The San Francisco call., 1909-10-02


steamship lines.
w. r. WHEELER, Manager Of.the San Fran
cisco Traffic Bureau.
With Senator ". P. Dillingham; of
vermont as the target the members of
the reception committee of the Cali
fornia Promotion committee fred or
round after round of solid argument
facts and figures in favor of ship
subsidy bill at their regular luncheon
and meeting at the Fairmont hotel
yesterday.
The senator from Vermont asked for
the information. And he received it
He said he was anxious to.learn. And
his anxiety was quieted with amaz-
ing promptness. Captain !. NJ Hibber1
delivered one broadside. No sooner had
he.concIuded than ". r. Wheeler, man
ger of the traffic bureau of the mer-
chants exchange. gave another, and in
the interims Colonel George Pippy.
acting chairman Of the luncheon, kept
up a purring fire OF side talk
DILLINGHAM; FAVORS BILL
III is my opinion said Senator Dill
lingham. that II a practical ship sub
sidv bin is presented, one that viii
hiring returns for the money expended
through it, both the house and the
senate viii receive il with favor and
pass it, I have voted on three such
bills on the first occasion / voted
q gainst IL. because in my opinion il
was preposterous and would work no
good results. ] voted for the other
two. Now. i want you to understand
that there is no person in this country
who seeks information more than does
a senator or a congressman and l am
anxious TO learn from YOU businessmen
OF san Francisco a s TO how you view
such bin and what in your opinion
is the necessary and proper action to
take"
CONTROL OF STEAMSHIPS
wheeler devoted himself to the
question Of control of steamship lines
By railroads. He said that so long
as the railroads controlled the COM
peting stea mship lines for no other
reason than TO protect their railroads
then 80 long would the Independent
American ship owner be kept out of
the field He pointed 10 the condi-
tons existing along the Pacific coast
with the Pacific Mail steamship COM
panv owned by the Southern Pacific
and the Pacific Coast steamship COM
pany owned by the Great Northern.
~One might ask" he said what rea-
son James j. Hill could have in con-
ducting a steamship line between San
Francisco and the Puget sound ports
he has no railway line here TO protect,
no rates TO maintain. Let US not. how
ever. in consideration of this forget
that san Francisco is a competitive
point Of st. Paul and in order to feed
rbe northwest over his own road he
must eliminate competition from this
source.
After charging on the existing con-
ditions he came out with the declara-
ton:
Before a demand is made upon the
federal government for q subsidy for
the American mercantile marine it
r0uld be a wise policy to amend the
Interstate commerce act so as 10 pro-
hibit the railways from owning, con-
trolling or contracting with competing
steamship lines"
HEAVY EXTRA COST
Hibberd's address was Of a more
generic order. He said that the Amer
ican ship owner was the only person
who had 10 contend with free trade and
get meet the conditions OF building and
manning according 10 the conditions
brought about by protection. He
showed that it cost more to build an
American ship than ii did a foreign
one and considerably more TO man one.
And vet he said. after paying more
for our construction and labor We are
told 10 go and compete in the open
market with the foreigner"
The members of the San Francisco
theatrical association We're the guests
~ the reception committee yesterday y.
rs were also J. NJ. Perry and J. NJ.
Eddy president and secretary respect
svely Of the Stockton chamber Of com
merce-