The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-20
GREAT INQUIRY Interstate Commission to Probe Into Affairs of Hamburg American
 Packet Co. WILL BE STUPEND0Us TASK Of Different Character From Any Ever Before Taken Up by the Gov
 ernment. ALLEGED IRONCLAD TRUST In Collusion With the Rail- roads and Backed
 by Germany
 Herself.
ALLEGED lRONCLAD TRUST

Washington, June 19.-The interstate E commerce commission has decided to in stitute proceedings of inquiry and inves- tigation into the affairs of the Ham, burg American Packet company which is charged by Peter Wright & Sons, general agents at Philadelphia, of the Cosmopolitan Shipping company and the Cosmopolitan lines, with pooling and maintaining monopolies in res- traint of trade. The inquiry is expect ed to be one of the most stupendous ever undertaken and of character different from any that ever before has engaged the attention of the commits sion.
 The inquiry will have to deal with an alleged combination between rail- roads in the United States and the German shipping concern and therefore interests every American producer, Manufacturer or shipper aspiring to introduce his goods to foreign consum- CTS.
 According to the complaint on which action was taken by the commission, the Hamburg American Packet com- pany has built up complete mono- poly of the eastbound traffic originat- ing in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, Duluth, Cleveland and other manufacturing centers of the United States intended for inferior ports or places on the continent of Eu- rope. The complaint reviews what it claims to be unfair methods in stihing competition
 The Cosmopolitan Shipping company of Philadelphia which figures as the complainant operates lines to Rotter- dam, Leith and Copenhagen. The charges allege an iron clad trust Tn transatlantic freight carrying exists between the Hamburg American Pack ct company, the North German Lloyd, the Scandinavian-Amer 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 it's 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 American Packet com pany in it's almost absolute control of east bound and west bound traffic be- tween interior points of the United States and Hamburg, is a monopoly in restraint of trade, the complaining company raises an international oues- tion. The allegation is made that the foreign corporation is backed by the German government dictates routes and rites to shippers all over the United States who forward goods to Baltic ports, dlverts freight to and from Am erican ports at it's own will without re- gard to the natural flow of trade and uses ooercive and unlawful methods to crush competition.
 The statement filed by Peter Wright and Sons says the Cosmopohtan freight services have no desire to suppress legitimate competition and adds:
 we, therefore, do not seek to have ameliorated any of the conditions which fair competition may impose. We do believe, however, that pooling, combi- nations and intimidations, the latter in certain instances approaching black mail, even under the semblances of competition, are not legitimate forms of competition. Pooling, combinations and intimidations In their worst forms have been encountered recently bv the Cosmopolitan services They are the unlawful conditions, masquerading un- der the guise of competition, which it is our purpose to endeavor to place be- fore your honorable commission in a concise and chronicled form"
 The charges are summed up as fol- lows
 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 the rates and routes of such traffic
 Second-That the Baltic pool" of which the Hamburg American Packet company is the controlling factor-is combine in restraint of trade, dietating the percentages of traff1ce 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