East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1907-06-21

A Washington dispatch says the
interstate commerce commission de-
cided to institute a proce eding of in
qulry and investigation into the affairs
of the Hamburg-American Packet
company, which is charged by Peter
Wright & Sons, general agents at
Philadelphia of the Cosmopolitan
lines, with pooling and maintaining
.monopolles in restrain of trade. The
inquiry is expected to be one of the
most stupendous ever undertaken and
Of character different from any that
ever before has engaged the attention
OF the commission.
The inquiry will have to deal with
an alleged combination between rail-
roads in the United States and the
German shipping concerns, and there
fore interests every American pro-
ducer, manufacturer or shipper aspir-
ing to introduce his goods to foreign
consumers.
Monopoly of EastbOund Traffic.
According to the complaint on which
action was taken by the commission
the Hamburg-American Packet COM
pany has built up a complete monop-
oily of the eastbound traffic originating
in Chicago, st. Louis, Kansas City,
oman, Minneapolis. Duluth, Cleveland
and other manufacturing centers Of
the United States. intended for the in
terror ports or places on the continent
of Europe. The complaint reviews
what It claims to be unfair methods
in stifling competition.
The Cosmopolitan Shipping compa-
ny of Philadelphia. which figures as
the complainant, operates lines to
Rotterdam. Leith and Copenhagen.
The charges allese that an ironclad
trust in transatlantic freight carrying
exists between the Hamburg American
Packet company. the North German
Lloyd Scandinavian-Am American line
and the Wilson (HulD line and that
this pool apportions the volume Of
traffic each of its members shall carry
and from what port or ports each line
shall make its sailings, thus involving
the apportionment of traffic original
ing in western cities-both as to char
acter and amount, between the cities
of the north Atlantic seaboard.
The charges are summed up as fol-
lows:
l. That the Hamburg-A American
Packet company is a monopoly in re-
straint of trade. exercising through its
contracts the power to control traffic,
both east and westbound, between
Hamburg and interior cities in the
United States, and to determine rates
and routes of such traffic.
2. That the Baltic pool, of which
the Hamburg-American Packet COM
pany is the controlling factor is a
combine in restraint of trade, dictat-
ing the percentages of traffic, dictat-
interior cities OF the United States to
Baltic ports, which shall flow through
each of the north Atlantic ports men,
toned, to the end that each of the
lines composing the pool may receive
Its allotted proportion of the business
and no more.
Four other charges are made as fol-
| lows:
Effect of DifferentiaIs NulIified.
That the effect of dfferentials
which place American ports on an
equality is nullified by the POOLS ar
bitrary division of traffic; that the
acts complained of are in violation of
the laws or the United States; that
efforts 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