The Cordova daily times., 1920-03-27

piele ana cnfotully uet"llcd trafhc statement ever submitted to that body.
 Mir Semmos made the rather star ting declaration recently that & say ing of one million dollars per annum could be made in the operating costs of the Alaska steamship lines if the traffic were properly co-ordinated on definite routes and handled on regular schedules. He says this Is impossible however. so long as so per cent of the Alaska ship tonnage is in private service and handles the cream of the traffic for the larger interests in the territory. who thereby contributeeprac, tically nothing to the year,round serv- lee for the common benefit
 Mir. Semmes produced an Alaska GUS toms statement showing that the ships of more than 20 tons which entered Alaska during 1919 registered 157, net tons. This does not include any boats operating exclusively in Alaska waters, but only those which came from the Outside. The Canadian lines operated 4.97o net tons, and the regu- lar American lines operated 22,444 net tons. The remaining l20.12S net tons represent ships exclusively in private servlce, practically all of them either owned or chartered by the larger in forests of the territory These ships operate much more cheaply than the regular lines. being free from the re Quirements imposed on passenger ships. They pay much lower wages than the regular lines. and practically no overtime. The result is that they they can we'll afford to pay SS per annum license tax on net tonnage, which. according to Mir. Semmes' fig ures would mean ali average of about 90 cents per actual ton of freight han dled by those ships. The net tonnage of ship is computed on the basis of 100 cubic feet. while freight is charged by weight or by measurement ton of 40 cubic feet, which really makes the tax lower than would appear from the simple statement.
 Mir. Semmes explained that it was not planned to prevent the use of pri' vate ships, but simply to require the larger interests who use them to make a fair contribution to the year-round service for the benefit of the entire territory. In this way, Mir. Semmes stated the Territorial Shipping Board would be provided with a fund which 1t would be authorized to disburse on contracts to support regular service upon specified routes. The purpose
 is to keep the passenger ships on regular schedule This would elimi- nate the evils which result from send ing the best ships into isolated places, disregarding routes and interrupted schedules, so that no dependence can be placed upon the arrival or depart urc of ship at even the larger ports. Regular schedules would also mean compliance with the post office re- Cuirements so the ships would get the additional benefit of mail con tracts.
 Another saving would be in marine insurance which now averages about 15 per cent because of the practice Of sending the best ships into the most dangerous waters where the bulk of the marine losses occur, The steamship companies now pay nearly million dollars in marine insurance premiums on the ships, while the in surance rates on freight are core spondingly high,
 When these sayings are effected, both the freight and passenger rates can be substantially lowered to all parts of Alaska. But the situation is very serious, for unless these evils are corrected the steamship companies
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