The Alaska daily empire., 1919-09-12
STEAMER COMPANIES
 AS REVIEWED IN
 LETTER FROM JUNEAU
A. w. Fox Thinks the Steamship Companies Might Present the Public With Some
 Figures

| JUNEAU, Sept. 11-To the Edi tor-I have read with interest Mir
 Kline's statement in your paper re gently in regard to the steamship situation; but I hardly think it meets the situation. Personally I have never | heard of a transportation company yet which was not losing money, or
 what is still more terrifying, on the
 verge of losing money. Tho gentle art of capitalizing trouble in advance is not unknown to public service corporations. It is an art that has
 been known to pay dividends. While | I am not the original doubting Thomas, I am a relative of his.
 Now our Shipping Act, passed I the Legislature of 1919, is, of course, q lively piece of rhethoric. Ships of one, two, three or even four fun nels, flying the Territorial burgee. steam magnificently across it's pages. and great wharves and docks in the vast distances arise. It's very funny. of course; but it is not all funny. There is stern purpose behind it and there is the ability also within the four corners of this Act to make vast deal of trouble
 The real function of the Alaska Shipping Board, I take it. is that Of a board of inquiry and the real busi ness of a board of inquiry is to in quire Now the Alaska Shipping Board of itself, perhaps, is a very small matter and a proper target fo the jokes and gibes that have wei comed it's advent. Perhaps. however Congress might be induced to add it's powers. or the In'erstate Com merce Corlnission might take it ser' ously and institu'e somn so~t of ' proceeding wherein the Shipping Board might play pNrt. These are possibilities and very real ones. Then of course, the Territory might require the filing of a greatly extended an nual report from public service cor poratiOns. The reports they now make, from an informative point Ci view, are not worth the paper they are written on.
 If the steamship companies are les ing money, or are on the verge of losing money, we might be reconciled even to a twenty per cent raise il rates. But we have got to be shown and we can assure the steamship companies, moreover, that generally speaking, they are in no worse fix than we are The heavy figuring should not all be done in the dark If the companies are right in their contention that their Alaska business does not show profit, all the evi dcnce to the contrary notwithstand- ing, why not produce the goods and show why Why adopt the cave man attitude? Why not adopt mod ern methods and do a little figurinr with their customers, who in the long run foot the bills. Politeness pay dividends as well as ships-especiai ly nowadays It's good business
 Assertion of the necessity for thi twenty per cent raise is not proof thereof Very far from it. It may De SuDStltute. why uOu the lTduS portation companies undertake a cam paign of education and devote a lii tie of the real knowledge that i locked up up their ledgcrs to the enlightenment of the people of Alas ka Why not compile a neat booklet. paper covered, such as steamship companies love to issue, with facts and figures all well within the three mile limit. We'll stand for cuts of the Jefferson and the "City Of Seattle" leaving or arriving in port we don't care which, or solemnly in specting some glacier or other, O. anything within reason that has tf be thrown in, hut we want some basic figures We don't want tabu lated forms that we should have f study over and over and then havf to arrive finally at the conclusion that these steamship companies arc even greater scoundrels than w thought they were. Cannot the steamship companies invent soms popular method of introducing thei' side of the case to tho public? T. satisfy board of inquiry is not t.