The Alaska daily empire., 1918-05-20

Continued from Page One.) vestigated in determining the profits made.
 l J. J. Kennedy, of the Juneau La 1 bor Union, protested that at certain seasons of the year the transporta tion facilities for handling fresh fish from Alaska to Puget Sound are not adequate, and asked that foreign bottoms may be permitted to carry fish at such times.
 E. D. Vaut complained against the slowness with which claims for damage and loss were settled by the steamship companies.
 A mass of testimony was intro duced to substantiate these various contentious, and to emphasize the importance of their consideration.
 Rates a Question of What Traffic
 Will Bear.
 That the Shipping Board will per nit the rates of the steamship com panies to be as high as the traffic the rates tentatively established may be permitted to stand, but in other cases they may be reduced, was intimated by Attorney-Examin CT o. B. Kent But MT. Kent was very anxious to secure testimony that would indicate how much the traffic would bear and permit living conditions to continue in Alaska. and admitted all testimony that would indicate that people in Alas ka are doing business at loss and that there was danger that minino companies might be compelled tc close down on account of the fact that the cost of everything and the cost of production have increased. while the value of the gold pro- 4 duced in the community has re- maned stationary.
 Personnel of the Investigators 3 In addition to o. B. Kent, Attor- Il Examiner of the Shippin" | Board, who is conducting the in s quiry, and his stenographer, Robert 4 R. Brott, others coming from the South to attend the Alaska hearing include Robert w. Baxter, Vice , President and General Manager ! John H. Bunch, General Freigh \ and Passenger Agent; J. F. David son, Travelling Freight and Passen 2 ger Agent, and Eugene c. Luccock counsel, all of the Alaska Steam q ship Company; Judge B. s. Gross ! cup, General Counsel, and c. k Eye, General Freight and Passen s ger Agent, of the Pacific Steam ship Company, and w L. Clark, Sec retary of the Northwest Fisheries r Association.
 The Testimony.
 The testimony showed that tho 4 general merchandise freight rate , for Juneau from Puget Sound were $4 ton prior to April, 1916, whel they were raised to $650 a ton ' to $7.50 a ton in July of that year and to $8 ton in April, 1918. Philip R. Bradley, General Sup 8 erintendent of the Alaska Juneau
 Mining Company and Consulting J Engineer of the Treadwell mines testified that his companies were , now operating at a loss, that they { are unable to get enough labor by al least 100 men to work as they would & like to operate, that it is costine
 from 50 per cent. to 60 per cent ! more to operate now than it cost
 befores the entrance of the United
 States in the war. He said that tho
 wages of their men have been ad-
 vanced about 15 per cent, but ir
 spite of that it was impossible fol
 them to get all the men needed.
 George T. Jackson, General Man
 ager of the Alaska Gastineau com
 pany, testified to similar condi-
 ton of facts. He said that the av-
 craze wages of his company in 1915
 was $3S5, in 1916, $4.01, in 1917
 S4.15, but they are working with , $50 men short of the necessities of
 the company. He said their men
 are saving money and investing thf
 savings in Liberty Bonds and Say > ings Stamps.
 F. L. Maud, bookkeeper for c. !, w. Young Company; B. A. Roselle.
 bookkeeper for Goldsteins Empor-
 ium, and c. E. Harland, bookkeep-
 CT for Femmer & Ritter, testified as
 to the rates charged by the Steam
 ship companies.
 w. l.. Altmueller testified that rates on hay, $17.50 ton, were so high that the Juneau Dairy had been required to raise the rates for milk to from 12k cents and fifteen
 cents quart to 20 cents, and that
 it was losing money at this rate
 He admitted that there had been an
 enormous increase in the cost of
 hay and grain.
 The Fish Question. el Oliver Orange of the Glacier Fish
 Company and the Juneau Cold [ Storage Company testified to the loss of 26,000 pounds of fish last
 September that could have been , saved if the Canadian steamship