Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-12
Honest Tariffs Free from
Railroad Interests Demanded

The Herald is in receipt of a commu-
nication from j. b. Alexander, agent
of the Spreckels Brothers Commercial
company and of the HaWaiian-AmeFl"
can steamship company
The one conclusive answer to What
Mr.. Alexander says is that the Ha-
waiian-American Steamship company
has not endeavored to serve the people
of Los Angeles by making landing at
their harbor. 1t does handle Los An
! geles goods through the harbor OF san
Diego, and in that respect is an mn
mite Improvement over anything thaI
the Pacific Mail Steamship company
has ever done for this city. At the
same time before the Hawaiian Amerl-
can steamship company can appeal TO
! the people of the city of Los Angeles
| for any consideration it should seek TO
serve the business interests of the clty
directly by recognizing as a port of call
the harbor of the second largest COM
mercial center upon the Pacific coast.
Furthermore, Mr.. AleXander'S anXi-
ety as to his company being injured by
{ the government cutting rates on any
line which it may establish would ap-
uaar to be unwarranted by the history
Of the government line now operating
between Atlantic ports and the isthmus
OF Panama. This line takes business
at the regular rates charged by other
steamship companies in the same ser
vice but the great thing is that it takes
business, and takes it without any
strings on it; that it does not make
any rules or regulations as to service,
ports of landing, or anything else whlch
tends to discourage the shipper who
desires 10 send his goods by water, and
to force him to patronize a land trans
portation line This is precisely What
the people of Los Angeles and Of other
Pacific coast ports want, and, more
over, it is what they are entitled to
have, and what they probably will get
if they insist upon it.
Mr.. AleXanders explanation of the
ease with which he secured signatures
to his protest may be all right. AT the
same time we must attach some signlfl-
canoe to the fact that in a city of TINS
size, containing several thousand SNIP
pers, only eighteen signatures to his
protest were secured and five of those
were of firms in which he has direct
financial interest, and therefore more or
less control of their actions. Under all
the circumstances, the protest which
Mr.. Alexander wired to Senator Flint
could hardly be regarded as an over
whelming expression of public sentl-
ment.
Mr. Alexanders letter is as follows:
Referring to the article on front
page of today's issue of your paper,
also especially to your editorial on
subject, We presume you would like
to know the facts, and inasmuch as
there are so many erroneous state
ments and both the article and the
editorial are so misleading we hope
you will do us the Justice and give
the public the facts as they exist.
1t is our preference to have all
statements and information on so
important a matter come from the
general agents at New York or San
Francisco, but we feel that we
should not allow such erroneous
statements as published In your
paper today to go unchallenged or
to remain uncorrected.
In the first place, the "Spreckels
interests" do not own or control
the American Hawaiian Steamship
company. We are not only local
agents for the steamship company,
but are engaged in a large way in
commercial or mercantile business
and are interested in having fair
and uniform freight rates. The
stockholders of our company have
large holdings and are large tax
payers in Los Angeles, San Diego
and elsewhere in Southern Califor-
MIA and are as vitality interested as
other shippers and merchants In Its
welfare.
The American-Hawaiian Steam
ship company is not asking any
favors of the government or the
people, but they are very thankful
for the liberal patronage that has