The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-02-02
General Manager Schwerin of
Pacific Mail Company Testifies
Regarding the Congestion OF Freight
at Panama, for Which the Road is
Partly Blamed, Witness Says State
ment Was Made Either Through
Malice or IgnOrance-Other State
ments Absolutely Denied.

washington, January 31.-Robert F
Schwerin, general manager of the Pa
cific Mail Steamship Company, was be-
fore the Senate committee on inter
| oceanic canals today. Regarding Sec
| retary Taft's criticism of the service
between Panama and San Francisco
for its part in contributing to the con-
gestion of freight at Panama he said.
Secretary Taft's statement was
made either through malice tending to
inJure an American industry, or
through ignorance of the causes of the
dlfncuit1es of which he has complain
ed. He has said that since the canal
commission took charge of the Pana-
ma railway, freight had accumulated
ON the Wharves, all commercial ship
ments having been held up by the
movement of canal materials and the
difficulty, Mr.. Scwerin asserted, was
due to "culpable negligence on the
part of the managing officials of the
Panama railroad, and the utter indif-
ference on the part of the managing
officials of the Panama railroad, aud
utter Indifference to their obligations
dS d COIu1uOu CdTTl0r.
The equipment of the railroad, he
added, had deteriorated greatly during
the two years prior to the sale OF the
property to the United States.
"As soon as control of the road
passed to the United States" said Mr.
Schwerin, "the conditions described
began to grow worse. The railroad
management cut the wages of men
working on the docks which caused
strike and our labor followed. AS a
result we are both paying higher wages
than we were before for the poorest
labor in the world. 1t was by Secre.
tary Taft, Mr.. Wallace, Admiral Walk
er, the former chairman of the commis-
sion, and others that commerce was
secondary to the movement of canal
material 1t was that Indifference that
brought about the congestion"
Mr.. Schwerin said he had resort ted to
every means to bring about improved
conditions, even making protest to
the state department to induce it to
appeal to Panama. Mr.. Schwerin COM
planned also that the Panama railroad
has arbitrarily reduced rates from New
York to ports on the Pacific coast,
where the haul was divided between
the Panama Steamship Company and
the Pacific Mall He said he was in
formed that the reduction was a con-
cession to the steel trust, which ha6
protested to Admiral Walker, the for
mer chairman of the canal commission,
that the rates were cheaper from Eu-
rope to Central America than from
New York to the same ports. Secre-
tary Taft had then taken the matter
up said Mr.. Schwerin, and authorized
a reduction of the rates. He declared
that there had been no money in the
business between San Francisco and
Panama.
He denied that the Pacific Mail has
any connections with trans-continen-
tai railroadand declared that Secretary
Taft's statement that his company had
put small steamers in the Isthmian
trade in order to divert the better
steamers to the coffee trade was 'ab-
solutely false" He said that sailings
had been missed because the Panama
railroad had held up the ships at the
isthmus.
Mr.. Schwerin said the Tehauntepec
railroad across Central America will be
completed by June 1, and declared that
will kill the American commerce
which now crosses the Isthmus.
would be a reduction in the time from
San Francisco to New York from "a
to 26 days.