The Alaska daily empire., 1915-12-06
ALASKA S. S. co. MAY ENTER THE
 ATLANTIC TRADE

If tentative plans now under con s|doratlon by the Alaska Steamship Company are carried out tho biz se- aluo corporation win invade tho in- tcrcoastnl trade Qll the Panama canal with Q fleet of fourteen or fifteen big meightors. entering into competition with Che great Americou-Hawaiian lino w. R. Grace & Co., and other concerns now engaged in the coaat- to-coasi trade The question Of en- tering Che canal route has been taken up Informally by officials of that com- pany
 The adoption of the plans would place a powerful Seattle concern in the Atanuc.Pociiic route for the first time. giving this port new place in tho shipping world. lt would enable the Alaska Steamship Company to car ry canned salmon and other fish pro- duets direct from Alaska to the New York. Philadelphia and other Atlantic coast markets.
 The proposed line would operate in conjunction with ihe Inland Naviga- ton Company of New York, which has been organized to develop a big cargo movement on the Mississippi river with New Orleans as a termin. us. The cargoes taken down the Miss. issippl are to be transshipped from New Orleans by ocean freighters. In an informal way, the Alaska Steam. ship Company has taken up with the Inland Navigation Company a propo- sition to handle ali its ocean cargo for Pacific Coast ports.
 May Abandon Plana
 Several months ago the Inland Nayi gation Company incorporated a subsi- diary company under the name of the Delaware. Gulf & Pacific Transporta. ton Company for handling its freight movement through the canal, as an. nounced in the Times, If the informal negotiations now under way are car ried to a successful conclusion. the Inland Company will abandon its old plans for a canal line
 Tho probable entrance of the Alas ka Steamship Company in the canal route is direct result of the visit made to the East month ago by John IH. Bunch, the company's general freight and passenger agent in con nection with the purchase of the biz ! froighters Bennington and Burlington The Inland Navigation company found that it would have difficulty in getting vessels to carry cargo already booked for transportation through the cana or by the Straits of Magellan, to Sc atte and other coast ports. It offer ed to furnish full cargoes for the Ben lnington and Burlington which will or rive in Seattle this winter to enter into the Alaska Steamship company'' northern trade Bunch accepted th' offer The two freighters will come to the Pacific by the Magellan route if the canal is not ready to resume operation at the time of,their depart ure from the Atlantic coast
 Bunch suggested to the Inland Navi gation Company's directors that they conine their operations to the Miss issippi valley and enter into an agree ment with the Alaska Steamship Com pany under which the Seattle corpor 'alon would organize a canal Inc t' handle the Inland fleets ocean-goinl cargo movement out of New Orleans in connection with a freight movement from other Atlantic ports
 Would Relieve Shortage
 The proposition is receiving earnes consideration Of theI Inland Navigation Company By entering into the ar lrangemeni it would not have to solve the problem of getting ocean freight CTS at a time when the shortage O. ships is acute - Seattle Tlmes)