The daily progressive-miner., 1915-11-05
IN JAPAN's HANDS
Attributed To The La Toilette
 Seaman's Bill
lFrom Leslie's Weeklyl

drawal of the fleet of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company from the ] Far Eastern trade. Due to the La Toilette Seaman's Bill it has been found impossible to operate these vessels except at great loss, and the directors of the company decM- ed to sell all of their ships. All employees of the company in this country and abroad have been dis missed, the offices have been closed, and the warehouses on the Pacific Coast and in the Orient sold or leased for long periods, while the docks and other waterfront privil- eges have been disposed of.
 When we stop to consider that this was the only first-class Ameri- can steamship line trading between the United States and Asia and that its great business, built up after long years of service and experience and at an enormous expense, has been so ruthlssly and thoughtlessly destroyed by act of Congress, we are appalled,, yet every importer and exporter and merchant marine expert predicted this very result when the law was under consider ation, but the United States govern ment turned a deaf ear.
 What has been the consequence? We, a manufacturing nation, re- quiring more than ever before in our economic history these profitable foreign markets, have practically abandoned them, and what is much worse, played right into the hands of our principal competitors in the Far East-the Japanese.
 Japan On The Alert
 Have they taken advantage of the situation? Most assuredly! How? They have given employ ment to many of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's officers and men, in order to retain the good will of the more important shippers and to stand in with the local politicians who have the granting of municipal privileges. Furthermore, they have leased or bought outright the com pany's docks, warehouses, drydocks waterfront rights and other neces- sary rights and other necessary equipment.
 On top of all this, and as an an- ticipatory move to prevent any American concern from entering in to competition with them, the Im- perial Japanese Diet has just pass ed law substituting for four years all Japanese vessels running to the Pacific coast of the country.
 Discrimination Charged
 Nor is the worst feature of the disastrous situation which confronts us. The Japanese are already dis eliminating in freight rates and the transportation of goods for the benefit of their nationals. Docks and terminals have been accumul- ating goods for shipment, both to and from the Orient, while only those shipped by or intended for Japanese merchants, or the Japan ese manufacture have been loaded. Freight offered from or for Chinese ports has been flatlv refused. Jap an wants all of China's trade and this affords her a means of ac- complaining her long-cherished hope. Conditions on the West Co et this country are equally bad
 large amounts of war materials other commodities intended for Ru sia and Serbia, and long overdue b. those countries, going by way = Manehuria, have not yet found &C., commodations on the Japanese-own- ed ships. The loss to American man ufacturers alone on this one item runs into millions. These goods are shipped with bills of lading attach ed, payment to be made on delivery on board the ship. Being unable to put the consignments on board the ship, means that the goods will not be paid for, and that they will indefinitely on the dock accumulat- ing storage charges, and may at last be thrown back on the manufac- turer's hands through the cancel lation of the orders.
 The State Department, the De- partment of Commerce and the Trasury Department, as well as the President personally, have been ap- pealed to and beseiged with peti- tions, letters, telegrams, cables, and personal visits from shippers inter ested, but no redress is promised and all mention of the flood of protest is vigorously suppressed.
 The Japanese steamship combi- nation, aided by the Government, have the entire United States in the hollow of their hand, as far as Asiatic trade is concerned. It will not accept American, or for that matter some European, cargoes for Hong Kong, any part of China, the | T.T