The Alaska daily empire., 1918-04-26

were not permitted to engage ill American coastwise trade. They had refused to engage in the transOceaniC trade and therefore could not run between American ports, and this country seized the needed ships, thus mourning the displeasure of Holland rather than permit them to relieve the strain on shipping along the At lantic coast while carrying a foreign flag.
 This is evidence that it was not the intention of the Shipping Board to permit foreign vessels, such as the Canadian vessels in Alaskan wa ters,, to do American business, ana the amendment in the measure was put there to make that plain.
 suIzer Could Not Have Changed It
 This matter was really settled at the time by the Shipping Board and the Commissioner of Navigation agreed to the exemption of Alaska from the provisions of the bill, which was Shipping Board bill and de- signed to make legal things the Shipping Board admitted it was do ing without authority to law.
 TT WOULD NOT HAVE GAINED THE PRIVILEGE OF TRADING BE- TWEEN AMERICAN PORTS FOR CANADIAN VESSELS OPERATING ON REGULAR SCHEDULE IF DELEGATE SULZER AND ALL THE PEOPLE OF ALASKA HAD INTER VIEWED. At the most they might have defeated the bill, and thus de- prived the Shipping Board of lawful sanction for the practices it was fol. lowing for it would have been action to change the intent of the measure, and that is rarely done with an Ad. ministration bill Such course might have seriously impaired the useful ness of Alaskas Delegate to Con gress.
 The speech of Judge w. c. Hous- ton on the measure was not directed toward improving the shipping facili- ties along the Alaskan coast, but he favored giving privileges to Canadian vessels for the purpose of lowering freight rates. He alleged that there was a combination among the Amer. ican transportation companies that amounted to monopoly, and he urg ed the admission of Canadian vessels to the traffic in order to break the monopoly and reduce rates. In other words, he favored the Canadian yes sells for the purpose of providing competition for the alleged American trust.
 The fact was pointed out that the Shipping Board has full authority to regulate rates and to prevent a mon opolistic combination that would be injurious to the public. It might have been shown that the Canadian vessels maintained the same rates as those of American companies, and in October, a short time after the pas Vancouver over the Canadian lines for port to port shipments were raised ten per cent. over the Amerl can rates.
 MT. SuIzer Provides Only Remedy
 In securing hearings in Alaska by the Shipping Board Delegate Sulzei has opened to the people of Alaska an avenue to the only possible reme dy if freight rates are too high. He has got for the people of this Ter. ritory the right to be heard and to show that freight rates are exces sive, if they are.
 Delegate Sulzer has also given the people here a chance to prove that it would help matters to permit the ularly on schedule and to carry freight and passengers between Amer ican ports. If they are able to con vince the Shipping Board of the , necessity for such action, measure , will be presented to Congress for il that will have the prestige of being an administration measure. and, per haps, war measure. Such a bill, nc , doubt, would receive the support ol Delegate SulZer, and might pass Con gress. It would be folly to attempt to remove the exemption from the measure that was passed last fal in any other way, because nothing | could result from it. It would have been useless for Delegate Sulzer tt have attempted to do anything to i ward that end last year-without tho approval of the Shipping Board. and as said, the Shipping Board was no considering that sort of thing at all