The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-06
Champion of Measure Ad- dresses Boston Chamber of Commerce on Value
 of the Legislation
OPPOSITION OF
 REPUBLICANS IS
 CAUSING WORRY
Minority Planning Deter mined Fight and Fears Are Expressed That the Bill
 Is In Real Danger

Boston. January 5.--ssrhe Magma Charta of American shipping procIain,-
 ing freedom from the seudal barons of
 maritime commerce." was the way Rep- | resentative Alexander. chairman Of the
 House marine committee, cheracs erixed
 The administration ship purchase hill in a speech here tonight before the
 Boston Chamber of Commerce.. After explaining the pending bill to | authorize the government to create an IA American merchant marine by purchase. | and reviewing the merchant marine stua- ton, Mir. Alexander launched into an ans alysis of what he contended was opposi- ton to the measure
 ITO sum up the entire situation" he said, 'an investigation will prove that
 more than 90 per cent of the coastwise | and virtually the entire foreign American shipping is allied through interloclSlng directorates with banks that have for their fountain head the RockefelerMor-
 gan-Perkins interests. It Is against this aggregation that the administration finds itself. The shipping interests realize that
 the entrance of the government into the | field will break the chain by which they lave the Independents shut out. Govern | ment owned vessels are what they most 1 fear for 1t means protection for tho l independent who now dares. at his Heril.
 to invest a dollar in shipping against the 1 powerful organza ton. It Is said the same interests own, or are interested in, several big eastern newspapers There
 fore, you find stalwart opposition by policy. s.as
 New Law Good
 "rhe new navigation law Is good, but
 of what benefit is 1t when the small in- vestor meets the death throttle of under bidding competition? The Alexander bill is spoken of as an emergency measure. It should not be so called. European
 governments have laid the foundation for
 their merchant marine by government
 protection. The bill for the government
 ownership of vessels should be properly I called the Magma Charta of American | shipping proclaiming freedom from the feudal barons of maritime commerce. "The cry of paternalism has been raised.
 
 has been advanced and several large
 news and financial papers of eastern cities appear daily with editorials denouncins
 the administration policy. These pa
 pers, being the recipients of large in
 comes from advertising contracts with the steamship companies. are naturally opposed to a plan infmcable to tho inter- ests Of their customers The greatest op- posing power, however, is from the steam ship companies themselves.
 "An investigation of the shipping ques- ton reveals some interesting facts. In comminittee investigation of shipping combinations 1t was shown that regular system of agreements and pools prevail against which the independent shipper has no chance to live. The merchant marine committee in It's recommends tions. sta, es: The commmittee believes that the dis advantages and abuses connected with steamship agreements and conferences as TOW conducted are inherent and can only be eliminated by effective government control: and 1t is such control that the preserving to American exporters and i'm porters the advantages enumerated and of preventing the abuses complained of
 Killing Competition
 Tn the investigation by the committee it developed that certain ships were reg ularly used solely for the purpose of kill Ing competition. The shipping interests, 1t is believed, fear that the entrance ot the government owned ships will mean gov ernment regulation of rates and ser-s ously interfere with existing control of the confluence lines over the foreign com merce of the United States.
 'An examination of the personnel Of those interested in the various steamship lines reveals a system of interlocking direotorates and community of interest probably unparalleled in the history of modern fnancierng. The administration, in its desire to benefit the people, has stepped on the toes of the most power full financial interest in the country. Ina same interests are associated both on the foi egn and coastwse shipping. Nine tenths of the Atlantic coast shipping is owned by the railroads and two corpora tions.
 "The railroad-controlled lines are re- ferred to in report of the merchant ma rine committees and are the Southern Pacific. or Morgan line; the Old Dominion Stee mship company and the Ocean Steam ship company, or Savannah line. These with the Eastern Steamship company and the Atlantic, Gulf and West Indian Steam- ship lines constitute practically the en- tire coastwise shipping for the Atlantic seaboard. It Is a remarkable fact that the interests allied in the ownership and control of all of these coastwise lines ara also associated in the foreign American shipping
 Controlled By Railroads
 'The Old Dominion Steamship com pany is controlled by the Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line. Southern. Chesapeake and Ohio, and Norfolk and Western railroads The Merchants and Miners Transportation company. was, ....lr L AB-4 -- New Haven and Hartford railroad. V hich from recent sinvesti gatfon by thu interstate commerce commission and the department of justice. 1t was dis- closed that this was controlled by J, F.