The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-16
WHY CALIFORNIA SHIPPERS ASK
FOR GOVERNMENT 5. s. LINE

Editor Advertiser: The business in
terests of the Pacific Coast want a Gov
ernment steamship line, connecting the
Panama canal zone Pacific port of An.
con and San Francisco. This almost
united sentiment that urges govern.
mental infringement on the domains of
private business enterprise, has been
developed by condition of affairs pre-.
vailing throughout the last twenty
years, effectually depriving the western
territory of the inestimable benefit of
water competition, by way of the 18th,
mus of Panama railroad, in all freight
traffic to the Atlantic seaboard.
For the period mentioned the steam,
ship service between San Francisco and
Panama has been under the practical
control of the transcontinentaI inter.
ests. The corporations have naturally
and successfully aimed to eliminate
their coastwise line as real factor in
the railroad freight tariffs to the East.
The through service to the. Atlantic
has been consistently discouraged.
Nothing is palmer to the shipping and
business interests of the West than the
fact that this well known and acknowl-
edged condition has retarded the
growth of San Francisco as a great
seaport and proved an obstacle to the
progressive expansion of commerce on
the Pacific Coast
While Secretary of War, Taft de-
clared that he considered the present
coastwise line-the Pacific Mail Steam
ship Company-tO be a standing i'm
pediment to the natural development
of trade relations. This opinion of the
Secretary of War took tangible form
when he delegated Special Panama
Railroad Commissioner Joseph l.. Bris-
tow to investigate the conditions that
would surround the operation of a gov
eminent steamship line on the western
coast of the country.
The line of freight and passenger
steamships now running under govern
ment control between Colon and New
York has proved a satisfactory invest
ment and this successful experiment,
coupled with the government s investi-
ing the now meager facilities on the
Pacific Coast, has led to the belief that
the transcontinental freight rates may
be controlled by actual water competi-
tion even before the Panama canal is
a reality.
San Francisco is the terminal point
for practically all of the many products
of California. With reasonable freight
rates and regular sailings, it is esti.
mated that steamship line between
San Francisco and Panama would re.
ceive at least one-third and probably
one-half tof the through freight ship,
ments that now go to the Atlantic
states by rail. But the effectual method
adopted to prevent exporting shippers
from using the present sea service is
in the maintenance of rates that make
it improbable to select the Panama |
route in preference to the transconti |
mental railroads. The lack of tonnage |
in the San FranciscoPanama service |
and the delays at the isthmus, of which |
Taft complained, with the absence of |
a rate that offers an inducement to |
all goes to give the great bulk |
Of the Pacific Coast freight to the |
transeontinental railroads at their own
tariff schedules.
There is no doubt, in the minds of |
It's advocates, that government steam
ship line on the Pacific Coast with reg
llar and frequent sailings, would de-
velop large and constantly increasing
volume of traffic. But to handle the
through freight business between the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts the gov.
eminent line would have TO give SER