The Alaska daily empire., 1918-10-01
w1cKERsHAM AND coAsTwIsE SHIPPING LAW

In his speech at Chitina Judge Wckersham sald that the massage of the coastwse shipping bil con- taicing provision that made it inapplicabe to Alas ka fastened a transportation monopoly on the people of this Territory.
 When Judge Wickersham made that statement ba knew that he deliberately said what was not true
 Judge aWickersham knew then and knows today that the transportation problem in Alaska was not effected the slightest degree by that act or con press He knew and he knows that it had not and could not any effect whatever upon transporta ton rates in Alaska He knew and he knows that the Canadian steamship companies charge coastwlse passenger and freight rates as high as the Ameri- can companies In instances their coastwlse freight charges been higher than those of the American companies.
 When Judge Wickersham spoke at Chtina he knew and he knows today that the coastwise ship hing law that was passed last fall not mon opoly regulative He knew and he knows that 1t not intended to permit an invasion or American coastwise shipping by foreign steamship Iines-operaed on regular schedule carrying passen- gers and freightpartieularly not by steamship lines that operated feeders to railroad companies, a practice which the United States Government has decided to against public policy and which she has prohibited by law. The reservation of American coastwse shipping for American bottoms was in- troduced National policy by President Jefferson more than century ago. and it has been strictly ad- hered to during all the decades that have elapsed since that time It stated by the Commissioner of Navigation and Members of the Shipping Board that it not the intention of the Board to inter- fere in the slightest degree with this traditional American principle
 Judge Wickersham knew when he talked at CEitina and he knows that the so-called "coast- wise shipping law passed for the purpose of legalizing practice which already in operation, of permitting foreign vessels engaged in traf- fife, and usually vessels that under charter to I Eoyar tn arrv froiob fo tween American Atlantic ports. the transportation of which was needed to facilitate war work when there was no American vessel available to carry it, while they were picking up Transatlantic cargoes or distributing them. He knows that it was passed for this purpose and this only. He knows that for many months hundreds of thousands of Holland tonnage were tied up in American ports because the owners refused to permit their to enter the war zone of Europe He knows that these owners tried to get the privilege of entering the American coastwise trade, and that it denied. ts
 Judge Wckersham knows, ought to know, that at the hearings the Shipping Board had in Alaska subsequent to the passage this law there was not an American resident of this Territory-or any other sort of resdent-but that if he com mtted himself the subject at all, said the for egn ships, as matter of policy. should not be per- mtted to enter American coastwise trade except to carry fresh fish Mir. Russell. Wickersham's South eastern Alaska manager, took this position He knew gnu Aho"s that the pri'hege or carrying all kinds of fish was secured for the Canadian vessels and that they refused to avail themselves of it. except that Grand Trunk steamers when their managers were appealed to by Gov. Riggs patriotic grounds carried fresh fish to Seattle on TWO OCCASIONS and two only The Canadian Pacific refused to enter the trade at all.
 The attempt of Judge Wickersham and the Boobzed Dispuatetcsequentofth. cmfwy cmfwy cmfw Boobized Dispatch to discredit Delegate Sulzer in this matter is pure buncome. and is simply at