Evening star., 1911-01-07
VESSEL OWNERS TRUST
BIGGEST IN THE WORLD

Declaring that the Atlantic combine,
made up Of foreign steamship companies,
is the greatest trust In the world. great
er than Standard Oil ever was, Repre-
sentative Humphrey of Washington today
introduced a bill prohibiting the ships Of
such concerns from entering at or clear
ing from any port of the United States
under the penalty CT 500 for each pas
senger and the forfeiture of the mer-
chandise so brought by such ship into
any American port
Drastic Measure.
The Humphrey bill is regarded as the
most drastic anti-corporation proposition
ever submitted for the consideration of
Congress.
In statement explaining his purposes,
Representative Humphrey. who is the
author OF the pending ship subsidy bill,
denOunces in unmeasured terms the
Hamburg American Line and other COM
panies that he alleges are identified with
the. Atlantic combine. He refers to the
suit recently instituted by the govern
ment, saying: 'Since the government has
proceeded against it the foreign ship COM
bine now admits every charge that has
been made against it, and it's only answer
Is that the United States has no jurisdic-
ton"
Mr.. Humphrey charges that the Allan
tic combine constitutes an absolute mo-
nopoly. The rate of every pound of
freight. and of every passenger carried
between here and Europe. and between
here and South America, is fixed by
agreements made in advance by this for
eign MONOPOLY he said.
Without Competition.
There is not the slightest competition
between any of the foreign steamships
running from this country upon either
ocean. Not only are the rates fixed by
agreement. but all these foreign lines give
rebates and other advantages to favored
shippers Special rates are given by them
to the Standard Oil, to the steel trust
and the harvester combine to such an ex-
tent that competitors are thereby abso-
lutely excluded from competing with
them In foreign countries. There is not
a single method ever practiced by any of
the great corporations of this country to
destroy competition, increase prices,
create monopoly, that Is not today prac-
ticed by this combination of foreign ships
The foreign trade of this country is
absolutely at it's mercy. The unjust
ness OF the rates. and it's greed and
extortion is shown by the fact that
the Hamburg-American Line. the con-
net profit of 20 per cent annually on a
capitalization of 96,OOO,OOO 1 have
kept in close touch with the Depart
ment of Justice for more than a year
in relation to this matter, and have
furnished 1T with some OF the evidence
that it is using in the case against the
Atlantic combine.
IF it is possible that we today have
one law for the domestic trusts ana
another for foreign trusts that dominates
absolutely $25,OOO.OOO.OOO worth of our
commerce this situation will be remedied.
This monopoly that is growing rich on
the American people must find some
other defense than the defiant one they
now assume that it is true, but we can
not help ourselves"
In addition to prohibiting foreign
steamships in the combine from touching
at or clearing from American ports, the
Humphrey bill directs the Postmaster
General to cancel any contract with for
eign steamships in the combine calling
for the transportation of American mail.
Representative Humphrey announced
that he would demand the immediate
consideration of his bill.