The San Francisco call., 1910-01-08
WHEELER TELLS OF
THE WORK DONE
Manager of Merchants Ex-
change Traffic Bureau Re-
ports on Work in East
Plans Laid TO Secure Amendt
ments to Interstate Com
merce Law

William r. Wheeler, manager of the
traffic bureau of the merchants ex-
change, returned to this city yester-
day after an absence of over month,
during which time he has visited
Washington New York, Chicago and
his ranch in southern California, at
which place he spent the Christmas
holidays. Wheeler is enthusiastically
optimistic over the good work he ac-
complished while in the national cap
ital in regard to railroad regulations
and recommendations on the ship sub
sidy bill
Probably the most important work
accomplished was the preparation of
an amendment to the interstate COM
merce bill, which will give shippers
the right of specifying the route over
which goods shall travel after ieav-
ing the line of initial shipment. Here
tofore the railroads have held full sway
in this matter. and routed shipments
over roads that would leave them the
la. gest divisional rate. President Taft
is in favor of this amendment and was
insistent that it be made.
TRAFFIC LEAGUE MEETING
The prime object of Wheelers east
ern trip was the meeting of the MAJ
tional Industrial Traffic league, held
in Washington. y. c., of which organ
ization the local traffic bureau is
member. At this meeting were pres
en- representatives from New York,
Chicago. st. Louis, Philadelphia, New
Orleans. Galveston and a number of
other cities.
II was agreed by the representatives
present at the league that the railroad
companies owned and controlled all the
steamships along the Atlantic and Pa
cific coasts and also those operating
on the great lakes. The Chicago rep
resentative produced a number of fig
ures and statistics 20 upnold this fact
AS result of the information present
ed the league proposed an amendment
to the interstate commerce act, 1ncor-
porating a clause which appeared in
the last annual report of the San Fran
cisco traffic bureau of the merchants
exchange. The clause reads;
"No benefits under the subsidy act
shall accrue to any steamship COM
pany enjoying exclusive privileges or
preferential arrangements as TO divi-
sion Of earnings, service, despatch,
transfer or other facilities at the
hands of connecting American rail-
roads"
WANTS WATER COMPETITION
Wheeler held that unless this
amendment was made private owners
would not be encouraged by subsidies
to establish trans Pacific or Central
and South American steamship lines,
for the reason that the purpose and
effect of railroad ownership and con-
troll of competing water routes was to
maintain rates far above the natural
water level, or those which would OBJ
tain if competition on the water ex-
listed.
This stand was taken for the reason
that the manager of the traffic bureau
anticipates a great benefit for San
Francisco. together with other Pacific
coast seaports. from the completion of
the Panama canal However, these
benefits will not accrue unless the
steamship companies are independent
of the railroads.
WAR ON WHITE SLAVE TRADE
AS member of the national immi-
grafton commission Wheeler reports
that the Investigations into the white
slave traffic have only just COM
menced. He says that conditions are
much worse than can be imagined from
press dispatches. At the present time
the commission is preparing a report
on the Pacific coast and Hawaiian sit
uation. dealing extensively with Jap
anese activities.
The rivers and harbor commission,
to which Wheeler was also q delegate.
refused to adopt a resolution presented
by Wheeler to the effect that the rail
roads should be kept away from the
river carrying trade of the country
The purport of the proposed resolution
was that any river improvements
should benefit the people and not the
railroads. The commission, while
heartily in accord with the idea, was
afraid that it would hamper the pas
sa ge OF the bill it had outlined.
NEW POSTMASTERS-Was Jan. T.
POstmasters have been appointed as follows: