Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-20
SHIPPING COMPANY
TO FEEL PROBE
fcontinued from page one,

NOOhnMuGu hHOHu B-dBC OuCsy
services have no desire to suppress
legitimate competition. and adds:
I'VE therefore do not seek to have
ameliorated any of the conditions which
fair competition may impose. We do
believe, however, the pooling COM
binations and intimidations. the latter
in certain instances approaching black
mail, even under the semblance of
competition, are not legitimate forms
of competition. Pooling combinations
and intimidations in their W orst forms
have been encountered recently by the
Cosmopolitan services. N.~hose are the
unlawful conditions, masquerading un-
der the guse of competition, which it
is our purpose to endeavor to place
before your honorable commission in a
concise and chronological form"
Make Specific Charges
The charges are summed up as fol-
bows:
First-That the Hamburg American
Packet company is monopoly in re-
straint of trade, exercising through it's
contracts the power to control traffic
both eastbound and westbound between
Hamburg and interior cities in the
United States and to determine rates
and routes of such traffic.
Second-That the Baltic pool" of
which the Hamburg-American Packet
! company is the controlling factor, is a
combine in restraint of trade, debating
the percentages of traffic from interior
cities in the United States to Baltic
ports, which shall flow through each
of the North Atlantic ports mentioned,
to the end that each of the lines COM
posing the pool may receive it's allot-
| ted proportion of the business and no
more.
Four other charges are made as fol-
| lows:
That the effect of the differentials
(which place American ports on an
| equality is nullifed by the POOLS arbi-
] trary division of the traffic; that the
| acts complained of are in violation of
the laws of the United States; that ef-
forts to rehabilitate the American
merchant marine are hampered and
rendered abortive by this monopoly,
and, finally, that there is little use in
efforts for the benefit of American
| shipping ''if at the same time we allow
our present laws to be violated by an
unscrupulous foreign corporation in it's
| effort to suppress American competition
| on land and sea-
In connection with the complaint the
| Cosmopolitan line submitted copies of
| the combines rebate form of contracts
shippers are bribed and squeezed to
compel them to submit to the monopoly.
| 1t is charged that the Hamburg
American Packet company's monopoly
begins with the state-owned railroads
in Germany, which give the corpora
] ton rebates, and that the company
forces all European shippers to sign
an ironclad contract providing for lib
eral rebates in return for exclusive
| shipments by it's lines. 1t is charged
that under the existing contract which
European shippers have to sign they
must ship every pound of freight for
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Balti-
more, Norfolk and Newport News by
trust" lines, whether they go through
German, Belgian or Dutch ports, or the
routing of which can be in any way
controlled by the merchant Further,
1t is charged that the merchant who
ships one consignment by an indepen-
dent line cannot ship any at all by a
line in the combination. The complaint
on which the interstate commerce COM
mission acted alleges that when the
Cosmopolitan established its Philadel-
Copenhagen service last year the
Combine demanded its withdrawal.
The Cosmopolitan refused and 1t is de-
clared that an attempt was then made
to drive the line from the field, and 1t
is because of this attempt that an APP
peal was made to the interstate COM
merce commission for an investigation.