Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-07-16
CONTROL OF The
PANAMA CANAL
Congress Considering What
Gees Without Toll 1hrouQh
The Canal
Oregon Senator Wants Senate
Bill to be Similar to
House Measure

special TO The Tribune.
WASHINGTON, D. c., July 10
Shall shipping controlled more or less
by the railroads be excluded from the
use Of the Panama Canal and shall
SHIPS engaged in the coastwise trade
be permitted to use the Canal free
of toll, ar problems shortly to be solv-
ed by the Senate when the bill pro
viding for the opening, maintenance,
protection and operation or the Pan
m Canal is taken up for consider
alton by the upper branch of Con-
gress.
The House bill relating to the regu-
lation of the Panama Canal was a.
mended in a number OF important par
ticulars by the Senate Committee on
Interoceanic Canals, OF which Senator
Brandegee is chairman, but the bill,
which is on the calendar and is to
be made the unfinished business after
the Sundry Civil bill is out of the
way, was submitted without a report
from the committee. While amend
ments were adopted by majority votes
in a number Of instances, a majority
could not be found to stand for the
bill as amended and SO its making
is entrusted to the Senate, which will
probably debate the questions sug-
gested at considerable length.
The bill as it passed the House
gives vessels engaged in the coast
wise trade free passage through the
Canal and prohibits steamships which
are owned or controlled by railroads
from using the Canal. The bill as
it came from the Senate Committee
on I~nteroceanic Canals, extends the
provision for free passage to Ameri-
can ships in the foreign trade, provid-
ed the owners of such vessels agree
that they may be taken and used by
the Government in time of war n
other uublic emergency, and allows
railroad-owned ships engaged in for.
eign trade to also carry coastwise
commerce through the Canal provided
that at least half Of their cargo, in
tonnage, is destined to be shipped
from Oriental or European ports.
Upon these provisions, as lively and
interesting a debate as the Senate
has listened to in years max be ex.
pected.
IN my opinion the Panama bill
should be amended in the Senate to
conform to the House BILL" said Sen.
ator Geo. e. Chamberlain OF Oregon
today.
Coastwise vessels should be per-
mitted to use the Canal without the
payment of tolls, but this privilege
should not be granted to steamships
owned Dy railroads or by companies
the stock OF which is owned in whole
or in part by railroads.
IF railroad companies are permit
ted to operate steamers through the
Panama and engage in coastwise traf-
fic in competition with independently
owned steamship companies, the re-
suit will inevitably be that by reduc.
ing rates below a ~renumerative basis
steamships owned by railroad COM
panies will drive the independent
companies out Of business entirely
and leave the railroad companies to
fix the transcontinental rates, at fig
ures that will not only compensate
for carriage but for losses sustained
by their steamers.
This has been the history of trans
portation on both the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts and railroad companies
have for years operated steamers at
o loss, driving Independent lines out
Of business and fixing arbitrary rates
for interstate and all continental traf-
fic.
1T is part Of the history of the Pa
cifc coast that the Southern Pacific
company and other transcOntinental
roads have operated steamships on
the Pacific, between Panama and
points north, at heavy expense and
yet have been able to recoup these
losses by excessive rates by rail.
"Not only has this been the history
on the Pacific coast, but 1t is the hist
ory OF transportation wherever a nav
igable waterway is paralleled by lines
Of rail. Whenever an Independent
company undertakes to operate steam
ers on such waterways in competition
with railways these latter companies
install their own vessels, reducing the