Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-06-22
CALLED MONOPOLY
Interstate Commerce COmmlS-
sion to Investigate Packet Co.
Restraint of Trade Is Charged
Against the Hamburs-AmerIcan
Lne-The Inquiry Is Expected to
Be One of the Most Stupendous and
of an Entirely Different Character
from Any That Has Before En-
gagged the Commissions Attention.

Washington-The Interstate COM
merce commission has decided to insti'
tute proceeding of inquiry and inves-
tigation into the affairs of the Ham
burg American packet company. which
is charged by Peter Wright g. Sons,
general agents at Philadelphia of the
Cosmopolitan lines, with pooling and
maintaining monopolies in restraint of
trade.
Tne inquiry Is expecreu TO De-one OF
| the most stupendous ever undertaken
and of character different from any
that ever before has engaged the at
tentlon of the commission.
According to the complaint on which
action was taken by the commission,
the Hamburg-Ameriean Packet COM
pany has built up complete monopoly
of the eastbound traffic originating in
Chicago, st. Louis, Kansas City, Oma-
ha, Minneapolis, Duluth, Cleveland
and other manufacturing centers of the
United States intended for interior
ports or places on the continent of
Europe.
The Cosmopolitan shipping company
of Philadelphia which figures as the
complainant operates lines to Rotter-
dam, Leith and Copenhagen. The
charges allege an ironclad trust in
transatlantic freight carrying exists
between the Hamburg Pack
ct company, the North German Lloyd,
the Scandinavian 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 originating in
western cities-both as to character
and amount-between the cities of the
North Atlantic seaboard.
Charging that the Hamburg-Ameri-
can Packet company in its almost abb
solute control of eastbound and west
bound traffic between interior points Of
the United States and Hamburg, is a
monopoly in restraint of trade, the
complaining company raises an inter-
national question. The allegation Is
made that the foreign corporation is
dictates terms, routes and rates to
shippers all over the United States
who forward goods to Baltic ports, di-
yerts freight to and from American
ports at it's own will without regard to
the natural flow of trade, and uses CO.
ercive and unlawful methods to crush
competition. The charges are summed
up as follows:
First-That the neutrality-suspicious.
Packet company is a monopoly in re-
straint Of trade, exercising through
its contracts the power to control
traffic. both eastbound and westbound,
between Hamburg and interior cities
in the United States, and to determine
the rates and routes of such traffic.
Second-That the Baltic pool" of
which the Hamburg packet
company is the controlling factor, is
combine in restraint of trade, debating
the percentages of traffic from interior
cities of the United States to Baltic
points. 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 its allotted
proportion of the business and no
more.
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 iron-clad contract, providing for
liberal rebates in return for exclusive
shipments by its lines. A contract
shown as evidence by the complainant
names Hamburg and Rotterdam as
European ports and Boston and New
port News as American ports, and
agrees that rebates will be paid to
shippers as have shipped "all their
goods" between the ports named Tex
clusively by steamships Of the under
signed companies, provided always
that the shippers have not been in
terested in direct or indirect ship
ments by any other steamers than
those mentioned, either as owners Of
the goods or as agents, whether di-
rectly or indirectly"