceanic Steamship
Company. 1t is claimed the company
has been operating at a loss for years,
and as a proof Of this they direct at
tention to the value of the stock of
the corporation. The directors have
decided to sell out and the only way
to continue trunk line from America
to the southern seas, operated by
Americans. will be the passage of the
measure by the House of Representa-
tives.
After twenty years of operating"
said Manager Samuels, the Oceanic
Steamship Company will be compelled
to retire from the Pacific Ocean pro-
viding the subsidy measure is defeated |
by Congress. This Will be a blow 10 |
transcontinental railroads and means |
that the $30.000,000 of exports must be |
carried by the English or japanese. |
For the present the trade would go TO |
Canada. This is the seventh steam |
ship company that has tried To oper- |
ate a line of steamers between this |
port and Australia. They have all
failed before our time
Some of these companies received |
as high as S450,00o annually from the
Australian government Their time |
schedule was L knots for monthly |
We are obliged to make an
average of 10 knots an hour and make
seventeen voyages annually and re-
ceiving from the government 1898, 900.
Added to this we employ all white
labor and pay the highest wages.
For years past the japanese have
been esta bIishing agencies in South
America, here and in the North, and
L is impossible to compete with them. +
We pay in wages $3.50 a month On
he same japanese ship the wages
would be S24f9 month. It costs us 50
,ents a day to feed our men, while on |
/ japanese manned steamer they are
ed for II cents day. Give US ORR
entail labor and we will continue to
<eep up the service But that is out
# the question, so we must sell out to
hem.
Loud, according to Samuels, is repre-
Spreckels in Washington and
las authority for all statements made
" him before the marine committee
Who the japanese buyers will be could
lot be ascertained but the deal will be !
Immediately. providing :;
he subsidy bill meets defeat